HR001124S0023.pdf

Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY OFFICE

TTO Office Wide (OW) BAA

HR001124S0023

June 20, 2024

This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 and 2 CFR § 200.203. Any resultant award negotiations will follow all pertinent law and regulation, and any negotiations and/or awards for procurement contracts will use procedures under FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing, as specified in the BAA.

OVERVIEW INFORMATION:

Federal Agency Name: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Tactical Technology Office

Funding Opportunity Title: TTO Office Wide (OW) BAA

Announcement Type: Initial Announcement

Funding Opportunity Number: HR001124S0023

Assistance Listing Number: Not applicable

Dates/Time - All Times are Eastern Time Zone (ET) o Posting Date: June 20, 2024 o Closing Date: June 20, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.

o Proposers Day: July 31, 2024 – August 1, 2024

Special Notice (SN) anticipated to be posted by June 21, 2024 - DARPA-SN-24-51 on Sam.Gov o Question Submittal Closed: April 19, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.

o Executive Summary Due Date and Time: Executive Summaries may be submitted at any time throughout the year until April 19, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.

o Full Proposal Due Date and Time: Full Proposals may be submitted at any time throughout the year until June 20, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.

Anticipated individual awards: Multiple awards are anticipated.

Anticipated funding type: 6.2 and/or 6.3

Types of instruments that may be awarded: Procurement Contracts, Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Other Transactions

NAICS Code: 541715

Agency contact o BAA Email: HR001124S0023@darpa.mil o BAA Mailing Address:

DARPA/ TTO

ATTN: HR001124S0023

675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114 o DARPA/TTO Opportunities Website:

https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities https://sam.gov/content/home file:///C:/Users/bjmiller/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/5S4KUWMJ/HR001124S0023@darpa.mil https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities

Section I: Funding Opportunity Description

The DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) creates technological surprise and provides new options for national security by demonstrating revolutionary platforms and systems with cutting-edge technology. TTO demonstrates compelling hardware at scales that demonstrate disruptive capability with designs that reduce risk and cost by managing complexity and which can be manufactured responsively and affordably. TTO is soliciting innovative executive summaries and proposals that enhance the nation’s ability to rapidly build, adapt and sustain force structures with the following focus areas:

o Platform Innovation – Design, engineer, and demonstrate new and innovative platforms at credible scale, proving new enabling technologies that lead to disruptive systems concepts. This includes nontraditional systems engineering processes to deliver increased pace of innovation.

o Missionized Autonomy – Apply autonomy as a force multiplier to enable the scaling of massed effects for defense applications, focusing on trustworthiness, security, heterogenous platform cooperation, and one-to-many human-systems interfaces.

o Managing Complexity – Reduce risk and cost through new methods of design space exploration and high-capacity computing that provide more efficient and complete insight on system architectures, deliver visibility into higher-order interactions, and enable focused and efficient testing. This includes nontraditional systems engineering processes that promise to deliver faster design, engineering, and manufacturing of complex defense systems.

o Freedom’s Forge 2.0 – Builds on the legacy of public and private cooperation for national security to make manufacturing, maintainability, and testing processes portable, affordable, and responsive. Key elements are rapid evolution from concept to manufacture and design to support surge production. Cost awareness and cost control of the manufactured articles are included in this focus area.

o Disruptive Emergent Technology – Technology evolution is occurring at a pace unprecedented in history, so the potential for rapid technological disruption is significant.

Submissions under this heading should examine the potential for emergent technology to disrupt the tactical battlefield in unexpected or non-obvious ways. Of particular interest are submissions that identify fundamental disruptions which could provide the foundation for future DARPA programs or DARPA/TTO focus areas.

ADVANCING

Rapid Design/Build

* Includes human operators

Implications of Technology Trends

Affordable Mass*

Managing Complexity

Platform Innovation

Freedom’s Forge 2.0

Missionized Autonomy

PRE -DECISIONAL

CUI

PRE -DECISIONAL

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT F. Further dissemination only as directed by DARPA/TTO (April 2024) or higher DoD authority.

