Contemporary Deception for the British Army

Overview

This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is run on behalf of the British Army. Project APATE – the Greek goddess or spirit of deceit, deception, guile, and fraud – seeks industry and academia to identify and develop new (novel) deception technologies that could be exploited by the British Army to gain operational advantage and to aid the survivability of deployed UK Land Forces.

Scope

The aim of Project APATE is to identify and develop novel deception (defined as a Feint; Demonstration, Ruse or Display), technologies that could be exploited to ‘hide the real’ or ‘show the false’ on Land operations, including the near-surface (0-10,000ft) and command and logistic hubs. The development of a deception capability for military application will enhance Survivability in a number of potential applications:

Novel decoys of personnel, military activities, in-service platforms, systems and hubs that can deceive non-communications sensors and adversarial radar, including battlefield radars, at various ranges; and/or
Developing novel technologies, or exploiting existing technologies in new/novel ways, to enhance survivability by reducing the likelihood of being There, Detected, Acquired and Engaged, in support of the survivability onion concept.

By the proposal of new concepts for implementing battlefield deception that are a blend of deception technologies but tactically exploited through new thinking and the potential update to the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) of employing deception. How can the Army use deception in novel ways, by challenging the unconventional? To deceive in plain sight, to exploit the unexpected and gain the tactical advantage, if only momentarily.

Competition Challenges

Challenge 1: Show the False

We are seeking novel representations of personnel, military activities, in-service platforms, systems and hubs that are ideally remotely or autonomously delivered (ideally recoverable and deniable) and which deceive visual, electro-optic/infra-red (short, medium and long-wave) and acoustic sensors at a range of 500m by day or 200m at night, using EOIR sensors in average conditions, including from aerial platforms. We do not seek RF deception ideas, less to counter adversarial radar, including battlefield radars.

This challenge is looking for novel ways to ‘show the false’. Ideas that might help solve this challenge area may include representations of generalist and specialist Land capabilities.

Successful proposals will demonstrate how the innovative use of technology can be incorporated into the modern battlefield, with the minimum logistic burden, relative ease of deployment, recovery and maintenance, to become a tactical asset. Mobile, self-propelled decoys that are remotely or autonomously or semi-autonomously controlled and which can act as a centralised control system for a ‘decoy swarm’, such as a squadron of drones or a leaguered logistic convoy are of particular interest. In addition, the use of deception to mask one platform type as another may give a tactical advantage, if this suits the tactical situation, similar to a Trojan Horse. Lastly, the combined use of smaller platforms to create the signature of a high value target, such as multiple drones presenting the radar cross-section of an attack helicopter will be considered.

Challenge 2: Hide the Real

Developing new or novel technologies or exploiting existing technologies in a new or novel way to enhance the survivability of personnel and materiel by reducing the likelihood of being Identified, Acquired and Engaged in support of the survivability onion concept. This competition does not seek ideas to reduce the likelihood of being Hit, Penetrated or Killed.

This challenge is looking for novel ways to ‘hide the real’. For this competition we are interested in visual, infrared, acoustic and radar bands. Ideas that might help solve this challenge include ones that obscure the ability to find static and moving platforms and systems, and command and logistics hubs, ideally in more than one area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Consideration must be given to avoid any detrimental effect on the operational performance of the platform, the system, or the hub – it must remain optimised for full functionality. However, a solution may be an integrated system of systems approach, which involves differing methodologies to produce a combined effect.

Proposals should consider how they would quantify the benefit of their proposed innovation compared to a single sensor.

Eligibility

DASA want novel proposals that will benefit UK Land operations. We are most interested in proposals that:

are innovative, disruptive (even unorthodox), novel, or creative in approach.
can deceive in more than one part of the electro-magnetic spectrum.
offer remote or autonomous deployment and recovery, or are quick to assemble (<30 mins), with a workforce ideally of no more than two, depending on the complexity of the deception method / tool.
are at (TRL) 5 or below, especially proposals that can be further accelerated to become a prototype deception capability (essentially operational capability demonstrators).
are low-cost (if scaled to mass-production) and do not significantly depend upon the stock of Government Furnished Assets (GFA) parts.
are low complexity (recognising the risk of them being lost to an adversary).
have the ability to assure a supply chain, with opportunity for forward manufacture low-fidelity, simple designs and in the UK for those more complex or sensitive solutions.
are a theoretical development, method of advancement or proof of concept research, which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration at a later opportunity.

Exclusions

DASA are not interested in proposals that:

are already at TRL 6 or higher.
require MODREC or RIPA approvals.
specifically address deception in the communications radio frequency part of the electro-magnetic spectrum.
are inflatable representations or those needing significant power support and repair cost.
are not broadly representative of contemporary UK personnel or materiel or are not supportive of interoperating with such.
are labour and logistically intensive – there should be minimal operator, training, or logistical burden.
are effective, but need highly technical operators;
are expensive to procure and/or maintain their availability or cannot be scaled.
show no awareness of the contemporary military operating environment.
come from suppliers who will not be prepared to develop and integrate their solution cooperatively with users and other small and medium enterprises.
constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation (which therefore cannot be extended into future development) are an unsolicited resubmission of a previous DASA bid or proven technical proposal reapplied to this competition.
offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge).
offer no real long-term prospect of integration into defence capabilities.
offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions, including adversarial tactical sensors.

For more information see competition guidance notes here

Funding Costs

The total possible funding available for this DASA competition is £900,000 (excluding VAT).

This is expected to fund between six and eight proposals over a maximum project duration of 5 months. Pending each proposal additional funding may be made available from Defence Science and Technology Laboratories (Dstl).

There may be additional funding for further phases to incorporate successful solutions onto prototypes under development (using a different commercial arrangement through Defence Equipment and Support’s Aurora Engineering Partnership).

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