Contract Award: Arête Associates (Northridge, California) – $15,372,357

Arête Associates,* Northridge, California, is awarded a $15,372,357 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the “Pushbroom Imaging LiDAR for Littoral Surveillance (PILLS).” This contract provides for the extension, adaptation and optimization of the PILLS sensor to demonstrate Navy-specific performance metrics, and research to extend the PILLS sensing technology and signal processing/ data fusion algorithms to address additional future Navy capabilities. Future areas include, but are not limited to, bathymetric survey and charting, autonomous systems, mine countermeasures, unmanned underwater vehicle detection, target and/or feature detection, airborne or underwater based hazard detection and avoidance, and complimentary LiDAR/MSI multi-mode sensing. PILLS is a lightweight, low power, expeditionary sensor that enables high resolution and accurate topographic and bathymetric maps from manned and unmanned airborne platforms to greater depths than commercially available legacy systems. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (91.2%); and Vienna, Austria (8.8%), and is expected to be completed by March 16, 2027. The maximum dollar value, including a 60-month base period and one 30-month option period that, if exercised, will run concurrent with the base, is $15,372,357. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $341,745; and fiscal 2022 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $120,474 are obligated at time of award. Funds in the amount of $341,745 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under the N00014-21-S-B001, Office of Naval Research long range broad agency announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps science and technology. Since proposals are received throughout the year under the long range BAA, the number of proposals received in response to the solicitation is unknown. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00014-22-C-2007).