Massive global investment in applied autonomy

Advancements in manufacturingAdvances in computing disrupting systems engineering

Democratization of ISR and fires

Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, and/or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

Individual proposals are not required to include the focus areas outlined above, but proposers are encouraged to address at least one of them, and to make clear which are being addressed.

The submission should express a consolidated effort in support of one or more related technical concepts or ideas. Disjointed or separate efforts should not be combined into a single submission.

TTO recommends submitting an executive summary prior to a full proposal submission to have your concept reviewed by TTO personnel to gauge interest.

To avoid proposals that duplicate existing TTO activities or published DARPA solicitations, potential bidders are highly encouraged to review current TTO programs at http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/tto and active DARPA solicitations at http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities. Contacting TTO program managers to discuss their research interests is also encouraged. A current list of all DARPA program managers is available at http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/people. The list is sortable by topic of interest and DARPA office.

ISR = Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/people

Section II: Evaluation Criteria

Conforming proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria listed in descending order of importance: Overall Scientific and Technical Merit; Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission; Cost Realism; Schedule realism; and Proposer’s Capabilities or Related Experience.

o Overall Scientific and Technical Merit: The proposed technical approach is innovative, feasible, achievable, and complete. Task descriptions and associated technical elements provided are complete and in a logical sequence with all proposed deliverables clearly defined such that a final outcome that achieves the goal can be expected as a result of award. The proposal identifies major technical risks and planned mitigation efforts are clearly defined and feasible.

o Potential Contribution and Relevance to the DARPA Mission: The potential contributions of the proposed effort bolster the national security technology base and support DARPA’s mission to make pivotal early technology investments that create or prevent technological surprise without significant intellectual property restrictions that would impact the Government’s ability to transition the technology.

For proposals addressing one or more of the focus areas, it is important to consider and explain:

Platform Innovation – How the proposed effort determines the credible scale necessary to demonstrate the claimed technological insight, the relevance of the credible scale for potential transition to end users, and the rationale for any proposed system engineering innovations.

Missionized Autonomy – How the proposed effort incorporates or revolutionizes the state-of-the-art autonomy to build affordable mass.

Managing Complexity – How the proposed effort addresses complexity management as a driver of risk and cost for the proposed effort, drives new concepts in system engineering, and the potential contribution to transition to end users.

Freedom’s Forge 2.0 – How the proposed effort ensures that responsive manufacturing, testing, and maintenance are incorporated into the design in a way that has the potential to scale credibly and usefully in a potential transition to end users.

Disruptive Emergent Technology – How the emergent technology may ultimately disrupt defense personnel, systems, tactics, or operations based upon a rigorous, realistic, and quantitative analysis of implementation and outcomes.

o Cost Realism: The proposed costs are realistic for the technical and management approach and accurately reflect the technical goals and objectives of the solicitation. The proposed costs are consistent with the ’proposer’s Statement of Work and reflect a sufficient understanding of the costs and level of effort needed to successfully accomplish the proposed technical approach. The costs for the prime proposer and proposed sub-awardees are substantiated by the details provided in the proposal (e.g., the type and number of labor hours proposed per task, the types and quantities of materials, equipment and fabrication costs, travel and any other applicable costs and the basis for the estimates). It is expected that the effort will leverage all available relevant prior research in order to obtain the maximum benefit from the available funding. For efforts with a likelihood of commercial application, appropriate direct cost sharing may be a positive factor in the evaluation. DARPA recognizes that undue emphasis on cost may motivate proposers to offer low-risk ideas with minimum uncertainty and to staff the effort with junior personnel in order to be in a more competitive posture. DARPA discourages such cost strategies.

o Schedule Realism: The proposed schedule aggressively pursues performance metrics in an efficient time frame that accurately accounts for the anticipated workload. The proposed schedule identifies and mitigates any potential schedule risk.

o Proposer’s Capabilities or Related Experience: The ’proposer’s prior experience in similar efforts clearly demonstrates an ability to deliver products that meet the proposed technical performance within the proposed budget and schedule. The proposed team has the expertise to manage the cost and schedule. Similar efforts completed/ongoing by the proposer in this area are fully described including identification of other Government sponsors.

