[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 65 (Monday, April 6, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18431-18433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-07848]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
[Docket No. USCG-2015-0197]
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement: Unmanned Aircraft
System Demonstration for Support of Coast Guard Missions in the Arctic
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS.
ACTION: Notice of intent; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces its intent to enter into a
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Conoco
Phillips Company (COP) to evaluate unmanned aircraft system (UAS)
capabilities, benefits, risks and technical limitations of operating
UAS from land and/or off a Coast Guard Cutter in a maritime
environment. The Coast Guard will conduct flight testing and evaluation
of UASs under a wide variety of simulated but realistic and relevant
real-world maritime operational scenarios, such as ice operations,
marine environmental monitoring, marine safety, search and rescue, and
potentially other Coast Guard mission sets. While the Coast Guard is
currently considering partnering with COP, the agency solicits public
comment on the possible nature of and participation of other parties in
the proposed CRADA. In addition, the Coast Guard also invites other
potential non-Federal participants, who have the interest and
capability to bring similar contributions to this type of research, to
consider submitting proposals for consideration for similar CRADAs.
DATES: Comments must be submitted to the online docket via http://www.regulations.gov, or reach the Docket Management Facility, on or
before April 20, 2015.
Synopses of proposals regarding future CRADAs must reach the Coast
Guard (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) on or before April 27,
2015.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments using one of the listed methods, and see
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION for more information on public comments.
Online--http://www.regulations.gov following Web site
instructions.
[[Page 18432]]
Fax--202-493-2251.
Mail or hand deliver--Docket Management Facility (M-30),
U.S. Department of Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Hours
for hand delivery are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays (telephone 202-366-9329).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice
or wish to submit proposals for future CRADAs, contact LT Keely Higbie,
Project Official, Surface Branch, U.S. Coast Guard Research and
Development Center (RDC), 1 Chelsea Street, New London, CT 06320,
telephone 860-271-2815, email [email protected]. If you have
questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, call Cheryl
Collins, Program Manager, Docket Operations, telephone 202-366-9826,
toll free 1-800-647-5527.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Participation and Request for Comments
We encourage you to submit comments and related material on this
notice. All comments received will be posted, without change, to http://www.regulations.gov and will include any personal information you have
provided.
Do not submit detailed proposals for future CRADAs to the Docket
Management Facility. Instead, submit them directly to the Coast Guard
(see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
Comments should be marked with docket number USCG-2015-0197 and
should provide a reason for each suggestion or recommendation. You
should provide personal contact information so that we can contact you
if we have questions regarding your comments; but please note that all
comments will be posted to the online docket without change and that
any personal information you include can be searchable online (see the
Federal Register Privacy Act notice regarding our public dockets, 73 FR
3316, Jan. 17, 2008).
Mailed or hand-delivered comments should be in an unbound 8\1/2\ x
11 inch format suitable for reproduction. The Docket Management
Facility will acknowledge receipt of mailed comments if you enclose a
stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope with your submission.
Documents mentioned in this notice, and all public comments, are in
our online docket at http://www.regulations.gov and can be viewed by
following the Web site's instructions. You can also view the docket at
the Docket Management Facility (see the mailing address under
ADDRESSES) between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
Discussion
CRADAs are authorized under 15 U.S.C. 3710(a).\1\ A CRADA promotes
the transfer of technology to the private sector for commercial use, as
well as specified research or development efforts that are consistent
with the mission of the Federal parties to the CRADA. The Federal party
or parties agree with one or more non-Federal parties to share research
resources, but the Federal party does not contribute funding.
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\1\ The statute confers this authority on the head of each
Federal agency. The Secretary of DHS's authority is delegated to the
Coast Guard and other DHS organizational elements by DHS Delegation
No. 0160.1, para. II.B.34.
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CRADAs are not procurement contracts. Care is taken to ensure that
CRADAs are not used to circumvent the contracting process. CRADAs have
a specific purpose and should not be confused with other types of
agreements such as procurement contracts, grants, and cooperative
agreements.
