Willow

Willow seeks to develop innovative payloads to conduct Acoustic Warfare to counter active surface sonars. Payloads will be deployed on “nodes” (e.g., UUVs, buoys, moored systems, etc.) commensurate with proposed operational concepts. Performers are expected to propose plans for compelling operational concepts and deployment hardware that inform design requirements, including command and control (C2). If a proposer selects a UUV-based solution, they should propose an integration and test timeline consistent with current supply chain disruptions.
Willow is a two-phase effort, with an 18-month Phase 1 Base and a 16-month Phase 2 Costed Option. Proposers must address both the Phase 1 (Base) and Phase 2 (Costed Option) in their proposal to span the execution of the entire program. At the end of Phase 1, performers will participate in an at-sea test to demonstrate their counter-sonar capabilities from a single node. The Phase 2 demonstration will be a sea test where multiple (>= 3) nodes demonstrate Phase 1 capabilities extended to a multi-node implementation. Although fully integrated solutions are preferred by the end of Phase 2, the Government recognizes that cost and schedule constraints may necessitate the demonstration of one fully integrated node, and two (or more) unintegrated payloads.