SPH Engineering’s MagDrone R1 portable magnetometer attached to a quadcopter UAS. Photo: SPH Engineering
The Defense Innovation Unit last Friday issued a solicitation seeking prototype solutions for airborne magnetic data collection platforms that would support the development of magnetic map data as an alternative to GPS in open ocean transit.
The aim of the multi-year, multi-phase Geomagnetic Airborne Unmanned Survey System (GAUSS) project is to obtain solutions for “mature technology demonstrations that provide magnetic map data to enable operational magnetic navigation of trans-oceanic distances,” DIU said on Jan. 9.
The GAUSS initiative expects that existing platforms will be adapted for mapping magnetic data over oceans. DIU said that some ocean regions may require attritable aircraft given the “likelihood of loss, necessitating the need for both for highly-accurate and low-cost systems.”
DIU expects multiple platforms or approaches will be needed to achieve mission objectives.
Current magnetic data collection platforms are largely aimed at surveying over land and lack the range for open ocean mapping, according to the solicitation.
Magnetic navigation offers “unjammable navigation over water,” making it a desirable alternative to GPS, which can be degraded and denied on the battlefield, DIU said.
Responses are due by Jan. 22.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.