The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Thursday launched a new Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) initiative to find more uncrewed vessels that can demonstrably hold high-capacity payloads for extended ranges for the Navy.
This project, dubbed the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP), is dedicated to former U.S. Pacific Fleet Director of Warfare Systems Richard Camp.
DIU argued CAMP is necessary because to maximize operational effectiveness, the military requires more capabilities to send large payloads across long distances but “current UUV capabilities present limitations in range and payload capacity, hindering the effective deployment of critical resources in certain operational scenarios.”
The solicitation specifically seeks commercially available and demonstration-ready uncrewed systems that address these kinds of limitations to find a scalable and cost-effective solution for the long-range payload deployment mission.
DIU said it desires CAMP candidates should cover mission sets like emplacement of various sized loads; bathymetric surveys and mapping; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; communications across the air/water interface; and ability to operate in a GPS-denied environment.
The candidate CAMP platforms should also include at least some of several capabilities: range over 1,000 nautical miles; capable of performing deeper than 200 meters underwater; have a modular payload capacity with the ability to drop payloads to the seafloor; autonomous navigation, guidance, obstacle/collision avoidance with remote operation; capability for RF communications and capability or demonstration of pathway for undersea communications; modularity for switching payloads and mission sets; and hardware and software architecture with open interfaces that can integrate with third party payloads.
DIU wants the seafloor payload sizes to be at least include five feet long and 19 inches diameter as well as 21 feet long and 21 inches in diameter.
Notably, DIU wants the candidates to be transportable, deployable and recoverable with commonly available commercial freight and transportation equipment or demonstrate a path to that – which would mean these systems would not have to be based only on Navy warships.
DIU said while it does not expect interested companies to be able to meet all specifications, it encouraged those with demonstrable capability applicable to at least one of the attributes to apply regardless. It also said that while they will accept partial solutions from vendors, they encourage those that cannot propose complete solutions to team up.
After this initial phase, DIU expects the CSO to move to a Phase 2, wherein the government plans to observe a live in-person and in-water demonstration of the solutions.
Phase 2 is expected to start about four weeks after the closing date of this initial area of interest solicitation.