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Geomagnetic Airborne Unmanned Survey System (GAUSS)
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Project Description
1. DoW Problem and Background:
The denial and degradation of GPS is a persistent challenge to assured navigation on the battlefield. Multiple alternatives to GPS have been developed to address this challenge, including the development of magnetic navigation (magnav) with the promise of resilient, unjammable navigation over water. Magnav is reliant upon pre-measured reference magnetic data of the earth’s crustal magnetic field for navigation, which needs to be measured locally and accurately.
The broad-scale utility of magnav is primarily limited by the availability and accuracy of reference data in specific regions of interest. Current commercial airborne platforms for magnetic data collection are optimized for geological surveys over land, and as a result do not have sufficient range to survey regions of open ocean. To accelerate the collection of magnetic data, it is essential to adapt existing platforms to enable large-scale geo-survey campaigns over oceans while reducing cost through the development of techniques that can scale rapidly. Additionally, some regions may require more attritable aircraft due to the likelihood of loss, necessitating the need for both highly-accurate and low-cost systems.
2. Need Statement:
The Department of War (DoW) seeks solutions to prototype magnetic data collection platforms that address warfighter needs for precision navigation capabilities beyond GPS. Geomagnetic Airborne Unmanned Survey System (GAUSS) is a multi-year, multi-phase initiative which will culminate in mature technology demonstrations that provide magnetic map data to enable operational magnetic navigation of trans-oceanic distances. Compelling solutions should develop data collection concepts that operate in a variety of over-water domains, can be rapidly scaled to accelerate magnetic data collection efforts, enable cost-effective data collections, and ensure that sensors can be installed in a magnetically clean location.
Flight testing is expected to occur throughout prototyping to validate the efficacy and utility of the magnetic data collection for navigation. This will include assessment of magnetic noise from the platform, integration of the COTS/GOTS sensor(s) on platform, validation of magnetic collection accuracy, development of cost models for future collections, and the collection of new magnetic data that will be validated through magnetic navigation flight tests.
In addition to magnetic collection platform development and validation, the DoW is interested in validating techniques that provide corrections for diurnal magnetic field variations over water at distances over 1,000 miles from the nearest magnetic base station. Solutions can include, but are not limited to, space-weather modelling and estimation, the deployment of loitering diurnal monitoring assets, or other novel techniques. Expertise in magnetic data processing is expected to include traditional levelling techniques, as well as the development and validation of novel techniques that achieve a line repeatability specification in Table 1.
It is expected that a single platform will not meet all technical requirements, and that multiple aircraft, or other approaches will be required to achieve all mission objectives. Platform specifications are provided by two exemplars in Table 1 to guide vendors on possible solutions that are expected to be compelling to the DoW. Vendors may submit solutions that achieve a limited set of the technical criteria described in an exemplar, but a technical solution is more compelling if it can achieve a broader set of specifications.
Compelling solutions will address the following:
- Support the rapid integration of COTS/GOTS magnetometers onto platforms, with validation that the magnetometer has limited platform interference
- Enable the deployment of subsequent copies of the platform with limited non-recurring engineering costs
- Ensure accurate navigation for collections, likely including resilient backup solutions such as mGNSS
- Survey platforms should be optimized for efficient collections through the following
- Enable rapid redeployment of the platform
- Ensure collections over a variety of over-water domains
- Validate rapid techniques for data processing to navigable products
Table 1
|
Metric |
Exemplar System #1 |
Exemplar System #2 |
|
Altitude |
30,000 ft |
2,000 ft |
|
Cruise Speed (indicated) |
200 knots |
100 knots |
|
Range |
>5,000 km |
1,000 km |
|
Post-correction line repeatability |
<1 nT/100 km |
<1 nT/100 km |
|
Per-km flight & data processing cost |
Threshold: $75 Objective: $15 |
Threshold: $75 Objective: $15 |
|
Yearly line km collections |
1,000,000 km |
400,000 km |
*Magnetic error in lines can be corrected for diurnal variations, DC sensor drift, platform calibrations, or other techniques
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Potential Follow-On Production Contract for Prototype Other Transaction Agreements
Companies are advised that any Prototype Other Transaction (OT) agreement awarded in response to this solicitation may result in the direct award of a follow-on production contract or agreement without the use of further competitive procedures. Follow-on production activities will result from successful prototype completion.
The follow-on production contract or agreement will be available for use by one or more organizations within the Department of Defense. As a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the Prototype OT agreement. All Prototype OT agreements will include the following statement relative to the potential for follow-on production: “In accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 4022(f), and upon a determination that the prototype project for this transaction has successfully been completed, this competitively awarded Prototype OT agreement may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of competitive procedures.”
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