Call for innovative pitches to optimise army for littoral operations – Army Innovation Day 2024

Army Innovation Day is a strategic collaboration between the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator and the Australian Army.

Each year Army Innovation Day has a new theme that helps us explore how disruptive technologies can solve some of our most complex challenges, bolster our project pipeline and give soldiers exposure to the latest innovative concepts and ways of thinking.

The Australian Army is seeking submissions demonstrating innovative capabilities to enhance the endurance, lethality and survivability of soldiers operating in distributed littoral environments.

In 2024, Army places emphasis on ‘speed to capability’ innovations that disrupt traditional models to deliver accelerated capabilities into the hands of soldiers. 
 

Army Innovation Day at Land Forces 2024

Hosted by the Australian Army, as part of the Chief of Army Symposium 2024, AID24 will be held at Land Forces 2024 International Land Defence Exposition in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. All Land Forces attendees will have access to the AID exhibition hall.

The Challenge

Army must enhance the endurance, lethality, and survivability of soldiers in response to the challenges of future operations in increasingly complex, distributed, regional and littoral environments.

How can Army equip, train, deploy and sustain an Army of the future that is able to operate in austerity, at scale and in a technologically enhanced ways applicable to the littoral challenges prevalent in our region?

Army seeks innovative capabilities for the soldier in the following focus themes: 
 

Theme 1 - Enhanced Operational Endurance

Army seeks innovations, complimentary to and compatible with the Soldier Combat System, to enhance operational endurance and performance for the individual soldier within a Section, Platoon or Combat Team, emphasising:

• Individual (soldier portable), Section, Platoon and/or Combat Team-level power and data management solutions.
• Individual equipment and technologies that reduce the probability of non-battle and / or environmental casualties.
• Equipment and technologies which provide soldiers and commanders with data to monitor the readiness, fitness and wellbeing of soldiers and teams to inform decisions during the training for and conduct of live operations.

Theme 2 - Enhanced Tactical Lethality

Army seeks soldier-portable cross-domain-capable kinetic effectors, with capacity to disrupt and deny adversary freedom of movement in the Littoral environment, emphasising:

• Land Domain lethality overmatch imposing cost to adversary equipment, locations, and personnel with ranges from 2km to 40 km.
• Low cost, scalable, optically guided, physically controlled, and sacrificial systems with capacity to integrate and deliver current and future in-service organic-to-Battle Group (Infantry Battalion) high explosive ordnance.
• Characteristics and capacity for application, by day and night, in adverse weather conditions and across a contested electronic battlespace.

Theme 3 - Enhanced Tactical Survivability

Army seeks innovations to enhance the survivability of soldiers, emphasising:

• Individual signature management solutions for the visible and near-infrared spectrums capable of being fielded (worn) by a soldier and / or adapted to conceal mission essential equipment and weapons in the littoral environment.
• Individual signature management solutions for the infrared (thermal) spectrum capable of being fielded (worn) by a soldier and / or adapted to conceal mission essential equipment and weapons in the littoral environment.

Who can participate?

Industry and academia with an Australian Business Number are encouraged to apply.

Tenderers to this CFS must lodge one submission per solution. A solution may address one or multiple themes. Tenderers may submit multiple submissions for different solutions.

Make a submission

Full tender requirements can be accessed via AusTender

Enquiries

Any enquiries or questions about this CFS should be submitted to the email address: army.innovation.day@defence.gov.au.

Questions and answers will be uploaded as an addendum. Defence has scheduled two addendum releases for this CFS.

The Details

15 May 2024 
Calls for submissions open

15 May – 03 June 2024
Tender clarification questions accepted

13 June, 11:00am
Call for Submissions close

11 – 12 September
Army Innovation Day

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