Unless otherwise specified in this announcement, for additional information on how DARPA reviews and evaluates proposals through the Scientific Review Process, please visit Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions.

https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/proposer-instructions

Section III: Submission Information and Format

This announcement allows for multiple award instrument types to be awarded to include Procurement Contracts, Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Other Transactions. Some award instrument types have specific cost-sharing requirements. The following websites are incorporated by reference and contain additional information regarding each specific award instrument type.

o Procurement Contracts: Proposer Instructions: Procurement Contracts o Assistance (Grants and Cooperative Agreements): Proposer Instructions:

Grants/Cooperative Agreements o Other Transaction Agreements: Proposer Instructions: Other Transactions

Specific information regarding unclassified submission methods through the Broad Agency Announcement Tool (BAAT) can be found at the following link under the section titled “Unclassified Submission Instructions.”

o Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions: Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions

All classified proposals shall be mailed via appropriate U.S. Postal Service (USPS) methods (e.g., USPS Registered Mail or USPS Express Mail) per Attachment E.

For a full proposal that includes both classified and unclassified information, the proposal may be separated into an unclassified portion and a classified portion. The proposal should use the unclassified portion to the maximum extent reasonable. Instructions for classified submissions and proposals with both are contained within Attachment E.

Executive Summary and/or Full Proposal submissions may not be made by fax or e-mail (with the exception of subcontractor submissions submitted directly to DARPA due to the presence of proprietary information); any so sent will be disregarded.

DARPA will acknowledge receipt of all submissions and assign an identifying control number that should be used in all further correspondence regarding the submission. DARPA intends to use electronic mail correspondence regarding HR001124S0023 for questions only.

Submissions will not be returned. An electronic copy of each submission received will be retained at DARPA and all other non-required copies destroyed. A certification of destruction may be requested, provided the formal request is received by DARPA within five

(5) days after notification that a proposal was not selected.

Submissions that are deemed technically identical, or nearly identical, to previous submissions may be rejected without further review.

Executive Summaries will not be accepted if submitted via Grants.gov.

https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/procurement-contracts https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/other-transaction-agreements

Due Date: Executive summaries and/or full proposals must be submitted on or before the closing date and time provided in the Overview section above. Submissions received to HR001124S0023 after this time and date may not be evaluated.

NOTE: Non-conforming submissions that do not follow the instructions herein may be rejected without further review. Submissions including profane, racially charged, or other similarly inappropriate language will not be reviewed.

Submission Types:

1. Executive Summary (ES)

Executive summaries are encouraged in advance of submitting a full proposal to provide potential proposers with a rapid response to minimize unnecessary effort. Instructions for executive summary submission are contained within Attachment A.

DARPA will respond to executive summaries with a brief statement either encouraging or discouraging submission of a full proposal. In keeping with the intent of the executive summary, these responses will generally be limited to a statement of interest (or lack thereof), rather than providing detailed feedback. DARPA will attempt to reply to executive summaries via e-mail to the Technical and/or Administrative POC identified within forty-five (45) calendar days of receipt.

A favorable response to an Executive Summary is not an assurance or commitment of any kind on behalf of the Government that a full proposal on the executive summary’s topic will ultimately be selected for award.

Regardless of DARPA’s response to an executive summary, proposers may submit a full proposal. DARPA will review all conforming full proposals submitted using the published evaluation criteria and without regard to any comments resulting from the review of an executive summary.

2. Full Proposal (FP)

Specific instructions and templates for the submittal of full proposals are provided in Attachments B, C, and D. DARPA will review all conforming proposals using the evaluation criteria in Section II. Non-conforming proposals may be rejected without review.

After the evaluation of a proposal is complete, the proposer will be notified that (1) the proposal has been selected, in whole or in part, for funding pending negotiations, or (2) the proposal has not been selected. DARPA will attempt to send these notifications via e-mail to the Technical and/or Administrative POC identified on the proposal coversheet within sixty

(60) calendar days of receipt.

Section IV: Special Considerations

This announcement, stated attachments, and websites incorporated by reference constitute the entire solicitation. In the event of a discrepancy between the announcement, attachments, or websites, the announcement shall take precedence.

