Coast Guard releases RFI for long range, ultra-long endurance UAS

On August 30, the U.S. Coast Guard released a rquest for information on land based, long range/ultra-long endurance UAS (Solicitation Number: HSCG32-17-I-R00030). Responses are due no later than October 2.

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Research and Development Center (RDC), New London, CT, to examine the state of land based, long range / ultra-long endurance, unmanned aerial systems (LR/ULE UAS). The Coast Guard is seeking information on LR/ULE UAS and mission equipment packages available from government, industry and academia. This RFI is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Unsolicited Proposal, or an obligation or intent of the USCG to acquire any products and/or services

The USCG RDC will examine the feasibility, costs, and benefits of conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in transit zones using land based LR/ULE UAS. In concept, the USCG would seek to operate the LR/ULE UAS in the offshore environment beyond line of sight (BLOS) of the ground control station (GCS). Consequently, the candidate LR/ULE UAS would require organic sensors for surveillance; to detect, classify, identify, and prosecute (SDCIP) targets of interest.

Neither “Long Range” nor “Ultra-Long Endurance” for the maritime environment is precisely defined. It is RDC’s intent to have industry inform what the available envelope is for both of these parameters and what is reasonably foreseeable; however, the threshold endurance has been established by USCG as 24 hours.

Full information is available here.

Source: FedBizOpps