Joint Challenge on Rapid Detection and Mitigation of Maritime Hazards

Context

Busy sea lanes and port approaches are critical to global trade and economic stability. In high-traffic maritime environments, a single explosive device, whether deliberately deployed or adrift, can pose immediate safety risks to vessels, port operations, and coastal infrastructure.

Today, detection of explosive hazards in the maritime domain relies largely on conventional maritime surveillance systems such as coastal radar, patrol vessels, visual lookout reports, and airborne observation. Suspicious objects are typically investigated by dispatching patrol craft or response teams for confirmation and disposal. While effective in many scenarios, this approach is largely reactive and dependent on visual confirmation, human reporting, and manual coordination.

Uncertainty alone can disrupt maritime flow, often faster than a confirmed threat as seen in recent world events in the Strait of Hormuz. As such, the challenge is not only detection, but the ability to rapidly provide confidence that routes are safe to remain open.

Several operational realities make this problem challenging:

1. Explosive hazards on the surface, in the water column, or on the sea floor can be difficult to detect due to sea/bottom clutter, rain, glare, moderate sea states, turbidity, etc.
   
   
2. Harbours and coastal waters contain significant debris, fishing gear, buoys, and other benign floating objects, resulting in frequent false alarms.
   
   
3. Objects can drift rapidly under wind, tide, and surface currents, reducing the time window for safe interception.
   
   
4. In congested sea lanes, response must occur without causing disproportionate disruption to commercial traffic.

What We Are Looking For

• Capabilities for early detection of potential mine-laying activities through identification of anomalous vessel behaviours, or other indicators of hazard emplacement.
• Wide-area detection solutions capable of identifying explosive maritime hazards in real-world maritime conditions.
• Approaches that enable persistent or repeatable monitoring to move beyond purely reactive detection.
• Reliable discrimination methods to distinguish between hazardous objects from common debris.
• Solutions that provide timely decision-ready outputs to support rapid “safe/monitor/investigate” determinations.
• Safe interception, inspection, and neutralization approaches suitable for congested maritime environments.
• Cost-efficient, modular and scalable systems deployable in port approaches, coastal waters, or on mobile platforms, supported by a transparent cost model with articulated value proposition and stated assumptions underpinning cost-effectiveness claims.

Key Metrics

• Preference will be given to solutions that demonstrate end-to-end capability or clear integration across detection, decision, and response functions under a single accountable entity.

Technology Solutions We Are Seeking, but Not Limited to:

• Novel sensor technologies or multi-sensor fusion approaches.
• AI-enabled surface object classification.
• Autonomous or remotely operated response platforms.
• Predictive drift modelling tools integrated with detection systems.
• Software platforms that integrate with existing maritime domain awareness systems.
• Technologies that improve speed of assurance and operator confidence without disrupting maritime flow.

What A Trial Looks Like

• A demonstration (of up to 6 months) in congested maritime environments where detection, classification, and neutralization can be validated under realistic operational conditions.

What We Are Not Looking For

• Theoretical research without practical and demonstrable applications.
• Solutions which are in-line or could affect the operations of the OT (Operational Technology) system.​
• Solutions which will auto shutdown or take proactive actions when faults or threats are detected.

Follow-on Implementation Cost

• All necessary cost to facilitate deployment.