UK Defence Innovation has opened Map the Gap (Phase 3), a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory-funded competition delivered with the British Army. According to the gov.uk notice, the call offers up to £2 million excluding VAT for technologies that can assess terrain stability and river conditions remotely, with proposals due by 12:00 BST on 16 June 2026. UKDI says it expects to support three to four proposals across the two challenge areas, with contracts running for up to 15 months. That places the exercise in the applied development category rather than a long basic research programme.
The brief is tightly defined. One strand seeks methods of measuring Ground Bearing Capacity from an Uncrewed Aerial System, allowing teams to judge whether soil and surface conditions can carry vehicles. The second seeks underwater river profiling from sensors or payloads deployed by UAS, giving forces a way to understand river conditions before a crossing is attempted. For defence suppliers, that distinction matters. The competition is not asking for a broad mobility concept. It is asking for sensing systems that can produce operationally useful measurements in two specific reconnaissance tasks.
The operational need is set out clearly in the background published by UKDI. Royal Engineer reconnaissance teams currently take these measurements in person when unstable ground or riverine environments have to be assessed for vehicle movement. Dstl and the Army are presenting remote sensing as a way to reduce that exposure while supporting quicker and safer movement decisions. This phase also follows earlier Map the Gap work. The government notice states that previous competition rounds showed clear potential for remote and autonomous systems, and Phase 3 is intended to move promising approaches further towards deployable use.
That makes the call relevant beyond large defence primes. Firms working in robotics, geospatial data, hydrography, off-board sensing, edge processing and ruggedised payloads are likely to see this as a live route into defence experimentation. Universities and specialist SMEs with field-ready prototypes may also regard it as a practical entry point, provided they can show how a system would perform in realistic conditions rather than only in laboratory settings. The official competition document on gov.uk will contain the detailed technical requirements, commercial terms and proposal format. For applicants, the immediate task is to align a submission closely to one of the two challenge areas and to explain how the sensing output would support an operational decision.
UKDI has also published a short engagement timetable ahead of the deadline. A launch webinar is scheduled for 5 May 2026 and, according to the notice, will outline the problem space and allow questions in an open forum. One-to-one teleconference sessions are then due on 13 and 14 May, with 10-minute slots for specific technical questions. The department says registration for those one-to-one sessions will open on the Eventbrite page the day after the webinar, with places allocated on a first come, first served basis. Non-technical process questions are being directed to the UKDI Help Centre.
In policy terms, the competition is a straightforward example of how Dstl and UKDI are using themed calls to pull targeted capability from industry rather than commissioning a single large programme at the outset. The emphasis is on reducing risk to personnel while improving the speed and quality of engineering reconnaissance. For suppliers, the practical test is clear: can a system collect dependable ground or river data without placing soldiers in the hazard area first. If it can, Map the Gap (Phase 3) offers a funded route to demonstrate that case, with submissions closing at midday BST on 16 June 2026.