DASA competition: Contemporary Deception for the British Army

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.

There are two main challenges in scope:

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.

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.

Challenge 2: Hide the Real

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.

Who can apply?

DASA submissions are welcome from the private sector, academia, individuals (i.e. sole traders) and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs).

Eligible proposals

We encourage proposals where the innovation output is no higher than, Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 5. Successful proposals will be expected to validate their deception technology in a relevant environment. This could include validation against a range of representative sensor technologies in a formal tactical trials environment. An appropriate level of evidence will be required for solutions expected to exit at TRL 3 or 4.

Available funding

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).

Support

07 June 2024 – A dial-in session providing further detail on the problem space from the Army’s competition team, with a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.