Cyber_Quest_25_BAA.docx

Cyber Quest 2025: Broad Agency

Announcement

Cyber Battle Laboratory, Army Futures Command

Defeating peer and near-peer adversaries in the future will require U.S. Army forces to expand the concept of combined arms to include Cross-Domain Maneuver. Cross-Domain Maneuver is the employment of mutually supporting lethal and nonlethal capabilities in multiple domains (i.e. land, air, cyberspace, space, and maritime) to create a synergistic effect that increases relative combat power and provides Army maneuver forces the overmatch necessary to defeat enemy forces. Army Futures Command seeks government, industry, and academia partners interested in demonstrating capabilities at Cyber Quest 2025 that will inform capability development requirements for Multi-Domain Operations, Organizational and Operational Concepts, and Cross Functional Team priorities.

US Government is not obligated by this BAA. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the preparation of information provided in the white papers. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any legal purpose deemed necessary. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. The information provided will be used to assess the respondent's ability to address the objectives called for in this BAA. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. This is not an announcement of an acquisition solicitation.

Contents

Cyber Quest 2025: Broad Agency Announcement

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction

Background

1.1 The character of warfare is changing as future conflicts will not solely be fought in the physical domain. The virtual domains of cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum are increasingly becoming the decisive battlegrounds of future wars. The Army is meeting this complex challenge by developing capabilities to compete and win our nation’s wars in Multi-Domain Operations (MDO).

1.2 To accelerate its modernization efforts, Army Futures Command (AFC) is conducting Army Focused Warfighting Experiments (AFWE) that provide government, industry, and academia partners an opportunity to demonstrate technologies which address MDO aligned capability gaps. AFC’s Cyber Battle Laboratory (CBL) has been tasked to identify those partners interested in demonstrating technology solutions that have the potential to address the Army’s Cyber, Signal, Information Advantage, and Electronic Warfare (EW) capability gaps at Cyber Quest 2025 (CQ25).

Cyber Quest Overview

1.3 Cyber Quest is an annual data-centric AFWE that provides capability development and acquisition communities a unique, realistic, operationally relevant future environment to inform critical capability gaps facing Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Information Advantage, and Signal operational forces. CQ is conducted at Fort Eisenhower, GA and focused on division and below echelons. The experiment will drive requirements definition, inform rapid acquisition initiatives, and support acquisition risk reduction activities.

1.4 The event brings soldiers from Army Cyber Command, Forces Command, Army Futures Command, and International Partners together to evaluate emerging Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Information Advantage and Signal solutions/technologies against MDO aligned critical capability gaps. CQ25 outcomes will inform capability development requirements for Army 2030 and beyond, Organizational and Operational Concepts, and Cross Functional Team priorities.

1.5 CBL will partner with the Army Modernization Enterprise stakeholders during CQ25 to support the experimentation of MDO concepts from the disadvantaged tactical user to echelons above brigade.

2 Cyber Quest 2025

Intent

2.1 The CBL will host CQ25 02 – 18 June 2025 at Fort Eisenhower, GA, to assess and evaluate technologies and concepts that are designed to address MDO cross-domain maneuver requirements at division and below to the tactical edge.

Focus Areas

2.2 The focus areas for CQ25 are listed below and broadly seek to address Edge Processing & Automation, MDO Decision Support and Increased Survivability. See Enclosure 1 for a detailed explanation of the focus areas.

2.2.1 Army Capability Manager (ACM) Networks and Services (ACM N&S) – Unified Network Common Transport Layer, Zero Trust Capabilities, and Tactical Cloud based capabilities.

2.2.2 ACM Electronic Warfare (ACM EW) – Collaborative Networked Capabilities, Robotic Autonomous Systems, Sensor-to-Shooter acceleration, Signal Identification Automation, EMS Deception, and Integration of Counter-small Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-sUAS).

2.2.3 Army Program Office for Information Advantage (APO-IA) – Information Dimension Analytics, AI Staff Process Automation, and Information Advantage Overlay.

2.2.4 ACM Cyber – Defensive Cyberspace (DCO) Operations, Counter Infiltration

Outcomes

2.3 CQ25 will inform requirements leading to the utilization of evaluated technologies or concepts in a MDO capable Army. Additionally, in line with a move to persistent experimentation, exploitation routes for technologies that require further evaluation at larger and more integrated Army experiments (i.e., Project Convergence, NETMOD-X, MDO Live, etc.) will be identified.

3 Cyber Quest 2025 Phases

3.1 CQ25 offers a unique opportunity for both the Army and its industry partners to learn which concepts and technologies enable a winning MDO capable force. CQ25 consists of the following 5 phases.

Phase 1: Technology Selection

3.2 Technologies will initially be selected for assessment based on a review of white papers and quad charts provided in response to the BAA focus areas. Final selection will be based on an in-person technology briefing/demonstration at Fort Eisenhower, GA. Additionally, technologies will be required to ensure data output format is in either .json, .csv, or Cursor on Target (COT) formats (see Enclosure 6). This will enable integration of technologies into the Cyber Quest network.

Phase 2: Assessment Development

3.3 Selected industry partners will work with CBL, Operations Research Systems Analysts and ACM subject matter experts to design experiments that will assess their technologies to address defined learning objectives. The team will concurrently create the assessment criteria for each technology assessment and define requirements necessary for the integration of technologies with the CQ25 network and operational environment.

