The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) last Saturday issued a solicitation for sensors that can improve detection of one-way drones to enhance the counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) capabilities of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The CDAO wants sensors to tackle the challenges posed by Group 2 and 3 drones, which weigh between 21 and 1,320 pounds. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels operating from Yemen have been firing armed UAS at U.S. Navy and commercial ships in the Red Sea for months.
The parameters laid out in the Commercial Solutions Opening for the Desert Guardian project include sensors that improve visibility of one-way drones flying closer than seven kilometers or further than 25 kilometers to force location and at altitudes below 300 meters within 25 kilometers, according to the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO). It also says all sensor types are welcome and that “low-cost/attritable solutions preferred but not required.”
The CSO follows one issued by the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit last Friday seeking ship-based kinetic C-UAS to defeat drones weighing 55 pounds or more in response to the Houthi threat (Defense Daily, June 14).
“The goal for this effort is to enable DoD warfighters to better detect, identify, and defeat hostile UAS within their vicinity by leveraging heterogenous sensors integrated into a common interface,” the CDAO says. “If successful, this process will complement existing sensors and improve force protection by providing early warning for personnel shelter and expanding the window available for kinetic and non-kinetic defeat.”
Responses to the CSO are due by July 15. Respondents will pitch their solutions in early August and if selected to move on will demonstrate their solutions by Oct. 15 in a one-week exercise in an operational environment.
Initial awards for the pilot project could result in follow-on production contracts.