Data-Driven Defense: $8.4M Award Supports AI Enhancements for Maritime Surveillance

The University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, is awarded an $8,423,352 modification (P00001) to contract N0001424C1310 for the Precision Processing of Autonomous Maritime Perception System Data effort. This modification provides for the development of new algorithms for detecting small objects in the littoral zones, data curation to support algorithm developments, and accelerating the processing pipeline for real time edge computing. Work will be performed in Columbia, South Carolina, and is expected to be completed in April 2028. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,423,352 are obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.