The bilateral challenge is the latest commercial sector opportunity under INDUS X, the India-U.S. defense acceleration ecosystem
Mountain View, Calif.(Nov. 14, 2024) – The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in partnership with the U.S. Space Forces-Indo-Pacific (USSPACEFOR-INDOPAC), the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications, & Processing Lab (SDA TAP Lab), and India’s Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) is offering up to $150,000 USD to selected companies as part of the Dual Horizons: U.S.-India Satellite Tracking Challenge. The challenge seeks solutions to detect and track satellites in contested environments in Low Earth orbit (LEO).
Building on key bilateral accomplishments over the past year, the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) is advancing an ambitious cooperative agenda to further integrate U.S. and Indian defense innovation bases, and catalyze investment in dual use technologies with critical national security applications in the defense, space, and intelligence sectors through a new strategic partnership. This third challenge with IDEX seeks to identify companies capable of developing algorithms to dynamically track satellites attempting to evade detection in near real-time over the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. “This challenge will help both governments to identify best-of-breed technologies that our militaries need to maintain advantage in the space domain,” said DIU Deputy Director for Strategy, Policy, and National Security Partnerships Ms. Aditi Kumar. “We are pleased to launch this challenge with India to tap into both the Indian and U.S. tech ecosystems and continue strengthening our defense innovation relationship.”
"Tapping into the technological advancements from our partners and allies gets us closer to the critical integration of our efforts in the space domain," said Steve Butow, director of DIU's space portfolio. "More broadly, our efforts to grow the space industrial base continues to be a priority."
Dual Horizons: U.S.-India Satellite Tracking Challenge Details
The challenge is open through Jan. 9, 2025.
U.S. owned and operated companies; OR India owned and operated companies. Companies should be at early-mid stage and considered non-traditional (as defined in the 2023 DoD Other Transactions Guide) to be eligible.
Proposed solutions should aim to dynamically track satellites attempting to evade detection in near real-time over the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. A static dataset will be provided for experimentation. An API will also be provided to allow companies to query for near-real time data with both temporal and spatial filters.
Companies may apply to the challenge here: Dual Horizons: U.S. - India Satellite Tracking Challenge
Winners will be awarded part of the $150,000 USD prize pool.
An information session will be held Dec. 4, 2024.
Final pitch event will be held virtually in February 2025.