United Kingdom Defense Market Needs Enhanced Early Warning Technology
The Royal Navy Carrier and Littoral Strike Groups need a clear picture of the battlespace to ensure surface and airborne threats can be responded to within appropriate timescales. To meet that need, the Royal Navy is seeking for industry to develop alternative future concepts for the Early Warning (EW) systems that are currently deployed in Maritime Task Groups. The Royal Navy seeks air and surface surveillance that enables over-the-horizon situational awareness and ensures that Commanders can detect, track and recognize surface and airborne objects, and respond to them efficiently.
Current early warning maritime capabilities for the Royal Navy are delivered by sensors mounted aboard airborne platforms. The current assumptions for a follow-on capability to Crowsnest are based around a single, large radar sensor mounted on a type of uncrewed air platform. The Royal Navy asks industry to investigate the potential of alternative solutions which are not based on this particular approach. The Royal Navy is seeking a successor to Crowsnest, which has a planned out-of-service date of 2029, and ask for proposals that enhance:
- Horizon surveillance and/or target detection capability
- Operational effectiveness through timely processing and dissemination of information
- Operational efficiency through optimization of system functionality
Questions on proposal submission as well as technical and intellectual property should be sent to accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.
For more information on how to submit a proposal to the Royal Navy or other opportunities in the UK defense sector, please contact PJ Menner in Embassy London at pj.menner@trade.gov.