The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a tender notice for Project Wayfind, a programme aimed at countering the disruption of global navigation and positioning systems (GPS or equivalent) signals in uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV).
With a budget of up to £10m ($12.59m), the project is aimed to be executed over a two-month period.
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Project Wayfind is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of multi- position, navigation, and time (PNT)-sensor fusion engines and establish a common data standard such as all source position and navigation for these systems.
The initiative is concerned with enhancing the operation of (UAVs) in scenarios where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) functionality is compromised.
The Space Delivery Team, which oversees the project, is searching for an industry partner capable of identifying existing PNT sensor fusion products and alternative PNT sensors, as well as collating and disseminating information about their performance and availability.
The selected partner will be responsible for organising and conducting repeated trials to gather solid evidence of the performance of these products and sensors under GNSS-challenged conditions.
The Space Delivery Team plans to award short-term contracts, each lasting six weeks, to an estimated five suppliers.
These preliminary contracts will serve as a basis for selecting one or more suppliers for a full-term contract, anticipated to last between one and two years.
The procurement process will not include options within the short-term contracts.
In the tender notice, UK MoD stated that “the Wayfinder short-term contract will be run primarily at OFFICIAL with an option to use higher classification of information, if the preferred supplier is able to operate at that level of classification”.
The ministry added that “the Cyber Risk Level for the short-term contract has been assessed as Not Applicable. As the Statement of Work for the main contract is still being finalised, the Cyber Risk Level for the main-contract will be identified and communicated at the appropriate point of industry engagement”.
This comes after the UK MoD awarded Airbus’ Defence and Space division the Oberon satellite system contract, boosting the armed forces’ access to new space-based imagery earlier this month.
