Recoverable sUAS Request for Information

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 70RSAT26RFI000030

DHS Drone Development Program
Recoverable Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Frontline Operational Awareness and Surveillance Missions
NOTE: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes. This RFI shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a Request for Quotations or Proposals. No solicitation document exists, and the Government may or may not issue a formal solicitation as a result of the responses received to this RFI. Responses to this RFI are voluntary. The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Any information received will become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or sensitive information. The Government’s explicit intent, in this RFI, is to not receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905. The Government’s constraint does not in any way relieve contractors from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data.
The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

BACKGROUND

DHS Components conduct a wide range of operational missions that may benefit from rapidly deployable, recoverable sUAS capabilities. These missions may include border surveillance, tactical law enforcement overwatch, search and rescue, perimeter and facility security, disaster assessment, maritime or littoral awareness, and critical incident response. DHS seeks information on complete small multirotor systems that can be operated by trained or certified UAS operators in field conditions. The desired system should be simple, intuitive, lightweight, recoverable, reusable, and capable of providing timely operational video or imagery. DHS anticipates that any future acquisition may support DHS-wide ordering, potentially through