DASA plans Phase 2 of UK Air Defence competition

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is looking for innovations to permit the coexistence of future offshore windfarms alongside UK Air Defence surveillance systems.

The Windfarm Mitigations for UK Air Defence Phase 2 competition is interested in ideas such as alternative technologies that could; reduce radar clutter caused by offshore windfarms, ensure intruder detection in the vicinity of offshore windfarms and fill or remove gaps in radar coverage created by windfarms.

A total of up to £3.6m is available, intended to fund a number of contracts of up to £600K each, on behalf of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Stratefy (BEIS) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and in partnership with the Royal Air Force (RAF), the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).

DASA have stated that it is not compulsory to have been involved in Phase 1 of this competition to apply for Phase 2, however, they do encourage applicants to be aware of the previous competition and the bids that were funded. It is anticipated that work for this phase will reach higher maturity than work funded in Phase 1.

For more information about this Phase, please see the competition document.

For this phase, DASA are encouraging collaboration between suppliers and have offered a short survey to collect details of suppliers who wish to explore collaboration possibilities. This list will then be circulated to all those who have signed up on a weekly basis.

The competition will close at midday BST on 17 June 2021.