future sonar - cde themed competition launch

Centre Defence Enterprise

for

Themed Competition Briefings

CDE themed competition

Future sonar

Themed competition

Requirements

Bounded

Specific

Innovation Network events

Advice

Opportunity

Networking

Centre for Defence Enterprise Future Sonar Harnessing discovery and invention for future sonar advantage

© Crown copyright 2014 Dstl

26 March 2014 UNCLASSIFIED / For PUBLIC RELEASE

1. Overview – Maritime Freedom of Manoeuvre Programme

– Future sonar CDE competition

2. What would a sonar advantage look like?

3. What could future sonar be?

4. How can technological discoveries and breakthroughs offer an advantage?

5. Invitation for proposals



Agenda

Interface meetings and networking

Presentations:

Q&A

Maritime Freedom of Manoeuvre

Maintain Freedom of Manoeuvre within the maritime environment in the face of changing threats, environment and technology


26 March 2014

UNCLASSIFIED / For PUBLIC RELEASE

Them

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Freedom of Manoeuvre

Submarine capability

Remote Mine Countermeasures

Anti Submarine Warfare

Geospatial intelligence gathering

Project structure

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Challenge 1

1. Harnessing discovery and invention for future sonar advantage

Develop game-changing sonar technology to

• reduce cost and integration constraints

• be capable in all environments

• improve performance

• improve useability

Develop and maintain UK capability in underwater acoustic sensing

Desired outcomes

• provide the Royal Navy (RN) with a step change in capability

• ensure the UK maintains freedom of action



Challenges 2 and 3

2. Measuring decision effectiveness

How effective is the application of new technology (sonar / processing / automated displays) in improving decision effectiveness?

3. Non-destructive evaluation of sonar technology

How can modern techniques be used to provide an improved assessment of the integrity of in-service (and future) sonar?



Funding opportunity

• Up to 9 months funding from CDE themed competition

• Total budget up to £850k (£600k reserved for challenge 1)

• Fixed completion date for all contracts awarded

• Up to 3 years additional funding available as part of a follow-on programme

• Competition for challenge 1

• This is the only planned opportunity for funding related to challenge 1 – this competition is the single entry point into this technology area

• Total budget for follow-on programme is over £600k p.a.

• Everyone who responds to this competition will be invited to join the Maritime Collaborative Enterprise (MarCE) community



Factors affecting assessment of all challenges

Phase 1 (CDE themed competition)

High quality proposals are likely to show how: • the solution can deliver game changing capability • the exploitation readiness of the technology under investigation would be advanced • the work would build and maintain UK capability

Phase 2 (follow-on programme)

Success achieved under CDE funding

Quality of bids for follow-on funding

• transformative effect of development

• evidence of UK capability being built or maintained

• clear route for delivery and development and advanced exploitation readiness

Results of “interview” at Dstl



What would a sonar advantage look like? Future active sensing



Current approach Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Mine Counter Measures (MCM) largely undertaken by ship-borne and aircraft-deployed systems

• large and expensive platforms

• effective when deployed

• reliant on a trained man-in-the loop

• focussed on acoustic sensing

Issues

• reducing cost while maintaining capability ie more efficient

• reducing manning and training requirements

• making easier or quicker to deploy



UNCLASSIFIED /

FOR PUBLIC RELEASE © Crown copyright 2013 Dstl

26 March 2014

Current ship-borne ASW

Image courtesy of Thales UK

UNCLASSIFIED /


26 March 2014

Proud Manta experiment

UNCLASSIFIED /


26 March 2014

Current MCM sensing

Image courtesy of Thales UK

UNCLASSIFIED /


26 March 2014

Future MCM sensing

The future What do the challenges for active sonar look like?

• smaller, lighter, more numerous, low powered, unmanned, networked, intelligent, remote, multi-influence, environmentally friendly…

What are the future threats?

• traditional threats plus… smaller, manned/unmanned, more numerous…

More likely to be a combined and distributed sensing field with:

• improved performance in all environments

• reduced cost and greater reliability

• assurance of what works and where it works



What would a sonar advantage look like? Future passive sensing



Current platforms



Future platforms





Submarine sonar

Larger arrays

How do we get there



Submarine sonar

Larger arrays

Thinner, lighter, less compressible, lower cost, sonar arrays and associated systems

How do we get there



Submarine sonar

Larger arrays

Thinner, lighter, less compressible, lower cost, sonar arrays and associated systems

Unmanned systems

Capable ASW sensors

How do we get there

The future



What do the challenges for active sonar look like?

