DARPA to Set Sea-based Electronic Ambushes for Enemies

U.S. military researchers are moving forward with a program to hide ruggedized electronic devices at the bottom of the world's oceans that when called on will float to the surface to jam, disrupt, and spy on enemy forces.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia, this week released a formal solicitation (DARPA-BAA-14-27) for the second and third phases of the Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) project to hide sensors and other devices on the ocean floor that will last for as long as five years concealed at depths to 20,000 feet.

Last summer DARPA awarded UFP phase-one contracts to Sparton Electronics of De Leon Springs, Florida, and to Zeta Associates Inc. in Fairfax, Virginia, to develop conceptual designs of a future system with the potential to launch sensors, electronic jammers, laser dazzlers, and other devices surreptitiously and quickly in any of the world's maritime hot spots.

Sparton has notable expertise as a designer and manufacturer of the U.S. Navy's airborne sonobuoys, while Zeta designs complex communications signals collection and processing systems for the military and intelligence agencies.

Sparton and Zeta experts designed UFP concepts that not only would float sensors to the ocean's surface, but also potentially launch a wave of distracting light strobes, blinding lasers, electronic warfare jammers, or other kinds of non-lethal weapons able to pop up without warning in the middle of an adversary's naval battle group.

Sparton's phase-one UFP conceptual contract was worth $177,697, and Zeta's was worth $248,004. The program's second and third phases will be for much bigger money, and could attract larger contractors. The second phase will split about $21 million among three to six defense companies. The optional third phase involving an undisclosed number of companies, will be worth about $17 million, DARPA officials say.

The DARPA UFP program envisions a force of forward-deployed, non-lethal weapons and sensors armed with propellant that hides on the ocean floor and pops to the surface when needed. UFP payloads would have communications systems that enable their deployment at standoff ranges.

“The goal is to support the Navy with distributed technologies anywhere, anytime over large maritime areas. If we can do this rapidly, we can get close to the areas we need to affect, or become widely distributed without delay,” says Andy Coon, the DARPA UFP program manager. “To make this work, we need to address technical challenges like extended survival of nodes under extreme ocean pressure, communications to wake-up the nodes after years of sleep, and efficient launch of payloads to the surface.”

The UFP system is to have three key subsystems: the payload, which executes waterborne or airborne applications after being deployed to the surface; the UFP riser, which provides pressure-tolerant encapsulation and launch of the payload; and the UFP communications, which triggers the UFP riser to launch.


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