[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 worlds 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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