Long Endurance/High Altitude Maritime & Land UAS

Submissions Closed 13 June 2024 11:59 PM ET

Purpose
SOFWERX, in collaboration with USSOCOM SOF Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (SOF AT&L) Program Executive Office Tactical Information Systems (PEO-TIS), will host an Assessment Event (AE) to identify production model solutions for long endurance unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that are capable of takeoff, operation, and landing in both confined space maritime and land environments.  

Background
PEO-TIS is seeking information on a specific technology area to gain knowledge of, explore, and identify available capabilities for potential inclusion in the Long Endurance Maritime/Land UAS AE. Technology desired by USSOCOM is intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) UAS that operate in confined space maritime and dense urban environments. The proposed solutions should currently support mission autonomy, autonomous multi-vehicle cooperation, and automated transit to/from the target and over-the-horizon capabilities, or the solutions provider should be able to rapidly develop these capabilities. UAS air vehicles should be capable of 8-hours of endurance with a 20 lb. total payload (weight includes baseline FMV payload) spread across multiple locations on the air vehicle and be able to launch/recover with sustained relative winds up to 20 knots. UAS should possess the ability to control multiple air vehicles, shifting the human’s role from operator toward mission manager, and navigation capabilities that can operate in environments where GPS signals are spoofed, jammed, or otherwise unavailable. The UAS must be capable of safe takeoff/landing without operator handling/touching aircraft to minimize any unnecessary risk. The system must include electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) full motion video (FMV) capabilities for day and night operations and be able to support future integration of USSOCOM Modular Payload interface for additional payloads. The imagery sensor may be a single or multi-imager (e.g., day only, night only, or day/night combined). The air vehicle should operate on a variety of energy sources that can be produced or recharged in an austere environment and are approved for use on Naval surface ships. DoD/NATO standard Heavy Fuel JP5, JP8, other energy sources such as batteries and fuel cells are promising and may be used if approved for naval surface ships. 

Objective
This assessment solicits white papers to describe the current capabilities of ISTAR UAS that operate in confined space maritime and dense urban environments. Systems will be reviewed by USSOCOM stakeholders and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify solutions for future participation in the Long Endurance Maritime & Land UAS AE. The demonstration for the AE will occur on both land and confined maritime craft to provide a pathway for conducting tests of the selected systems for specific cyber, safety, and performance requirements. 

Why You Should Participate
USSOCOM seeks to enter into non-FAR or FAR-based agreements with Industry, Academic, and National Lab partners whose solutions are favorably evaluated by SOF AT&L PEO-TIS Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). As such, the follow-on Assessment Event (AE) is considered competitive and solutions will be evaluated independently of one another primarily for technical merit. This serves dually as notification of the intent to research the feasibility of an agreement under 10 U.S. Code, Section 4022 and/or Section 4022(f), and as notice of pre-solicitation activities IAW FAR 5.204.

Event Timeline
Completed Phase 1 - 13 May 2024 to 13 June 2024 Submissions to the Assessment Event (AE) Open: Interested respondents who could potentially provide solutions that meet the needs of USSOCOM are encouraged to submit their capability for USSOCOM review. To submit your technology for potential Phase 3 attendance, please review the assessment criteria and follow the submission instructions at the bottom of this webpage.

Completed Phase 1a - 22 May 2024 Q&A Telecon: Interested offerors may participate in a virtual Q&A session to better understand the Government Stakeholder's specific technology objectives. The telecon will take place on 22 May from 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET. 

Completed Phase 2 - 14 June 2024 to 21 June 2024 Downselect: USSOCOM will downselect those respondents/submissions they feel have the highest potential to satisfy their technology needs. Favorably evaluated submissions will receive an invitation to attend the AE on/around 24 June.

Phase 3 - 16 July 2024 to 18 July 2024 Assessment Event (AE): During the event, selected participants will be allotted a 2-hour one-on-one session with the USSOCOM evaluation panel to pitch, demonstrate via prerecorded video (recorded video material of launch/operation/recovery in confined maritime environments is highly desired), and/or discuss their solutions. The forum will include a Q&A portion and discussions may continue outside of the event. Solution brief presentation guidelines will be outlined in the event invitation and solutions will be assessed according to the criteria in the link provided below. USSOCOM will downselect systems they feel have the highest potential to demonstrate favorable safe, suitable, and effective results within the technical evaluation.  

This event will be held in person at SOFWERX.

Phase 3a – 25 July 2024 AE Follow-On Telecon: Selected participants may need to attend a one-on-one virtual Q&A session with SOCOM SMEs to follow up on pending RFIs that develop from the Assessment Event to better understand their system(s). Each session will be 30 minutes and will take place on/around 25 July 2024.  

Phase 4 - Path Forward: Successfully negotiated awards may fall under any combination of these categories:

• Business to business research and development agreement as a sub-award through the SOFWERX Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) (15 U.S. Code Section 3715)
• OTA for research or prototype projects (10 U.S. Code Sections 4021, 4022)
  • An award under 10 U. S. Code, Section 4022 may result in the further award of a follow-on production agreement without additional competition based on successful prototype completion. The Government may make this follow-on production award based upon successful prototype criteria, which will be determined for each prototype project.
• Procurement for experimental purposes (10 U.S. Code Section 4023)
• Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (15 U.S. Code Section 3710a)
• Prizes for advanced technology achievements (10 U. S. Code Section 4025) and/or prize competitions (15 U.S. Code 3719)
• FAR-based procurement contract 

NOTE: Awardees may need to be compliant with NIST SP 800-171, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in Non-Federal Systems and Organizations