Key Features
On Friday 1 December 2023, Defence Ministers announced the launch of an innovation challenge series for AUKUS Pillar II. The first of these challenges was focused on Electronic Warfare (EW). The second is focused on undersea Command, Control and Communications.
Programme: DASA
Award: Share of up to $8 million
Opens: 1st Apr 2025
Closes: 28th Apr 2025
On Friday 1 December 2023, Defence Ministers announced the launch of an innovation challenge series for AUKUS Pillar II. The first of these challenges was focused on Electronic Warfare (EW). The second is focused on undersea Command, Control and Communications.
This is a trilaterally agreed challenge and will utilise a harmonised competition process with individual submissions entered into one of the three AUKUS partners’ individual submission portals (Australia, United Kingdom and United States). The challenge is being run as a two-stage competition across the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) in Australia, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) in the United Kingdom and the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) in the United States.
In Stage 1, submissions will be evaluated for their desirability and technical merits by evaluators from each of the three AUKUS partners. Successful submissions from Stage 1 may be invited by any of the AUKUS partners to submit a detailed proposal as part of Stage 2 of the competition, according to individual nations’ tendering and contracting processes. Terms and conditions for the competition have been harmonised as far as possible across the three nations but it should be appreciated that individual AUKUS partners have separate national requirements for awards.
This competition is open to submissions from any nation in Stage 1. Successful respondents who have been offered and who have entered into a contract with an AUKUS partner following Stage 2 will be required to develop their technology to a prototype level and deliver a demonstration at an appropriate multinational maritime exercise. Final contract deliverables may be shared by all three AUKUS partners, to enable the three partners to consider their suitability for any future use or possible exploitation by one or more AUKUS partners, however no such future use or exploitation is guaranteed to occur. Further details to be provided in due course.
Autonomous systems can provide operational advantage in all environments from seabed to space. The waters of a nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) stretch 200 nautical miles (NM) from the coastline; they include environmental features such as seaweed, incidental features such as drifting containers, and interception features such as fishing nets. There is also the presence of critical undersea infrastructure, which has strategic interest. Sensing, interpreting, and navigating the environment are fundamental to an autonomous platform’s ability to operate safely, efficiently, and effectively.
AUKUS partners are seeking to research and develop innovations to enable the synchronisation and teaming of multiple undersea systems. We invite innovations that enable some or all of the following Desired Capability Effects:
The central C2 node will plan a mission for the teamed network of Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) to complete. This mission will need to be communicated to individual UUVs with varied capabilities and payloads, over an appropriate range.
Over the course of the mission, the UUVs will need to communicate with each other and the central C2 node. This could be part of the original mission, or in response to a change in mission circumstances, such as the failure of an individual vehicle. The teamed network should reallocate these tasks appropriately and report the revised mission parameters back to the Central C2 node as soon as possible.
Some UUVs operated by AUKUS navies are capable and complex platforms that can support a wide variety of Defence tasks. The data and systems on board must be secured, even if the UUV itself is lost due to failure or attrition. The encryption of communications and data at rest is highly desirable.
UUV will need to maintain a dived status to maximise efficiency and safety; they need to maintain an accurate position and timing while dived. UUVs will need to autonomously recognise and counter a range of challenges, including: environmental features such as seaweed, incidental features such as drifting containers and interception features such as fishing nets
There could be an unanticipated safety or engineering reason for one or more of the UUVs to have to transmit a significant amount of data back to the central C2 node and/or BMS from a long range with a minimal probability of that data being intercepted.
Successful proposals to this competition should seek to tackle one or more of the above Desired Capability Effects (1-5).
Successful proposals to this competition should seek to tackle one or more of the above capability challenges (1-5). To help with onward exploitation we encourage novel C2 technologies to be interoperable by design. To this end, AUKUS – and NATO – allies are developing and applying a family of protocols based upon an evolution of Interoperability to Interchangeability (I2I) and Collaborative Autonomy Tasking Layer (CATL). When fully developed, the NATO standard STANAG 4817 will define how uncrewed platforms and existing C2 systems can integrate. The pursuit of interoperability is not intended to constrain the ambition or novelty of innovations. Aligning to the right standards early in the technological development will remove some of the barriers to exploitation and procurement.
AUKUS militaries are seeking systems that offer improved ability to communicate location, status and mission information for crewed and uncrewed UVs without significant attenuation of data, which reduces communications range and accuracy. A successful communications system would enhance the commander’s ability to view and synchronise the efforts of undersea systems. Sharing more information using less data via innovative underwater data transmission methods could improve near real time synchronisation.
AUKUS understand that different methods of communication come with trade-offs between range, bandwidth, bit rate, latency, security, and directionality, among other criteria. Proposals should clearly articulate how their innovative approach balances these competing factors and provides an overall step change in capability. Any proposal incorporating AI should describe how their solution uses AI at the point that gives greatest decision advantage.
AUKUS are looking for…
AUKUS are not looking for…
The first stage of the process is a request for submissions that provide a brief overview of the respondent’s solution. This will include a short description of the particular innovation, how it meets the competition scope, a rough order of magnitude cost (ROM) for any Stage 2 contract (i.e. to develop the solution to prototype level within a 12 month period) and a brief overview of the respondent’s organisation. The ROM cost should not allow for any demonstration costs for the multinational maritime exercise.
Requirements for access to Government Furnished Assets (GFA), for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, should be included in the submission at Stage 1. AUKUS cannot guarantee that GFA will be available. If GFA are requested, respondents should include an alternative plan in case they are not available.
No security classified information may be included in Stage 1 submissions.
Submissions should be submitted on the requested ‘Stage 1 Submission Form’ through one of the national submission portals set out below. The choice of portal does not affect evaluation of the submission, as all submissions will be evaluated by all of the AUKUS partners.
Following evaluation in accordance with the evaluation criteria and process set out below, successful submissions will receive an invitation on 26 May 2025 to submit a full proposal into Stage 2 of this competition. The portals to accept these proposals will not open until 2 June 2025.
Unsuccessful submissions will receive notification by the same time. Brief feedback may be provided to respondents.
Respondents should note that the above schedule is subject to change at any time and is not to be relied on by respondents as final and definitive.
Submissions that are successful from the trilateral evaluation for Stage 1 will be invited to participate in the second stage of the competition process and submit a more detailed proposal based on the submission in Stage 1. Each AUKUS partner will decide how many and which successful Stage 1 respondents are invited to participate in Stage 2 by that partner, based on the Stage 1 evaluation outcomes and the available funding. Each AUKUS partner will release their own Terms and Conditions for procurement and contracting to their proposed respondents, and proposals must be submitted into the relevant AUKUS partner’s specified portal. Respondents cannot choose which AUKUS partner they will submit a response to, but can choose not to participate in Stage 2.
Information required at this stage will be specified at time of Stage 2 release. This may include:
The planned closing date for proposals into Stage 2 is 7 July 2025
Respondents should note that the above schedule is subject to change at any time and is not to be relied on by respondents as final and definitive.
Unsolicited responses into Stage 2 will not be accepted.
Up to $8 million (US). Together, UK, AUS and US are expecting to fund 3-10 proposals
For further information on this funding call, please see guidance notes here
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
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