N0001425SBC04 Amendment 006.pdf

N0001425SBC04 Amendment 006

BAA Call N0001425SBC04 Amendment 006

Special Program Announcement for Office of Naval Research

Research Opportunity:

Ocean Explorer (OEX) Large Underwater Vehicle Demonstrator

The purpose of this amendment is to reflect the following changes to BAA Call

N0001425SBC04:

1. Update Attachment 4 “Detailed Proposal Information”

2. To provide Answers to the Questions received. Please see Attachment 5

All revisions made by this amendment are denoted by red text.

Approved, DCN# 2026-1-22-1905 01/29/2026

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release: distribution is unlimited. 1 of 6

I. INTRODUCTION

This announcement describes a technology area, titled Ocean Explorer (OEX) Large Underwater Vehicle Demonstrator under the N0001425SB001, Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology which can be found at https://www.onr.navy.mil/work-with-us/funding-opportunities/announcements. The submission of proposals, their evaluation and the placement of research contracts or agreements will be carried out as described in the above Long Range Broad Agency Announcement.

The purpose of this announcement is to focus scientific community attention on: 1) the area to be studied; and 2) Industry Days for dialogue among those interested in this technical area and (3) the planned timetable for the submission of white papers and full proposals.

II. TOPIC DESCRIPTION

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) seeks potential performers who are interested in pursuing the rapid design, build, and testing of OEX, an ultra-large autonomous undersea vehicle capable of conducting extended ocean scale missions while carrying a large modular payload. Innovation is sought both in terms of ultra-large undersea vehicle technology and in rapid prototype design and fabrication. The BAA Call initially seeks white papers followed by a full costed proposal covering an OEX “Preliminary Design” phase (Phase 1A) with a “Detailed Design” option (Phase 1B). The purpose of the OEX Preliminary Design is to establish the technical feasibility of the vehicle (with a payload module) and to lay out the operational and maintenance infrastructure required to support a hypothetical OEX “squadron”.

OEX “Preliminary Design” will include design details for: 1) an objective operational vehicle (“Production Vehicle”) with a fully operational payload module; and 2) a modified vehicle (“Prototype Vehicle”) in which the payload module is replaced by a “dummy” module with no payloads.

ONR seeks to address critical operational needs while significantly advancing the state of the art for uncrewed undersea vessels (UUV) from both performance and manufacturing capability. Specific program objectives, strategic goals, performer participation, and technology transition opportunities were presented during Industry Days hosted at ONR in the Washington, DC metro area.

III. WHITE PAPER SUBMISSION

Although not required, white papers are strongly encouraged for all offerors seeking funding.

Each white paper will be evaluated by the Government to determine whether the technology advancement proposed appears to be of particular value to the Department of the Navy. Initial Government evaluations and feedback will be issued via e-mail notification from the Technical Point of Contact. The initial white paper appraisal is intended to give entities a sense of whether their concepts are likely to be funded.

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Due to compilation, Q&A summary document from Industry Days will be considered as GFI.

This topic contains GFI that are classified (including the Q&A summary document from Industry days). Interested parties with appropriate Facility Security Clearance (FLC) should submit their request using the instructions in Attachment 3 OEX Memo no later than 1 August 2025.

Detailed Full Proposal (Technical and Cost volumes) will be subsequently encouraged from those Offerors whose proposed technologies have been identified through the above referenced e-mail as being of “particular value” to the Government. However, any such encouragement does not assure a subsequent award. Full Proposals may also be submitted by any offeror whose white paper was not identified as being of particular value to the Government or any offeror who did not submit a white paper.

For white papers that propose efforts that are considered of particular value to the Navy but either exceed available budgets or contain certain tasks or applications that are not desired by the Navy, ONR may suggest a full proposal with reduced effort to fit within expected available budgets or an effort that refocuses the tasks or application of the technology to maximize the benefit to the Navy.

White papers should not exceed 5 single-sided pages, exclusive of cover page, references, and resume of principal investigator, and should be in 12-point Times New Roman font with margins not less than one inch. White papers shall be in Adobe PDF format (preferred) or in Microsoft Word format compatible with at least Microsoft Word 2016.

