Autonomous Low Profile Vessel (ALPV)

Background

The Department of War (DoW) faces a littoral contested logistics challenge. Increasingly distributed operations in austere, contested littoral environments are met with all-domain threats targeting logistics capabilities, locations, and activities. These threats limit the ability of warfighters to persist in contested environments and remain combat effective.

Problem

The DoW requires the ability to resupply units spread over wide distances in contested littoral environments.

Desired Solution Attributes

The DoW seeks innovative solutions that provide low-cost logistics transport and enable critical inter-theater resupply within littoral environments. 

Proposed solutions should be demonstrable within 180 days of award and built upon principles of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to ensure interoperability and future improvement.

Solutions will be evaluated on their problem alignment, technical merit, and innovative approaches to support the delivery and sustainment of maritime autonomous resupply systems, at scale, for operations in contested littoral environments.

The Government will preference solutions that:

• Transport by sea:
  • A minimum of 18,000lbs of cargo; and
  • All classes of supply including bulk liquids. 
• Operate in NATO sea state 5 and survive in NATO sea state 6.
• Operate at a range of 1,000 to 2,000 nautical miles in NATO sea state 5 while fully laden.
• Sustain speed of at least 12 knots in NATO sea state 4 while fully laden.
• Can loiter for up to 96 hours (assuming reduced speed below 12 knots).
• Support transloading of all classes of supply, including standard warehouse pallets, Pallet Containers (PALCONs), & Joint Modular Intermodal Containers (JMICs). Payload dimensions must be capable of safely and reliably transporting:
  • A minimum of six JMICs (JMIC dimensions are 43’’ tall, 51.75’’ wide, 43.75’’ long and weighing 3000 pounds); or
  • Two containers each measuring 44” tall, 41.5” wide, 166” long, and weighing 5100 pounds
• Capable of autonomous operation for transit, in congested waterways, and for port operations, to include perception, navigation, and operations (to include hazard avoidance) using:
  • Active sensing / global positioning system (M-Code GPS); and 
  • Passive sensing during emissions control (EMCON) conditions or when communications are lost (i.e. operating in Denied, Degraded, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) communications environments).    
• Provide sufficient navigational accuracy in DDIL environments to assure reaching the objective location. Prior to completion of prototyping, companies will be expected to demonstrate assured Position, Navigation and Timing in DDIL and GPS-degraded and denied environments.
• Employ a low-profile form factor to reduce chances of detection and interdiction by potential adversaries in a contested domain.  
• Provide redundant line of sight and beyond line-of-sight communications capabilities on standard Navy and Marine Corps networks.
• Capable of manual human operations via remote control, particularly for first and last mile terminal guidance.  
• Ability to pass vessel control between operators (both for remote control and for autonomous operations).
• Capable of one human to multiple craft control.
• Ability to conduct dynamic re-tasking, including changing waypoints and transitioning to loitering operations.
• Can conduct shore-to-shore (pier-to-pier), ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore distribution, including Military Sealift Command vessels and other littoral connectors. Ship or shore-to-beach operations with self-withdrawal after cargo discharge desirable.
• Require minimal off-platform support (e.g., material handling equipment (MHE)) to discharge cargo.  
• Provide over-the-road trailer compatible with both commercial tractor trailers and Marine Corps tactical prime movers.
• Resistant to tampering while underway with the ability to remotely scuttle the vessel.
• Can provide a functional prototype and provide evidence of the ability to scale manufacturing to sustained production levels if selected, including indicators of company health and production readiness.
• Can provide high-level rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimates, to include the build and testing of prototype craft and production at scale.

Proposals for holistic solutions are preferred, and partnering with other companies to deliver solutions addressing all attributes is highly encouraged, e.g., hardware-autonomy partnerships. However, companies with compelling, demonstrable capability in one or more of these desired attributes are still encouraged to apply. 

The Government encourages submission of mature commercial designs and willingness to adopt government-owned designs for the physical platform to meet aggressive timelines and to properly allocate ample resources toward the prototyping of the autonomy portion of the solution. Government Furnished Information (GFI) will be provided to companies awarded under the CSO process for use to speed integration, reduce redesign, and ensure interoperability. GFI may include:

• Reference hardware designs for autonomous low-profile vessels (ALPVs)
• Baseline software architectures and orchestration frameworks
• Technical Data Packages (TDPs)
• Interface Control Documents (ICDs)
• Data/message protocol specifications and APIs
• Modeling and simulation environments