Phase 3: Integration and Risk Reduction

3.4 The CBL will work with participants to integrate their specific technology with the CQ25 network infrastructure. This is done to ensure that the technology will function effectively on the CQ25 network and successfully interoperate with any other technologies that may have dependencies on it.

Phase 4: Execution

3.5 During CQ25 execution phase, soldiers from the United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), Army Cyber Command, Army Futures Command, and International Partners will assess designated technologies in support of experimentation objectives. This provides a unique opportunity for industry, academia, and government partners to gain valuable user feedback on the operational utility of their technologies.

Phase 5: Exploitation

3.6 CQ25 experiment results will be published in a technology assessment report that will be uploaded to the Futures Concepts Center FORGE database. Industry participants will be provided a separate report that documents the performance of their specific technology against CQ25 learning objectives.

4 Participation and White Paper Submission

Vendor and Academic Community

4.1 The following organizations may submit white papers: colleges and universities, non-profit research institutions, commercial firms, small business, small-disadvantaged business concerns, historically black colleges and universities, and minority business enterprises and institutions. Collaboration among vendors and academia is highly encouraged.

4.2 Vendors are not required to provide a turnkey solution for all areas of interest. Niche systems that provide a critical capability in the key areas of interest will be considered. Vendors will be required to sign a Vendor Demonstration Agreement (VDA) and support CQ25 planning and execution events at their own cost.

4.3 To participate in CQ25, vendors are invited to examine Enclosure 1: Experiment Focus Areas. Should you possess a capability which addresses – in whole or in part – the need outlined within Enclosure 1, please follow the guidance in Enclosure 2: Submitter’s Guide to submit a white paper and quad chard for review as per Enclosures 3 and 4.

4.4 AFC mandates that owners of information technology (IT) participating in Cyber Quest ensure their IT complies with cybersecurity guidance aligned to the DoD’s Risk Management Framework. This compliance is necessary to establish an environment that can deliver benefits including reliable experiment results, minimization of threats to participant assets, and successful posturing of participating technologies for future involvement in follow-on Army/DoD test venues. As a condition for selection as part of CQ25, candidate technologies during the integration phase must be able to meet basic cybersecurity compliance standards, as outlined in Enclosure 5: Cybersecurity. Staff from the CBL will be available to assist technology vendors/owners in meeting those standards.

DOD Participation

4.5 The Cyber Battle Lab, Maneuver Support Battle Lab, Intelligence Battle Lab, Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), Cyber Protection Brigade (CPB), Army Capabilities Manager (ACM) Cyber, ACM EW, ACM N&S, APO-IA, Requirements and Integration Division (RID), Capabilities and Analysis Division (CAD), the Army acquisition community (Cross Functional Teams), DEVCOM, 75th Innovation CMD and other appropriate organizations will be participating in this effort. Other federal and non-federal organizations may be invited to observe CQ25. In a move towards increasing interoperability, several International Partner Armies will also be participating.

Contractor Support

4.6 The Government may use contracted personnel to provide administrative assistance to federal employees regarding all aspects of any actions ensuing from this announcement, including the evaluation of white papers and subsequent proposals. However, federal employees will be responsible for actual reviews and evaluations. Government support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to protect proprietary and source-selection information. They are not permitted to release any source-selection information to third parties, including others in their organization. By submission of a white paper, offerors are hereby granting support contractors access to financial, confidential, proprietary, and/or trade secret markings.

5 Administration

Key Events

5.1 Key planning dates are listed below.

Deadline for white paper submissions – 20 September 2024.

Initial Technology selection and vendor notifications –27 September 2024.

Technology Demonstrations – 07 – 11 October 2024.

Final technology selection and vendor notification – 16 October 2024.

Initial Planning Conference – tentative: 29 October 2024.

Mid Planning Conference – tentative: 11 February 2025.

Technology Integration Phase starts – tentative: 18 February 2025.

Final Planning Conference – tentative: 06 May 2025.

Cyber Quest Experimentation and Execution – 02 to 18 June 2025.

Cyber Quest International Day (Cyber Center of Excellence sponsored) – 17 June 2025 Cyber Quest DV Day – 18 June 2025.

Points of contact Any questions on the submission process should be directed to Mr. Horace Carney (horace.r.carney.civ@army.mil) or Major James Harryman, British Army Exchange Officer, (james.harryman3.fm@army.mil). Questions pertaining to the BAA electronic posting should be directed to Mrs. Sherrilyn Rice (sherrilyn.u.rice.civ@army.mil) or Mrs. Symone Collins (symone.y.collins.civ@army.mil), Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Eisenhower GA, (706) 791-1812. All submission forms should be sent to MAJ James Harryman (james.harryman3.fm@army.mil) and (Mr. Jason Culver (jason.n.culver.ctr@army.mil).

6 List of Enclosures

Enclosure 1: CQ25 Experiment Focus Areas Enclosure 2: CQ25 Submitter’s Guide Enclosure 3: CQ25 White Paper Template (Required for submission) Enclosure 4: CQ25 Quad Chart Template (Required for submission) Enclosure 5: CQ25 Cybersecurity Enclosure 6: CQ25 Proposed Dataflow image1.png image2.png