All responsible sources capable of satisfying the ’Government’s needs, including both U.S.

and non-U.S. sources, may submit an executive summary and/or a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses and Minority Institutions are encouraged to submit proposals and/or team with others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this announcement will be set aside for these organizations’ participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities. Non-U.S. organizations and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary nondisclosure agreements, security regulations, export control laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances.

As of the time of publication of this solicitation, all proposal submissions are anticipated to be unclassified.

Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs), and Government entities interested in proposing to this BAA should first contact the Agency Point of Contact (POC) listed in the Overview section prior to the due date to discuss eligibility. Complete information regarding eligibility can be found at Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions.

As of the date of publication of this solicitation, the Government expects that program goals as described herein may be met by proposed efforts for fundamental research and non-fundamental research. Some proposed research may present a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems or manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to defense. Based on the anticipated type of proposer (e.g., university or industry) and the nature of the solicited work, the Government expects that some awards will include restrictions on the resultant research that will require the awardee to seek DARPA permission before publishing any information or results relative to the program. For additional information on fundamental research, please visit Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions.

Proposers should indicate in their proposal whether they believe the scope of the research included in their proposal is fundamental or not. While proposers should clearly explain the intended results of their research, the Government shall have sole discretion to determine whether the proposed research shall be considered fundamental and to select the award instrument type. Appropriate language will be included in resultant awards for non-fundamental research to prescribe publication requirements and other restrictions, as appropriate. This language can be found at Proposer Instructions and General Terms and Conditions.

https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/proposer-instructions https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/proposer-instructions https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/proposer-instructions https://ddmdraft.darpa.mil/work-with-us/proposer-instructions

For certain research projects, it may be possible that although the research to be performed by a potential awardee is non-fundamental research, its proposed sub-awardee’s effort may be fundamental research. It is also possible that the research performed by a potential awardee is fundamental research while its proposed sub-awardee’s effort may be non-fundamental research. In all cases, it is the potential awardee’s responsibility to explain in its proposal which proposed efforts are fundamental research and why they should be considered fundamental research.

DARPA’s Fundamental Research Risk-Based Security Review Process (formerly Countering Foreign Influence Program (CFIP)) is an adaptive risk management security program designed to help protect the critical technology and performer intellectual property associated with DARPA’s research projects by identifying the possible vectors of undue foreign influence. The DARPA team will create risk assessments of all proposed Senior/Key Personnel on proposals selected for negotiation of a fundamental research grant or cooperative agreement award. The risk assessment process will be conducted separately from the DARPA scientific review process and adjudicated prior to the final award. For additional information on this process, please visit Proposer Instructions: Grants/Cooperative Agreements.

Per Section 8123 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235), all grant awards must be posted on a public website in a searchable format. To comply with this requirement, proposers requesting grant awards must submit a maximum one (1) page abstract that may be publicly posted and explains the program or project to the public. The proposer shall sign the bottom of the abstract confirming the information in the abstract is approved for public release. Proposers are required to provide both a signed PDF copy, as well as an editable (e.g., Microsoft Word) copy. Abstracts contained in grant proposals that are not selected for award will not be publicly posted.

Proposals could potentially include Human Subjects Research (HSR) and/or Animal Use.

Proposers that anticipate involving human subjects or animals in the proposed research must comply with the approval procedures detailed at Human Subjects and Animal Subjects Research, to include providing the information specified therein as required for proposal submission.

DARPA has streamlined our Broad Agency Announcements and is interested in your feedback on this new format. Please send any comments to DARPAsolicitations@darpa.mil https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/grant-cooperative-agreements https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/humanresearch https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/humanresearch mailto:DARPAsolicitations@darpa.mil

Section V: BAA Attachments o (required if submitting an Executive Summary Attachment A: Executive Summary

Instructions o (required if submitting a Proposal) Attachment B: Proposal Instructions and Volume I

Template (Technical and Management) o (required if submitting a Proposal) Attachment C: Proposal Instructions and Volume

II Template (Cost) o (required if submitting a Proposal) Attachment D: MS ExcelTM DARPA Standard

Cost Proposal Spreadsheet o (informational) Attachment E: Classified Submission Instructions o (informational/resources) Attachment F: Helpful Proposer Resources