The 5-page body of the white paper should include the following information:

Technical Concept: A description of the technology innovation and technical risk areas such as o Identification of key technical challenges encompassing both design and fabrication of the “Production” vehicle able to achieve the program performance goals.

o Proposed technical approach to address technical challenges o Large undersea vehicle and systems design team experience and expertise o Knowledge of DoD communications protocols and systems, existing and planned, and experience in the design of antenna systems applicable to the OEX mission and environment.

o Software development experience and expertise encompassing autonomous mission execution, vehicle control, navigation, communications, and payload system operation.

o Large undersea vehicle fabrication, mission system integration, and testing experience and expertise to include relevant facilities, tools, and infrastructure along with examples of successfully executed programs of similar scale and complexity

Future Naval Relevance (where applicable) – A description of potential Naval relevance and contributions of the effort to the agency’s specific mission.

Operational Naval Concept (where applicable) – A description of the project objectives, the concept of operation for the new capabilities to be delivered, and the expected

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Operational Utility Assessment Plan (where applicable) – A plan for demonstrating and evaluating the operational effectiveness of the Offeror’s proposed products or processes in field experiments and/or tests in a simulated environment.

Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate to complete the preliminary and detailed design for the “Production” vehicle, “Prototype” vehicle and Payload Module.

A resume(s) of the principal investigator and its team with Large undersea vehicle and systems design experience and expertise should also be included after the 5- page body of the white paper.

White papers must be submitted through ONR Submission Portal at https://submissions.nre.navy.mil/ in accordance with Section F, Submission Requirements and Deadline, Section 4. White Paper Submissions in N0001425SB001.

IV. FULL PROPOSAL SUBMISSION AND AWARD INFORMATION

Full proposals should be submitted under N0001425SB001 by 30 January 2026.

ONR anticipates that up to two (2) contracts will be issued for a total funding amount of $30M.

Full proposals for contracts should be submitted in accordance with Appendix 2 of

N0001425SB001.

The period of performance for projects may be from 1 to 3 years.

Although ONR expects the above-described program plan to be executed, ONR reserves the right to make changes.

Funding decisions should be made by 27 February 2026. Selected projects will have an estimated award date of 29 May 2026.

V. SIGNIFICANT DATES AND TIMES

Event Date Time Full Proposal Submission* 30 January 2026 1630 ET Notification of Full Proposal Selection * 27 February 2026 Expected Awards * 29 May 2026

NOTE: * These are approximate dates.

VI. Small Business Subcontracting

Other-than small businesses (i.e. large businesses, non-profit organizations and educational institutions) must submit a subcontracting plan along with their research proposal. While other- than small businesses are responsible for making these subcontracting arrangements, ONR can help facilitate prime contractor/small business contracting connections by posting to the ONR external website contact information of small businesses that have indicated their subcontracting interests and technological niche for prime contractor consideration for this

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If you are a small business and your company is interested in subcontracting activities with other- than small businesses, please provide the following information by email to the ONR Small Business Director at nrl_smallbusinessoffice@us.navy.mil with the subject line “N0001425SBC04 – Small Business Subcontracting Interest”:

Company Name and Website Individual (POC) name and POC email address Business Size and socio-economic category Brief Technology Description (no more than 3 sentences) Technology Key Words (no more than 10 words)

Note: Do not include ANY proprietary or CLASSIFIED information. This information will be posted on the ONR website under this BAA call and will be available to the public.

VII. POINTS OF CONTACT

The specific points of contact for this announcement are listed below:

Technical Point of Contact:

Stephen Schreppler, Program Officer, stephen.c.schreppler.civ@us.navy.mil

Business Point of Contact:

Leila Hemenway, Contracting Officer, Leila.k.hemenway.civ@us.navy.mil

VIII. SUBMISSION OF QUESTIONS

Any questions regarding this announcement must be provided to the Technical Points of Contact and/or the Business Point of Contact listed above. All questions shall be submitted in writing by e- mail.

Answers to questions submitted in response to this BAA call will be addressed in the form of an amendment and will be posted to the following web pages:

SAM.gov Webpage –Contract Opportunities – https://sam.gov/ ONR BAAs, FOAs and Special Program Announcements Webpage https://www.onr.navy.mil/work-with-us/funding-opportunities/announcements.

Questions regarding Full Proposals should be submitted NLT two weeks before the dates recommended for receipt of White Papers and/or Full Proposals. Questions after this date may not be answered.

IX. ATTACHMENTS

1. Additional Information Rev 1.

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2. Questions and Answers

3. OEX Memo Guidance

4. Proposal Information

5. Q&A 1

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