ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEXT GENERATION DISTRIBUTED COMMAND AND CONTROL

About this funding opportunity

NAICS CODE: 541715

FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514

BAA ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Initial announcement

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE: Artificial Intelligence and Next Generation Distributed Command and Control

BAA NUMBER: FA8750-23-S-7006

PART I, OVERVIEW INFORMATION

This announcement is for an Open, 2 Step BAA which is open and effective until 30 AUG 2028. Only white papers will be accepted as initial submissions; formal proposals will be accepted by invitation only. While white papers will be considered if received prior to 1600 hours Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 30 AUG 2028, the following submission dates are suggested to best align with projected funding:

FY24 by 13 SEP 2023

FY25 by 15 Mar 2024

FY26 by 15 Mar 2025

FY27 by 15 Mar 2026

FY28 by 15 Mar 2027

Offerors should monitor the Contract Opportunities on the SAM website at https://SAM.gov in the event this announcement is amended.

CONCISE SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great potential in transforming the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and Joint Force Command and Control (C2) capabilities across strategic, operational, and tactical levels by enabling decision makers to effectively assess the battlespace, rapidly explore, create, and select the best plan, and direct and monitor forces at pace and scale in a distributed setting. This BAA is interested in exploring new and advancing existing AI and distributed C2 concepts.

By accelerating the research & development of novel AI-based and distributed capabilities to support Joint All Domain C2, the DAF can achieve a strategic decision advantage, where AI becomes a key and prevalent component to future C2 systems. With the rise of AI-based applications also comes new challenges to include the ability to effectively manage, monitor, and adapt deployed AI capabilities and effective C2 in a distributed and contested environment.

Distributed operations is a critical component of Next-Generation C2. Key to the DAF transitioning from a single monolithic C2 node to multiple distributed C2 nodes is the ability orchestrate operational processes, while optimizing for limited resources. Through the development of distributed C2 capabilities the DAF can achieve an agile, fully mobile, distributed, and virtualized C2 operational capability. This BAA is interested in key areas for advancing C2 capability for the DAF to include but not limited to development and application of AI to C2, new concepts and techniques for the battle management and orchestration of AI at pace and scale, how the use of AI by adversaries can be considered in the C2 planning and execution process and distributed and collaborative C2 to enable C2 anywhere and anyplace.

BAA ESTIMATED FUNDING: Total funding for this BAA is approximately $99M. Individual awards will not normally exceed 48 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $200K to $20M. There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount.

ANTICIPATED INDIVIDUAL AWARDS: Multiple Awards are anticipated. However, the Air Force reserves the right to award zero, one, or more Procurement Contracts, Other Transactions, or Assistance Instruments, for all, some, or none of the solicited effort based on the offeror’s ability to perform desired work and funding fluctuations. There is no limit on the number of OTs that may be awarded to an individual offeror.

TYPE OF INSTRUMENTS THAT MAY BE AWARDED: FAR based Procurement contracts, DODGARS based grants and cooperative agreements or other transactions (OT) under 10 USC 4021, 10 USC 4022 and 10 USC 4023 (previously 10 USC 4002, 2371, 10 USC 4003, 2371b and 4004, 2373) depending upon the nature of the work proposed.

In the event that an Other Transaction for Prototype agreement is…

Topic areas: General and Cross-cutting R&D, Security and Defense.

Funding amount

This contract provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• SME
• MidCaps
• Large Company
• Startups
• University
• Research Organization
• NGOs
• Public Authorities

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEXT GENERATION DISTRIBUTED COMMAND AND CONTROL is administered by Department Of Defense (DOD), listed via SAM.gov.