Commercial maritime vessels rely on uninterrupted freedom of navigation. However, the persistence of diverse maritime mine threats in maritime chokepoints introduces significant operational risk. To mitigate this risk, the Department of War seeks flexible, stand-off response options designed to keep its high-value ships and sailors at a safe distance from threats.
To diversify its current toolset , the Department is launching a $10,000,000 Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Modernization prize challenge. This initiative will leverage mature commercial technologies to reacquire and neutralize diverse underwater mine threats from a safe standoff distance and aims to be ready for operational deployment in under six months. The challenge is a joint partnership between the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Department of the Navy (DoN).
“This is a high-priority mission set for the U.S. Navy, and it is an area we expect to expand rapidly,” said William Mahan, Performing the Duties of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. “Successful solutions are designed to immediately integrate with the Navy's suite of MCM capabilities across the fleet.”
The challenge will evaluate vendor solutions across three distinct operational tracks: mission, mine type, and position in the water column. Through a series of competitive, in-water sprints, the Navy intends to rigorously test commercial hardware in demanding conditions.
“We are looking for mature, rapidly fieldable commercial solutions that can complete the detect-to-engage kill chain while keeping our warfighters entirely out of the threat zone,” said Jarred Conley, DIU’s Maritime Principal Director. “By shifting the operational burden to modular, communication-resilient uncrewed systems, we can drastically increase the speed of MCM response.”
Selected performers will receive up to $200,000 and an invitation to compete in the on-water testing events, with top performers in each track eligible for awards of up to $3,000,000. International participation from qualifying countries is encouraged.
The submission window will be open through June 10 at 23:59:59 Eastern Time. See the DIU website for full details and application instructions.