Under the proposed CRADA, the Coast Guard would collaborate with
one non-Federal participant. Together, the RDC and the non-Federal
participant would identify and investigate the potential of the UAS to
contribute to the Coast Guard's mission effectiveness and determine the
utility of the UAS to support Coast Guard operations and assets at sea.
The RDC, with the non-Federal participant, will develop a
demonstration test plan and evaluate the UAS using quantitative and
qualitative measures under a wide variety of simulated but realistic
and relevant real-world maritime operational scenarios The
demonstration would be conducted both on land and/or on a cutter
operating in an Arctic maritime environment over a period of
approximately 14 days.
We anticipate that the Coast Guard's contributions under the
proposed CRADA will include the following:
(1) Develop the demonstration test plan to be executed;
(2) Provide the cutter that the system will be installed on;
(3) Determine the electromagnetic compatibility of the system on
the cutter to determine if safe flight operations can be accomplished;
(4) Conduct a Privacy Threshold Analysis as required for the
demonstration to be conducted;
(5) Conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment as required for the
demonstration to be conducted;
(6) Coordinate spectrum approval for the system to be used
(7) Develop, route, and receive an ``interim authority to test''
approval, authorizing the installation of the system onboard the
cutter;
(8) Develop the interface control document, engineering change
proposal, and technical data package as required to install the system
onboard the cutter;
(9) Coordinate and receive interim flight clearance for the
demonstration to be executed;
(10) Provide airspace coordination and de-confliction for execution
of the demonstration test plan;
(11) Develop the communications plan to be used for the
demonstration;
(12) Analyze demonstration test plan data in accordance with the
CRADA demonstration test plan; and
(13) Develop the demonstration final report, which will document
the methodologies, findings, conclusions, and recommendations of this
CRADA work.
We anticipate that the non-Federal participants' contributions
under the proposed CRADA will include the following:
(1) Provide UAS equipment, including air vehicles, land based
ground control stations, forward eyes for the cutter, and all other
equipment required to conduct the demonstration as described in the
demonstration test plan;
(2) Provide operators for UAS equipment;
(3) Provide UAS technical data;
(4) Provide shipping for all UAS equipment to and from the cutter
and other appropriate locations to be used under the CRADA;
(5) Install and remove the system and all UAS equipment from the
cutter;
(6) Provide an approved certificate of authorization from the
Federal Aviation Administration for the UAS equipment; and
(7) Required travel, associated personnel, and other expenses.
The Coast Guard reserves the right to select for CRADA participants
all, some, or no proposals submitted for this CRADA. The Coast Guard
will provide no funding for reimbursement of proposal development
costs. Proposals and any other material submitted in response to this
notice will not be returned. Proposals submitted are expected to be
unclassified and have no more than five single-sided pages (excluding
cover page, DD 1494, JF-12, etc.). The Coast Guard will select
proposals at its sole discretion on the basis of:
[[Page 18433]]
(1) How well they communicate an understanding of, and ability to
meet, the proposed CRADA's goal; and
(2) How well they address the following criteria:
(a) Technical capability to support the non-Federal party
contributions described; and
(b) Resources available for supporting the non-Federal party
contributions described.
Currently, the Coast Guard is considering COP for participation in
this CRADA. This consideration is based on the fact that COP has
demonstrated its ability to operate UAS in an Arctic maritime
environment, and its UAS's widespread use throughout the Department of
Defense. However, we do not wish to exclude other viable participants
from this or future similar CRADAs.
This is a technology demonstration effort. Since the goal of this
CRADA is to identify and investigate the potential of the UAS to
contribute to Coast Guard mission effectiveness in an Arctic maritime
environment, non-Federal CRADA participants will not be excluded from
any future Coast Guard procurements based solely on their participation
in this CRADA. Special consideration will be given to small business
firms/consortia, and preference will be given to business units located
in the U.S.
This notice is issued under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 552(a).
Dated: March 20, 2015.
Captain Dennis C. Evans, USCG,
Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center.
[FR Doc. 2015-07848 Filed 4-3-15; 8:45 am]
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