• thinner, lighter, less compressible, lower powered…

We are looking for new passive sonar technologies and materials for manned platforms and unmanned vehicles

• must provide step change in performance

• must be more effective without increasing size or cost

• must maintain ability to suppress self-noise

Non-destructive evaluation of sonar technology



Traditional non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have some limitations, for example in detecting deep defects, which make it difficult to fully assess current sonar arrays

We are looking for new techniques to overcome these limitations

Expect techniques to:

• offer improved resolution of the information on the material / mechanical properties of the sonar

• be safe to use, reliable, and cost effective

• help to reduce the repair time and the impact of having to make repairs

What would a sonar advantage look like? Measuring sonar improvements



Dependencies



Mission Effectiveness

Decision Effectiveness

Situational Awareness

Tactical Picture Quality

Decision-effectiveness framework



Mission Effectiveness

(ME)

Decision Effectiveness (DE)

Situational Awareness (SA)

Tactical Picture Quality (TPQ)

Improved capability

Measure

Measuring decision effectiveness Aims



• Identify new measures of decision effectiveness (DE)

• Identify tools and techniques to measure DE

• Use tools and techniques - to understand which aspects of the tactical picture have the most impact on (and benefit to) situational awareness, DE and hence mission effectiveness

Desired outcome - affordable and objective measures of DE that can ultimately be used by government scientists and military and civilian decision makers

What could future sonar be?





Metamaterials: Highly sensitive acoustic material. Could this reduce complexity of electronics and beamforming?

New materials



Fractal Arrays: Optimum space-filling design to cover a wide range of frequencies. Could this be used to design a compact and ultra broadband array?

Arrays designs



Listening with a 'quantum ear' (Physics World, Feb 2012)

Quantum Sensing High-resolution / high-performance sensing devices. Could this massively increase the sensitivity of miniature sensors?

“First Graphene Audio Speaker Easily Outperforms Traditional Designs” (MIT Technology Review, March 2013)

Graphene: Highly sensitive acoustic material. Could this lead to next generation of small and efficient transducers?

Listening and transmitting



Remote Sensing: For example, subsurface scanning using optical or laser techniques. Could this mean monitoring the underwater acoustic field from out of the water?

Sensing from out of the water



New Acoustic Transduction Methods: For example, utilising the photo-acoustic effect for underwater applications. Could this lead to a highly flexible way of producing sound underwater?

Exploiting known effects



We are looking for:

innovative ideas leading to a transformational change in sonar technology

How can technological discoveries and breakthroughs offer an advantage?



Chevrons for quieter jets


26 March 2014

From time to time, new and innovative solutions appear for well-established and much-studied challenges

NASA has partnered with a range of companies to develop new techniques for reducing the noise produced by jet engines

When thinking about future sonar the experience of the NASA chevron team demonstrates how major successes can result from the coming together of a large number of smaller efforts that cut across many scientific disciplines


Invitation for proposals



Invitation for Proposals – Challenge 1

1. Harnessing discovery and invention for future sonar advantage

Solutions that can challenge traditional approaches and lead to a sonar advantage that can surprise a UK adversary

• Proposals are invited from experts and innovators who are leading the thinking around the technology under investigation

• Proposals should advance the exploitation readiness of the proposed solution

• Your choice how you propose to manage the readiness of your solution for exploitation




2. Measuring Decision Effectiveness

New measures of decision effectiveness and the tools and techniques to measure the effectiveness resulting from different systems or processes

• Proposals are invited from leading innovators across all sectors

• Proposals should be at proof-of-concept stage




3. Non-Destructive Evaluation of Sonar Technology

Techniques that can lead to improved non-destructive evaluation over and above current techniques

• Proposals are invited from leading innovators across all sectors

• Proposals should be at proof-of-concept or early demonstration stage



Phase 1 CDE themed competition

Total budget up to £850k

Proposals should be up to 9 months

Contracts should be completed by end of April 2015

Successful organisations will be offered help to better understand the research requirements and strengthen the relevance of your solution to these requirements

Plus, invited to take part in one or more network events in the last quarter of 2014 and/or the first quarter of 2015



Phase 2 Follow-on research and development programme

Successful organisations will be invited to bid for up to 3 years of additional funding to mature your solution over the medium-term

This is the only planned funding opportunity related to challenge 1

Bids for follow-on funding should be submitted by 19 March 2015

Organisations will be requested to attend an interview at Dstl Portsdown West on 15, 16, or 17 April 2015

Interview will be looking for confirmation that you understand the potential impact of your solution and the pathway to impact

Plus, that the bid for follow-on funding would mature the solution and lead to a future sonar advantage that could eventually be exploited by the Royal Navy




Exploitation Readiness

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

PHASE 1 PHASE 2

Submitting a proposal

Proposals for all challenges must be submitted by 1700 on 29 May 2014 using the Centre for Defence Enterprise Portal

Proposals should state which challenge they are addressing

Proposals should focus on explaining the work that would be carried out in response to this competition

Plus, the expected outcomes from the work and how the outcomes would be proven or demonstrated

Proposals will be assessed using the MOD PAF (Performance Assessment Framework)



Future Sonar Harnessing discovery and invention for future sonar advantage



Technical questions to [email protected]

General questions to CDE at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

future sonar - cde themed competition launch

Technology

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public release crown

technology crown copyright

proposals crown copyright

active sonar

future mcm sensing

future threats

uk capability phase