DON27BZ02-NV014 TITLE: Autonomous Multi-Intelligence Acoustic Reasoning Agent for Anti-Submarine Warfare

OUSW (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI)

COMPONENT TECHNOLOGY PRIORITY AREA(S): Trusted AI and Autonomy

PROJECTED CMMC LEVEL REQUIREMENT: Level 2 (Self)

OBJECTIVE: Develop an autonomous Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) reasoning agent that fuses passive and active acoustic detections with non-acoustic maritime situational data, environmental acoustic propagation context, and platform/target behavior models to produce explainable contact assessments, track hypotheses, and recommended sensor-tasking actions; and supports deployment on an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) with constrained communications, power, and computing conditions.

DESCRIPTION: The Department of the Navy (DON) seeks development of an autonomous decision-support and reasoning capability for ASW that can reduce dependence on continuous human interpretation of complex acoustic displays and enable future distributed unmanned ASW operations. Current ASW performance is heavily dependent on trained operators who interpret passive narrowband, passive broadband, Demodulation of Noise (DEMON), and other acoustic products while simultaneously incorporating situational knowledge such as geography, bathymetry, Conductivity Temperature and Depth (CTD) data for sound-speed structure, Global Positioning System (GPS), Automatic Identification System (AIS), organic/non-organic tracks, surface traffic, tactical geometry, and expected target behaviors. This human fusion process is effective but difficult to scale across persistent unmanned systems operating at range, under intermittent communications, and in acoustically cluttered environments.

This SBIR topic requests development of an autonomous ASW agent that can ingest heterogeneous acoustic detections and associated confidence measures, correlate them with non-acoustic common operating picture data, reason over environmental acoustic propagation, and maintain multiple explainable track and classification hypotheses over time. The capability should explicitly account for confusers such as merchant shipping, fishing vessels, biologics, own-force and friendly surface ship contributions, reverberation/clutter, and geographically-dependent propagation effects. The resulting system should not be a single-sensor classifier only; it should demonstrate multi-source temporal reasoning that can explain why a contact is assessed as likely submarine, non-submarine, ambiguous, or requiring additional sensing. The approach should be modular and compatible with Navy acoustic processing and performance-prediction workflows, while allowing Navy-provided threat behavior models, environmental data, and acoustic feature streams to be incorporated without redesign. Submissions should include a description of prior sensor fusion development that will serve as a baseline for the proposed ASW fusion architecture.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor and/or subcontractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and ONR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

PHASE I: Develop a concept for the proposed software architecture for an autonomous ASW reasoning agent, including data schemas for acoustic detections, Common Operation Picture (COP)/non-acoustic inputs, environmental context, target-behavior priors, uncertainty representation, and operator-interpretable explanations. Demonstrate proof-of-concept using representative or open acoustic and maritime datasets to demonstrate fusion of passive acoustic features with disparate data features. Prepare a Phase I final report that includes a performance assessment plan that quantitively assesses metrics such as track purity, false-track/alarm suppression, classification confidence calibration, explanation quality, latency, and robustness to missing/degraded inputs.

PHASE II: Develop prototype software with implementation capability that should ingest multiple acoustic modalities, correlate acoustic contacts with non-acoustic maritime tracks, maintain multiple hypotheses, and recommend sensor-tasking or unmanned maneuver options to improve classification confidence. Demonstrate the software in simulation or replay using geographically realistic bathymetry, sound-speed profiles, surface traffic, environmental noise, and target/non-target behavior profiles. Include a transition package that documents Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), modular interfaces to Navy propagation/performance-prediction tools, model-card style documentation, training/evaluation data requirements, and a plan for integration with unmanned ASW mission systems. Prepare a Phase III commercialization/transition plan.

Work and/or data used in Phase II may become classified. Please see note in the Description.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Sensor fusion for acoustic clutter reduction supports seismic surveys of commercial oil prospecting and more general ocean exploration efforts in support of the ocean acoustics National Naval Responsibility. Understanding how to fuse ocean ambient sound in terms of its spatial, temporal, and frequency contributions as well as elucidating information about air and seafloor interfaces will provide a clearer picture of the undersea world where the Navy operates. Commercial dual-use applications may include maritime domain awareness, port and harbor security, offshore infrastructure monitoring, autonomous vessel operations, illegal fishing detection, environmental acoustic monitoring, and marine mammal or vessel-noise characterization.

REFERENCES:

1. DARPA Tactical Technology Office. "Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV)/Sea Hunter." ACTUV | DARPA
2. Sur, I. et al. "Data-Driven Distributed Common Operational Picture from Heterogeneous Platforms using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning." arXiv, 2024. Data-Driven Distributed Common Operational Picture from Heterogeneous Platforms using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning | Arxiv - DeepPaper
3. Panteli, E., Santos, P. E. and Humphrey, N. "AquaSignal: An Integrated Framework for Robust Underwater Acoustic Analysis." arXiv, 2025. AquaSignal: An Integrated Framework for Robust Underwater Acoustic Analysis
4. Shipton, M., Denona, V., Nad, D. and Diamant, R. "ShipEcho -- An Interactive Tool for Global Mapping of Underwater Radiated Noise from Vessels." arXiv, 2026. [2605.08194] ShipEcho -- An Interactive Tool for Global Mapping of Underwater Radiated Noise from Vessels
5. Spadon, G., Ferreira, M. D., Soares, A., and Matwin, S. "Unfolding AIS Transmission Behavior for Vessel Movement Modeling on Noisy Data Leveraging Machine Learning." arXiv, 2022. [2202.13867] Unfolding AIS transmission behavior for vessel movement modeling on noisy data leveraging machine learning
6. Etter, P. C. "Underwater Acoustic Modeling and Simulation." CRC Press. Underwater Acoustic Modeling and Simulation: Etter, Paul C.: 9781138054929: Amazon.com: Books
7. "ISO 18405:2017, Underwater Acoustics — Terminology Edition 1, 2027" International Organization for Standardization. ISO 18405:2017 - Underwater acoustics — Terminology
8. "National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual (NISP), 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq. 1993." https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-32/subtitle-B/chapter-XX/part-2004

KEYWORDS: autonomy, software, acoustic, senor fusion, unmanned vehicles, UxS, ocean, Anti-Submarine Warfare, ASW

TPOC 1: Stephen Potashnik
stephen.j.potashnik.civ@us.navy.mil

TPOC 2: Candace Kairies-Beatty
candace.l.kairies-beatty.civ@us.navy.mil