To Monitor The Arctic DARPA willing to give $4million for an Unmanned Surveillance System.
Ice melting in the Arctic has been the leading issue in strategic plans of almost all government leaders in Northern Hemisphere states. However, the remoteness of this area makes it a difficult entity to be explored or spied on.
Thus, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/DARPA officials have urged industry experts to come-up with a sensory system that can monitor traffic through this region. Officers at DARPA also have warned the agency about forthcoming threats.
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What kind of Technology DARPA looking for?
DARPA is requesting for a low-cost, unmanned, eco-friendly and rapidly deployable system. The system has to be proficient equally at identifying threats that are launched from across the glaciers, meandering under thick slabs of ice and/or flying through the sky. DARPA wants the system to be apt enough to be relied upon for launching a major military mission.
Such a system is not easy to design due to the area’s limited access to communication networks and restricted electrical grids. That’s why DARPA stipulated that the system’s sensors should be capable of operating for full 30 days without needing to be refueled.
Another hindrance in creation of such a system is that solar powered systems won’t work here as the region becomes darker during winters and 85percent summer days are also obscured from the sun.
Additionally, DARPA wants the system to be able to endure at least a drop of -85degree Fahrenheit.
A bounty of $500,000 to $750,000 cash will be granted by DARPA to one or more applicants aiming to build such a design. Moreover, the agency is investing $4million to the program initially. It began to work on developing the system’s concept back in 2012.
The Rising Pressure:
The demand for installing such a system is definitely high as Vladimir Putin, Russian President, has his eyes set on the Arctic, where he intends to beef-up military operations and lay the greatest claim ever made by any country to the seafloor.
For now, the United States is lagging behind in the critical measures required for military readiness in the Arctic like Coast Guard infrastructure or the nation’s submarine fleet and icebreakers sizes.
This new system will most likely have roles that don’t fall strictly within the domain of military missions such as inspecting drifting ice, which usually poses great threat to shipping.
Companies believing that they can build a premier Arctic monitoring system can thus, send their ideas to DARPA. Deadline is April 14, 2015. Follow @HackRead