Defence to begin accepting applications for first-ever "sandbox" project

“We provide the drones, you detect and defeat them." That's the message of the Department of National Defence's first-ever "sandbox" project, which seeks working prototypes and demonstration-ready solutions for countering unmanned aerial systems. A call for applications will be announced next week.

Offered through the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program, now in the second year of its 20-year lifespan, the sandbox initiative is open to all innovators except federal government. IDEaS plans to run multiple sandboxes per year through the duration of its funding, said Tom Hughes, manager of Innovation Exploitation at Defence Research and Development Canada, in conversation with RE$EARCH MONEY.

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Scheduled for September, 2019 at the DRDC Experimental Proving Ground at the CF Base in Suffield, Alberta, the Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems sandbox will provide successful applicants cost-sharing for travel, a free test environment, and drone targets to defeat and potentially destroy. The sandbox also presents an opportunity for participants to demonstrate working technology and receive "unofficial observational feedback" from potential end-users at Defence, says Hughes. "It's their demonstration to us, it's not our evaluation of their product."

Defence has designed around 20 different scenarios for the two-week sandbox period, ranging from threat detection to directly combatting attacking drones. Attendance and successful testing during the sandbox won't lead automatically to procurement. "After the sandbox, we both go our separate ways," Hughes explains. "But you've informed us what's available, and by default that influences and informs what the military wants to do."

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