[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 114 (Tuesday, June 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38723-38725]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-14073]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
[Docket No. USCG-2016-0445]
Limited Purpose Cooperative Research and Development Agreement--
UAS Research With the University of Massachusetts Amherst
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 several
companies to evaluate small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) and their
airborne sensors, to determine their potential for use in a maritime
environment by a first responder and DHS operational components. The
Coast Guard will conduct flight testing and evaluation of SUAS under a
wide variety of simulated but realistic and relevant real-world
maritime operational scenarios, such as law enforcement, search and
rescue, and maritime environmental response. While the Coast Guard is
currently considering partnering with the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, it solicits public comment on the possible participation of
other parties in the proposed CRADA, and the nature of that
participation. 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 in 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 July 14, 2016.
Synopses of proposals regarding future CRADAs must reach the Coast
Guard (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) on or before July 14, 2016.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments using one of the listed methods, and see
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for more information on public comments.
Online--http://www.regulations.gov following Web site
instructions.
Fax--202-493-2251.
[[Page 38724]]
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 Dr. Andrew
Niccolai, Project Official, Aviation Branch, U.S. Coast Guard Research
and Development Center, 1 Chelsea Street, New London, CT 06320,
telephone 860-271-2670, 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-2016-0445 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's Research and
Development Center (R&DC) will collaborate with one or more non-Federal
participants. Together, the R&DC and the non-Federal participants will
evaluate SUAS and their airborne sensors to determine their potential
for use in a maritime environment by a first responder and DHS
operational components.
We anticipate that the Coast Guard's contributions under the
proposed CRADA will include the following:
(1) The R&D Center will define the objectives of the evaluation to
be conducted during this CRADA in a series of Assessment Plans that
will guide the execution of simulated but realistic and relevant real-
world maritime operational scenarios that will determine the sUAS'
ability to contribute to USCGC's mission effectiveness in the areas of:
(A) Counter GPS Jamming/Spoofing for sUAS; (B) Sense & Avoid Systems
for UAS; (C) UAS Traffic Monitoring Systems; and (D) NUSTAR standards
for airworthiness certifications;
(2) Provide the SUAS test range, test range support, facilities,
and all approvals required for a 5 day demonstration under the CRADA;
(3) Conduct the privacy threshold analysis required for the
demonstration;
(4) Conduct the privacy impact assessment required for the
demonstration;
(5) Coordinate any required spectrum approval for the SUAS;
(6) Coordinate and receive any required interim flight clearance
for the demonstration;
(7) Provide any required airspace coordination and de-confliction
for the demonstration test plan;
(8) Collect and analyze demonstration test plan data; and
(9) Develop a demonstration final report documenting 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 the faculty, students, and professional researchers
with the required competencies, skill sets, and laboratory facilities
to collaborate on these topic areas;
(2) Provide technically mature, flight proven sUAS, their fully-
integrated sensors, and sUAS operators. Those operators shall operate
the sUAS;
(3) Supply access to wind tunnels, engineering/manufacturing
laboratories, and modeling and simulation software to meet evaluation
objectives in determining sUAS mission effectiveness; and
(4) Provide personnel to collect data, analyze the data, and then
compile the results in a series of collaborative reports.
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:
(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 the University of
Massachusetts Amherst for participation in this CRADA, because the
University of Massachusetts Amherst has demonstrated the ability to
operate
[[Page 38725]]
SUAS in a maritime environment. However, we do not wish to exclude
other viable participants from this or future similar CRADAs.
This is a technology demonstration effort. The goal of this CRADA
is to identify and investigate the potential of the SUAS and their
airborne sensors to determine their potential use in a maritime
environment by the first responder and the DHS operational components.
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) and 15
U.S.C. 3710(a).
Dated: June 2, 2016.
Dennis C. Evans,
CAPT, USCG, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Research and
Development Center.
[FR Doc. 2016-14073 Filed 6-13-16; 8:45 am]
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