UK Defence Innovation: Map the Gap (Phase 3)

To be eligible to submit a proposal into this competition you must be a UK organisation registered at Companies House, based in the UK, and plan to carry out the work in the UK. Your organisation does not need to be UK-owned.

UKDI encourage collaboration between innovators for this competition. To support this, there is a short survey to collect details of those who wish to explore collaboration possibilities. If you are interested, please complete the collaboration survey.

Your proposed project duration should be equal to or less than 15 months. All projects must complete by end of January 2028.

A total of £2 million funding (excluding VAT) is available, with  £1 million for each of 2 Challenge areas. A number of proposals may be funded under each Challenge.

When traversing unstable terrain, Royal Engineer reconnaissance teams must assess whether the ground and riverine environments are suitable for the safe passage of vehicles via a series of measurements. Currently, these measurements are taken in person exposing soldiers to danger. This competition builds on lessons learned under the previous DASA competition “Map the Gap”, which demonstrated clear potential for remote and autonomous systems to reduce risk to personnel.

Before British Land forces can cross a wet gap or negotiate unstable terrain, Royal Engineer reconnaissance teams must assess whether the ground and riverine environment are suitable for the safe passage of vehicles; whether specialist gap‑crossing equipment or the supported force. This terrain assessment relies on a series of measurements that together provide a holistic understanding of terrain accessibility, stability, and suitability for military vehicles.

Currently, these measurements are taken in person. This method is slow, exposes soldiers to danger at the forward edge of the battlefield, and risks compromising the concealment of potential crossing or manoeuvre sites by signalling interest through the deployment of engineering equipment. Decreasing the time taken to survey a potential crossing point enables more crossing sites to be assessed, increases the pace of decision making and the survivability of the supported force.

This competition seeks proposals to develop systems toward two primary challenges.

1. Measurement of Ground Bearing Capacity (GBC) from an Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS).
2. Underwater river profiling from UAS deployed sensors or payloads.

Both must be delivered through a system of systems (SoS) approach that combines sensors, autonomy, and modular integration, allowing operators to select only the sensor payloads required for a task, and to operate at range, noting that the expectation for final deployment is to operate at a range of ca. 3km to 5km.  This modularity enables the operator to minimise platform signature and tailor size weight and power (SWaP) to mission needs.

Although the competition focuses on wet gap and GBC measurement, proposals that can evolve toward wider engineering reconnaissance tasks are encouraged. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is particularly interested in interoperable, open architecture subsystems suitable for integration with alternative platforms, ground control stations and in service systems.

Successful submissions will demonstrate a clear plan to a Technology Readiness Level (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/defence-and-security-accelerator-terms-and-conditions-and-contract-guidance) (TRL) 6 demonstrator (to be delivered in this competition); technology model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment. Proposals will be judged against their ability to:

• conduct the survey at range (with a degree of autonomy)
• output actionable information in an open and useable format that can be readily shared.
• minimise the platforms observable signature
• output actionable information in an open and useable format that can be readily shared.

The Army must cross a wide river (>50m width) as part of an advance and must identify viable crossing points. Maps are used to preselect multiple candidate crossing points and a gap crossing survey is initiated from beyond visual line of sight; several kilometres before the gap. The area may have degraded or denied access to global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The survey will:

• move autonomously to the candidate crossing points, at least 3 different points spaced across a 5km frontage.
• measure the gap characteristics described in figure 1 of the competition document.   Measure across a length of river bank up to 16m in length.
• have the option to either transmit survey information live or post-processed, to provide a trade between pace and signature management.
• offer a trade between full survey and pace (partial survey).
• return to a location designated by the operator.

The commander will use this survey to determine viable crossing points.

The above scenario is illustrative of a wet gap crossing, though the system could be utilised for combat bridging and other gap crossing or manoeuvre operations. This scenario should form the basis of the final demonstration. Whilst the proposal should evidence the potential for the system to cover the frontage described above, concessions will be made to reduce the flight envelope for the demonstration.

If you’re unsure whether your idea is in scope, UKDI strongly recommend you contact your local Innovation Partner via the Contact UKDI form. They will explore the suitability of your innovation for the competition and, if needed, advise you on submitting an Innovation Outline (a brief summary of your innovation that is used by the competition team to advise you whether your innovation is in scope for the competition). UKDI cannot guarantee a response to any IOs received after 2 June 2026.

Launch webinar: 5 May 2026

This launch webinar will provide further detail on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.

One-to-one sessions: 13 May and 14 May 2026

A series of 10 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific technical questions to the competition team in a closed forum.

Registration for these sessions will be available the day after the launch webinar on 5 May 2026, on the Eventbrite page. Booking will be on a first come first served basis.

Non-technical questions about the competition process should be sent to the UKDI Help Centre, accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

You can also contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Security & Defence team.