Current Defense Department unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are expensive and suffer from low production rates due to design and manufacturing issues and the department is seeking solutions for affordable unmanned aerial system that can be mass produced and avoids vendor-lock by benefiting from modular open architecture.
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Wednesday issued a solicitation for the Enterprise Test Vehicle that can achieve its first flight testing within seven months of award to “demonstrate an aerial platform that prioritizes affordability and distributed mass production.”
Requirements for the UAS test vehicle include a range of at least 500 nautical miles, capable of delivering a kinetic payload, a minimum cruise speed of 100 knots, a modular open system architecture to enable the timely integration of commercially available components and subsystems like payloads, sensors, and software-defined radios, can be dropped or launched from a cargo aircraft, and is “capable of bulk transportation and employment in large quantities,” says the Sept. 27 solicitation.
The DoD is interested in affordable, mass-producible medium-range UAS because current systems can neither meet “surge demand nor affordable mass,” DIU says. This is because current systems have “exquisite components and labor-intensive manufacturing processes,” it adds.
“Narrow supply chains, proprietary data, and locked designs result in a lengthy timeline to transition new technology into usable capability and limit production and replenishment rates,” the solicitation says.
Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia’s unprovoked invasion has highlighted the to rapidly produce and replenish a range of equipment stocks, including munitions and UAS. Both sides in the conflict are seeing their respective UAS systems frequently destroyed or turned inoperable due to kinetic and electronic warfare means, necessitating mass use of these air vehicles for a range of activities such as surveillance, targeting, battle damage assessment, and kinetic attacks.
Solution briefs are due by Oct. 10. Vendors selected for the second phase of the program will be invited to pitch their solutions as early as the week of Oct. 23-27.
DIU says that it may select multiple vehicle types for prototyping and development following a successful flight test.