MUAS RFI 2025.07.17.pdf

Request for Information Number: Maritime Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Notice Type: Request for Information (RFI)

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) NOTICE RELEASED PURSUANT

TO FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 10: MARKET

RESEARCH. This RFI is issued solely for informational, market research, and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) is not, at this time, seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Respondents are advised that the United States (U.S.) Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party's expense. Please be advised that all material submissions and responses to the RFI will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S. Government to form a binding contract. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this RFI.

SCOPE:

The USCG is conducting market research on Group 2 through Group 5 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) capabilities, sensors, and payloads. The goal of this market research (RFI) is to provide industry an opportunity to provide detailed information about their unmanned aircraft system(s), sensor technology, payload capabilities, detect and avoid (DAA) or airspace self-clearing capabilities, and system performance characteristics for cutter-based and land-based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance support.

The state of the UAS commercial marketplace is rapidly changing, and the USCG is combating new challenges and threats daily. It is critical to have a comprehensive understanding of the UAS commercial marketplace, to include its most recent advancements pertaining to system and service commerciality, performance, and sensor capabilities.

If you have any questions about how to properly respond to this RFI, please contact Jennifer.D.Mcmahon@uscg.mil. Please provide your RFI responses no later than 1300 EST, August 18, 2025 to Jennifer.D.Mcmahon@uscg.mil as a Windows 10/11 Microsoft compatible zip file if over 1MB in size.

Commandant United States Coast Guard

2100 Second Street, S.W.

Washington, DC 20593-0001 Staff Symbol: CG-AIR-C Phone: 202-370-0000 Email: Jennifer.D.Mcmahon@uscg.mil

Please provide responses to the following questions pertaining to UAS system and service commerciality, performance, and sensor capability:

1. Commerciality:

a. Please provide any available public pricing catalog or commercial pricing from government and private customers.

2. Previous Department of Defense (DoD)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Contracts:

a. Please provide information on current or past contracts with DoD and/or

DHS for UAS operations in a ship-based maritime environment.

b. Do you have a Contractor Owned and Contractor Operated (COCO) contract with DoD and/or DHS?

3. Multi-Tiered UAS Service:

a. Please provide detailed information on your ability to operate a multi-tiered

USCG ship-based and shore-side UAS service.

b. Do you have experience operating from vessels in the maritime domain?

c. Do you have air vehicles of varying sizes or do you have partnerships with other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to simultaneously provide services on dissimilar host cutters with launch and recovery areas of the following dimensions?

i. 10 square feet

ii. 25 square feet

iii. 75 square feet

iv. 150 square feet

v. 200 square feet

4. Sensor Capabilities:

a. Please provide amplifying information on all sensor capabilities available for Government use. Specifically, does your system have the sensors listed below (specify day, night, day-into-night, and infrared (IR) capabilities)? If so, please elaborate on their performance characteristics.

i. Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) target detection.

ii. EO/IR wide area surface search.

iii. Surface search radar.

iv. Sub-surface target detection.

v. High resolution bioluminescence detection.

vi. Maritime Wide-Area Search (MWAS) radar.

vii. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

viii. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).

ix. Chemical, Biological, and Radiological (CBR) sensors or other sensors to detect hazardous materials and/or toxic industrial chemicals.

x. Automatic Identification System (AIS).

xi. Radio Frequency (RF) and Radio direction finding (covering at least

406 MHz Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and marine band Very High Frequency-Frequency Modulation/Amplitude Modulation (VHF-FM/VHF-AM) frequencies), Ultra High Frequency

(UHF AM/FM):

1) An ability to relay audio communications between the host cutter and other assets.

xii. Lasers:

1) What is the classification of your laser (Class 1, 2, 3A/R, 3B, or 4)?

2) Does the laser meet the performance requirements of Title 21

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1040.10, Performance Standards for Light Emitting Products also known as the Federal Laser Product Performance Standard (FLPPS)?

3) What is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accession number for the laser system (DoD exemptions do not apply to the USCG)?

