[LINK] DARPA, Upward Falling Payloads

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Tue Jan 15 01:28:09 AEDT 2013


http://go.usa.gov/4Cjh


DARPA, Upward Falling Payloads. (Funding Opportunity)

Part One: Overview Information

• Federal Agency Name – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Funding Opportunity Title – Upward Falling Payloads (UFP)
• Announcement Type – Initial announcement
• Funding Opportunity Number – Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 13-17
• Dates
o Posting Date: January 11, 2013
o Proposal Abstract Due Date: February 5, 2013
o Proposal Due Date: March 12, 2013
o BAA Closing Date: July 12, 2013
o Proposers Day: January 25, 2013

• Agency contact: DARPA-BAA-13-17 at darpa.mil


Part Two: Full Text of Announcement

1. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of 
distributed unmanned sensors and systems for maritime applications. 

Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable 
revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically 
excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements 
to the existing state of practice.

1.1 PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Cost and complexity limit the number of ships and weapon systems the Navy 
can support in forward operating areas. This concentration of force 
structure is magnified as areas of contested environments grow. 

A natural response is to develop lower-cost unmanned and distributed 
systems that can deliver effects and situation awareness at a distance. 

However, power and logistics to deliver these systems over vast ocean 
areas limit their utility. 

The Upward Falling Payload (UFP) program intends to overcome these 
barriers.

UFP will realize a new approach to enable forward deployed unmanned 
distributed systems that can provide non-lethal effects or situation 
awareness over large maritime areas. However, the intended approach 
averts solutions to deploy technology from legacy platforms, or grow the 
complexity and reach of unmanned systems. Rather, the UFP approach 
centers on pre-deploying deep-ocean nodes years in advance in forward 
areas which can be commanded from standoff to launch to the surface. 

Nearly 50% of the world’s oceans are deeper than 4 km which provides a 
vast area for concealment and storage. As a consequence, the cost to 
retrieve UFP nodes is asymmetric with the likely cost to produce and 
distribute them on the seafloor. 

The concealment of the sea also provides opportunity to surprise maritime 
targets from below, while its vastness provides opportunity to 
simultaneously operate across great distances. 

Getting close to targets without warning, and instantiating distributed 
systems without delay, are key attributes of UFP capability.

To succeed, the UFP program must be able to demonstrate a system that 
can: (a) Survive for years under extreme pressure, (b) Reliably be 
triggered from standoff commands, and (c) Rapidly rise through the water 
column and deploy a non-lethal payload. 

A multi-phase program is envisioned to design, develop, and demonstrate 
UFP nodes that overcome these hurdles.

The UFP system is envisioned to consist of three key subsystems: 
The ‘payload’ which executes waterborne or airborne applications after 
begin deployed to the surface; the UFP ‘riser’ which provides pressure 
tolerant encapsulation and launch of the payload; and the UFP 
communications which triggers the UFP riser to launch. 

Ideally, these subsystems can be decoupled and separately developed. As 
such, while the program will need to integrate all three subsystems 
before completion, the BAA is structured to accept proposals to design 
and develop single subsystems. Proposals that limit flexibility to 
integrate subsystems will need clear justification to merit favorable 
consideration.

For proposals to be considered, eligible proposers (primes) must have 
evidence of the capability to conduct secret level research at the date 
of issue for this BAA...

(See also: <http://phys.org/news/2013-01-falling-darpa-just-in-time-
payloads-bottom.html>
--

Cheers,
Stephen


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