DASA competition: Novel Amphibious Craft
DASA’s new Themed Competition seeks innovations to help develop a novel craft to enable Commando Forces to safely and rapidly insert themselves into high-threat environments.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Themed Competition, Novel Amphibious Craft. Run on behalf of the Defence Innovation Unit, this competition seeks innovative technologies which can feed into the development of a Novel Amphibious Craft concept to enable Commando Force to safely and rapidly insert themselves into high-threat environments. The future craft needs to:
- travel at sustained high speed over a long range
- provide the ability to deliver personnel and light vehicles to a coastal access point with limited or no impact on operational speed/capability
- relaunch from the coastal access point
- operate with low signature across all spectrums (thermal, radar, visual, acoustic, etc.) to reduce the probability of detection
Key dates and funding
£1 million (Exc. VAT) funding is available for this Themed Competition. DASA expects to fund several proposals between £100K – 350K.
The deadline to submit a proposal is midday 10 January 2023 (GMT).
Scope
This competition aims to investigate and accelerate innovative solutions that will help meet operational requirements and achieve mission success, including feeding into the development of a Novel Amphibious Craft. DASA is seeking to address the following challenges:
- how to reduce the signature across multiple spectrums (thermal, radar, visual, acoustic, etc.)
- how to deliver the Commando Force (Troops and Vehicles) across the water gap and minimise the requirement for wading
- how to routinely land onto/retract from an unprepared coastal access point
- how to sustain speeds of at least 25kts in the fully loaded condition, in Sea State 2
For a more detailed breakdown of the platform specifications and requirements, read the full competition document.
This competition has two themes. Innovators can apply for funding in either theme.
Theme 1: Priority Challenges
Theme 1 aims to address the following technical challenges faced by the capability:
- Theme 1a: How to reduce the signature across multiple spectrums (thermal, radar, visual, acoustic etc.)
- Theme 1b: How to deliver the Commando Force (troops and vehicles) across the water gap and minimise the requirement for wading
- Theme 1c: How to land onto/retract from an unprepared coastal access point
Theme 2: Capability Design
Theme 2 aims to design a craft capable of delivering the complete capability defined above. This is a lower Technology Readiness Level (TRL) theme up to TRL 4.
Webinars
This competition will feature a series of 20 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, providing innovators the opportunity to ask competition organisers specific questions. Register below.
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, or advice on DASA applications, contact Hazel Biggs, KTM Defence and Security.