By Feb. 13, the Army wants feedback from industry and potential bidders regarding the Engineering Squad Robot (ESR) program that would provide dismounted stand off capability for explosive ordnance, reconnaissance and other engineering tasks as well as supporting major combat operations and force protection tasks.
The government is working out cost, schedule and performance requirements for a future formal Request for Proposals (RFP), and the survey is part of the requirements development and program planning effort.
The tentative draft schedule would include a formal RFP in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2013, a contract award in the first quarter of FY ’14, and full operational capability in the first quarter of FY ’19.
The results of the survey will help the government gauge industry interest in attending a future industry day and potentially offering a proposal for the program. It also will help the government understand if there are any commercial products that can meet the requirement, and get advice on technical feasibility, technology readiness levels and cost and schedule realism.
The ESR is expected to be a rugged robotic system that weighs fewer than 20 pounds to start with, with the objective to weigh 15 pounds. There would be a robotic operator control interface, a robotic chassis platform with video capability, digital communications and audio relay modules that are adaptable to advanced sensors or mission modules and the power supply.
There should be an open architecture software for the easy exchange of payloads such as explosive ordnance capabilities, other combat engineer specific tasks as well as those that could support infantry and military police.
The ESR should support a wide spectrum of mobility missions and also provide a man-packable reconnaissance capability, particularly for restricted areas, such as buildings.
To date, the ESR program of record is in the early requirements development phase.
For more information on the survey: http://contracting.tacom.army.mil/ssn/sources.htm.