The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is accepting solution briefs for the Containerized Autonomous Drone Delivery System (CADDS). Today’s unmanned aerial systems (UAS) often require a one-to-one human-to-platform model, where soldiers must manually launch, recover, and refit each drone.
This approach does not scale and cannot meet the demands of contested operations.
DIU seeks containerized solutions that can store, rapidly deploy, and manage multi-agent UAS at scale, enabling persistent coverage or massed effects while reducing operator risk and cognitive burden.
Background & Problem
Current UAS employment depends on direct human interaction, limiting speed, scale, and safety. The Department of War needs the ability to deploy large numbers of UAS quickly while minimizing operator exposure during kinetic and non-kinetic missions.
Desired Solution Attributes
Solutions should be demonstrable within 90 days of award and built on Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) principles for extensibility. Systems should:
- Be transportable by land, sea, or air and rapidly emplaced with minimal setup.
- Automate storage, launch, recovery, and refit of multi-agent UAS while remaining dormant until commanded.
- Support both homogeneous and heterogeneous UAS and multiple power sources.
- Operate from land or maritime platforms, day or night, in adverse weather.
- Reduce operator burden through remote control, rapid setup, and minimal crew (ideally two personnel).
- Provide resilient command and control with open architecture and operator-on/in-the-loop options, including DDIL resilience.
Evaluation & Integration
DIU will evaluate alignment, technical merit, and innovation for sustaining multi-agent systems in austere environments. Commercial systems, rapid manufacturing capabilities, or hybrid approaches are welcome. Government Furnished Information may include hardware designs, software architectures, TDPs, ICDs, APIs, and modeling environments to accelerate integration.
Eligibility & Awards
Open to U.S. and international vendors under the CSO process and 10 U.S.C. §4022 requirements. Prototype awards may lead to non-competitive follow-on production OT agreements or contracts upon successful completion.
Source: DIU