Market Intelligence
Defense Equipment United Kingdom

United Kingdom Defense Seeks Generation After Next Communications and Networks

The UK MOD is seeking novel and innovative proposals from industry and academia that will provide novel and disruptive ideas for the Chief Scientific Advisor’s Communications and Networks Research Program at the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.  Proposals can be based on novel ideas within existing communications standards and defense networks, or proposals can be for completely new approaches to transmitting information.  To increase the impact and likelihood of development, the proposals may be shared across UK government as appropriate, including with partners in the National Cyber Security Centre. 

The UK’s future defense capability is centered on the concept of Information Advantage, which is defined as the ability to out-think and out-decide adversaries to achieve operational dominance.  Information Advantage depends fundamentally on the availability of appropriate information at the time and place of need, in ways that are robust to the challenges of the deployed military environment.  Challenges in the deployed military environment include: 

  • Mobility - Nearly all network entities in the deployed environment, ranging from single vehicles to large formations, are highly mobile and this mobility is rarely predictable in advance.  

  • Spectrum access - In the case of RF communications, the electromagnetic spectrum is a shared resource.  

  • Demand for information - Forces increasingly depend on information exchange, which almost always exceeds the available communications capacity.  

  • Integration - Forces are frequently operating with coalition partners or in conjunction with host nation organizations, and this drives a need for integration and information sharing with highly heterogeneous systems. 

  • Adversary threat - Communications could allow an adversary to detect and attack friendly forces by electromagnetic, cyber or physical means. 

The MOD seeks novel ideas from industry and academia to benefit end-users working in defense and security.  Proposals should include evidence of: 

  • Ideas for future Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). 

  • Future architectures for resilient data services. 

  • Future architectures for resilient networks. 

  • Future novel and adaptive bearers and waveforms. 

  • Enhanced modelling and characterization of future transmission environments. 

  • Future deployable communications that can be integrated across a multi-domain collation within a contested and congested environment. 

  • Theoretical development, method of advancement or proof of concept research which can demonstrate potential for translation to practical demonstration in later phases. 

  • Clear demonstration of how the proposed work applies to any defense and security context. 

Proposals can be generic in application or could target one of the domains of defense (including Air, Land and Maritime); however, proposals should be focused on military deployed scenarios, rather than fixed communications infrastructure, such as data centers.  In addition, proposals solely restricted to the space domain are not in the scope of this program. 

The MOD welcomes approaches looking to exploit civilian communications technology components that could be modified to support defense requirements. 

The overall program will have four phases split across two phase types.  In the ‘Discovery’ phases, the MOD is looking for innovation where the technology output will reach Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) of 3 or 4 by the end of a 6-month contract.  In the ‘Development’ phases, the technology output will reach further maturation to TRL 6 by the end of a 12-month contract.  The funding available for the 1st ‘Discovery Phase” is $1.4m.  Later ‘Development’ phases will allow both for further maturation of Discovery phase activities e.g., to TRL 6, as well as the introduction of new activities.  

If you would like to submit a novel and innovative proposal to the UK MOD that will deliver disruptive ideas for communications, networking and information services or if you are looking for information on other opportunities in the UK defense and security market, please contact PJ Menner at the U.S. Embassy London via PJ.Menner@trade.gov.    

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