ASCA calls for Pitch Day 2025 asymmetric solutions

Defence’s  Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) on innovative asymmetric solutions for its Pitch Day 2025. Down-selected respondents will be invited to attend ASCA’s Pitch Day scheduled for Monday 3 November 2025 in Sydney, coinciding with the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition which runs 4 to 6 November.

The RFI closes on 8 September with respondents to be notified by 3 October.

The RFI seeks sovereign solutions from Australian industry and research organisations to the following Challenge Statements, grouped into 2 themes, Power and Energy and Acoustic Data Collection and Processing.

Theme 1 – Power and Energy – seeks innovative solutions on energy sources for deployable and fixed sites. The Challenge Statements are:

• How might we supply assured and reliable energy that is resilient and renewable (or novel) to the deployed forces and at fixed sites to sustain combat operations? The proposed solution should be able to power a range of sensors, deployable systems and platforms, and fixed infrastructure.
• How might we deploy a scalable and responsive fuel distribution network to enable air and land operations at permanent, remote and temporary sites?

Theme 2 – Acoustic Data Collection and Processing – seeks innovative solutions on sensors, edge processing and high-performance computing for data processing. The Challenge Statements are:

• How might we collect and continuously monitor acoustic intelligence data for barrier operations using a low cost, two-person deployed systems for 120 days?
• How might we continuously monitor acoustic sensors, automatically detect and classify signals of interest at the edge, and transmit classifications with confidence for barrier operations using a low cost, two-person deployed system for 120 days?
• How might we process large volumes of complex acoustic intelligence data ashore to automatically generate data libraries and actionable intelligence?

Successful respondents will be pitching to an audience comprising senior Defence officials, potential investors and wider Defence industry and academia.

A virtual market briefing regarding this RFI is scheduled for Thursday 21 August at 11 am AEST.

As outlined in the Defence Industry Development Strategy, pitch days will allow industry and academia to present their ideas to Defence, allowing for insights into new capabilities and innovations.

Information on the ASCA Pitch Day 2025 RFI can be accessed through AusTender.