4) If your laser cannot fully comply with the FLPPS, have you sought a variance through the FDA? If so, is it approved or when do you expect approval?

xiii. A sensor to detect lasers pointed at the UAS.

xiv. A multi-spectral or hyper-spectral sensor.

xv. An automated object alerting and detection capability.

xvi. Any other sensor that would be relevant and beneficial to the USCG’s ability to conduct its statutory missions.

xvii. What are the standards for the sensors listed above? Please list what they are based on (Example: Joint Interface Control Document (JICD), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and Intelligence Community Directive (ICD)).

xviii. What are the data formats of each sensor listed above?

5. Data Management:

a. What is the minimum bandwidth required for each payload?

b. What type of RF links (frequency bands) are available between the air vehicle (AV) and the Ground Control Station (GCS)?

c. What edge processing capability is used within the sensors and for data transmission?

d. Can Commercial Solutions for Classified technology be integrated into the system?

6. Autonomous Operation:

a. Does your system have the ability to operate autonomously?

b. Does your system have the ability to operate autonomously with multiple aircraft concurrently from a single GCS?

a. If so, how many aircraft?

7. Beyond Visual Line of Sight:

a. Does your system have the ability to operate via satellite?

i. If so, can your system be operated remotely (e.g., from a GCS not collocated with the aircraft’s (i.e. not on the host cutter))?

b. Do you have a DAA system to deconflict airspace?

ii. If so, is your solution authorized for use within the National Airspace System?

iii. If Yes, can you provide a copy of that authorization?

c. If you do not have an onboard DAA solution, what other methods can you employ to deconflict the airspace around the host cutter if the cutter does not have an organic airspace surveillance radar?

8. System Capabilities:

a. Does your system have Defensive capabilities? If so, please describe.

b. Does your system have Anti-jamming capabilities? If so, please describe.

c. Does your system have an alternative navigation system to supplement and/or back-up the primary navigation system in the event of equipment failure, jamming or outage?

d. Does your system have Counter-UAS technology? If so, please describe.

What spectrum is required to operate the system?

e. Does your system have existing spectrum management authorization with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Telecommunications and Information Administration through DHS or DoD contracts?

9. Ground Control Station :

a. Does your GCS have a periodic upgrade schedule? If so, how often are new capabilities and integration of sensors introduced for operational use?

b. Does your GCS use OEM proprietary software?

c. What are the interconnection requirements for your GCS?

d. Are there restrictions or limitations to GCS configuration/operation?

e. Does your GCS have a full motion video Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination capability? If so, based on what standards?

(Example: IEEE, JICD, ICD)

f. Does your GCS have Human-machine teaming capabilities to reduce and improve operator fatigue?

g. What is the footprint of your GCS?

h. Does the GCS need to be co-located with the UAS for launch or recovery?

i. Is your UAS ground control station capable of being remotely accessed?

j. Does your system have remote security capabilities (e.g. remote wipe or lock)?

10. Authority to Operate (ATO) and Security:

a. Does your system currently have an ATO on a Government network (DoD or DHS)? If so, please share details and references.

b. Is your system Blue UAS certified through a DoD or DHS partner?

c. Please confirm your UAS solution complies with all aspects of H.R.2670 -

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

a. Specifically, sections that pertain to the American Security Drone

Act of 2023.

11. System Reliability and Maintainability:

a. Please provide a system reliability rating for operations in the maritime environment. Are there long lead times for repair parts?

12. Data Tracking and Analytics:

a. Please describe methods used to track data and analytics for your system.

What data products are available to the customer to make informed, data-driven decisions?

13. System Design and Architecture:

a. Does your system have a modular AV design to accommodate rapid repair and replacement of AV components under operational conditions?

b. Does your system have a modular, non-proprietary, ethernet-based payload interface and infrastructure that supports user configurable payloads and the ability to quickly swap between them?

c. Does your system design and infrastructure support Command and Control (C2) and data link encryption?

d. Does your system have “Open Architecture” control and payload software that allows modification by the Government?

e. Is your system expeditionary in design and deployment?

14. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and Configuration Management:

a. Are you CMMI certified? If so, to what level?

b. What is your engineering drawing management and part number process?

c. What is your qualification method for re-identifying parts when changes are made?

d. How do you relate part number changes to the serial numbers of the deliverable item?

e. How do you manage item modifications?

f. How do you inform your own personnel and customers of changes to your product?

g. If a component that is supplied to the customer as a spare part is being changed, how and when is the customer notified?

h. Do you employ a formal change review process?

i. Do you operate a change control board or a Material Review Board?

j. Do you actively manage diminishing manufacturing sources and obsolescence of critical components on your system, and how?

k. How do you assure the currency, integrity, and consistency of:

i. Material Specifications?

ii. Drawings?

iii. Indentured Lists?

iv. Parts Lists?

v. Service Manuals?

vi. Operating Manuals?

l. What is your release procedure for documentation?

m. Do you apply serial numbers and/or lot numbers to your products? How are they assigned and marked?

n. Do you ever install refurbished components in your products?

i. If so, from where are refurbished components sourced?

ii. How are they certified?

o. If a product line is dropped, when is a customer notified? What options are offered to the customer?

15. Cybersecurity:

a. Is your system cyber-hardened? If so, does it:

i. Have the ability to meet all USCG/DHS/DoD/Intelligence Community cybersecurity requirements (system, components, software, etc.)?

ii. Have a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification certification? If so, what level?

iii. Have Cyber-hardened, protected C2 links? If so, what technology is used?

iv. Have a GCS with secure Cloud capabilities? If so, please elaborate (Example: Amazon Web Services, Azure, Oracle, Google).

v. Have an Impact Level certification? If so, what level?

vi. Have a cybersecurity Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan? If so, please describe.

vii. Have a completed independent verification and validation scan? If so, please share details and references.

viii. Have a completed Penetration Test? If so, was it conducted by a DoD or DHS agency?

ix. Receive periodic security patches and software upgrades? If so, what is the periodicity of the security patches and software updates?

x. Follow Supply Chain Risk Management practices? If so, are they applied to chipsets in the system?

16. System Description and Launch/Recovery:

a. Please provide a description of your system, including:

i. The elements of your system, including number of aircraft, all launch and recovery equipment available with your system, special test and maintenance equipment, cutter-based antennas, control stations, and other essential items or assemblies.

ii. Aircraft performance capabilities:

a) Airspeed (minimum, maximum, cruise, and dash speeds)

b) Aircraft’s service ceiling

c) Ability to operate in rainfall

d) Aircraft endurance

e) Aircraft range

iii. How many personnel will be required to support your system onboard a host cutter for up to a 120-day maritime deployment operating at 12 continuous flight hours per day?

iv. Does your system have an ability to operate in icing conditions? If so, what are your anti-icing capabilities?

v. What shipboard vibrations requirements do your system meet?

b. Please describe your aircraft’s launch and recovery system:

i. If vertical takeoff and land:

a) Describe the launch and recovery process.

b) How large of an area is required for takeoff and landing?

c) Are pods or other adapters used to assist with launch and recovery?

d) If battery power is used, how many wave-off attempts are available? Describe the approximate flight time available on battery power.

e) Have you operated in dynamic maritime environments involving pitch, roll, and heave? If so, how does the system compensate for these motions?

ii. Does it need additional equipment to launch and recover? If so, please describe the launch and recovery process.

17. Human Systems Integration/Human Factors:

a. What types of training systems (e.g., instructors, curriculum, manuals, desktop trainers, interactive courseware, and maintenance mock-ups) are available to support your system?

b. Have you validated the proposed training with user testing? If so, please describe.

18. Battery Management:

a. Does your system use lithium chemistry batteries?

a. Please describe the type of batteries and total system wattage.

b. Have you modified or repackaged the batteries in any way from their original configuration?

c. Does your system have a Naval Sea Systems Command safety certification for shore- and/or sea-based ship use? If Yes, provide a copy.

d. Describe your battery management process (storage, charging, disposal).