NtF BAA Industry Day Announcement for SAM.docx

Networking the Fight BAA Industry Day Announcement

The Air Force Research Laboratory/Information Directorate will be conducting an Industry Day on 15 February 2024 regarding Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) FA8750-24-S-7002 for the Networking the Fight (NtF) program. The purpose of this meeting is to provide interested companies/entities with an overview of the problem space that the NtF program is addressing. This meeting is being held to discuss specific areas of interest, promote an early exchange of information, and provide an opportunity for both the Government and Industry to gather more information prior to the submission of white papers in support of the upcoming Broad Agency Announcement on SAM.gov.

A general session will be held from 0900 to 1200. The remaining time (1300-1700) will be utilized for individual private breakout meetings with AFRL. If necessary, attendees may be asked to schedule the private breakout meetings the following day 16 February 2024.

The Industry Day session will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. Registration for this event is required and can be done at: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/084c2d9969574d4db8cd193e2c7cb20b Registration must be submitted no later than 9 February 2024 via the above link. Registration submissions using the above link will not be accepted after 11:59PM on 9 February 2024.

The attendance roster will be released to all attendees who consented to their information being shared after the conclusion of the event.

The Industry Day will be unclassified and open to DoD contractor personnel who are US Citizens only and limited to two individuals per CAGE code. All attendees will be required to present two forms of government issued identification (e.g., driver’s license, birth certificate, passport) or CAC card upon entry to the event. All attendees are required to submit a US Citizenship Verification form (available for download at the registration website) to attend this meeting.

Note: This announcement is not a contract, request for proposal, a promise to contract, or a commitment of any kind. The Government will not assume liability for costs incurred by any attendee for presentations, marketing efforts or data offered for examination.

DESCRIPTION:

The Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York, seeks innovative research proposals aimed at enhancing information sharing flexibility at the tactical edge. The focus of this research is to enable secure movement of information across security domains, and over encrypted "red-black" boundaries, spanning heterogeneous networks. This research will develop capability to transmit and manage information flows seamlessly across various physical domains, including air, space, and ground. By integrating these technologies, the goal is to strengthen information sharing and collaboration in tactical environments, ultimately enhancing mission success.

The over-arching strategy of this BAA is to quickly and efficiently execute research and development to deliver practical solutions to urgent problems. These efforts are anticipated to entail rapidly establishing a modeling and simulation (M&S) testbed and integrating existing and new technologies into the M&S framework to provide field testable, functional prototypes of solutions to military problems in three (3) major focus areas:

Technical Area 1 - Next Generation Cross Domain Solution: This is a broker service that provides a discoverable, reconfigurable Cross Domain Solution (CDS) framework that meets throughput and latency requirements for tactical deployment at scale and supporting network Quality of Service (QoS). This effort does not seek to develop a new CDS, but rather enable key capabilities with National Cross Domain Strategy and Management Office (NCDSMO) baseline CDSs.

Technical Area 2 – Highly Dynamic Red/Black Networking: This will provide the ability to pass metadata from the red side to the black side enabling the black network to make routing decisions and provide resilient forwarding over black networks. The red network is characterized by segmentation, and the black network must be “stitched” together. Today visibility across red -black boundaries poses a variety of S&T challenges.

Technical Area 3 – Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis (MS&A): This Technical Area will establish a non-proprietary multi-vendor MS&A Testbed. The scope will specifically be focused on: development and integration of digital models that implement Technical Area 1 & 2 designs, models for end-to-end ground/air/space nodes representing mission thread scenarios and conduct analyses and assess performance across mission scenarios with and without NtF capability. Technical Area 3 offeror must propose to develop the Technical Area 1 & 2 functional digital models. However, the government may opt to select Technical Area 1 or Technical Area 2 offerors to produce the digital models for Technical Area 3 integration. Teaming between offerors across Technical Areas is encouraged to achieve this objective.

Networking the Fight (NtF) will develop software-defined, modular extensible technology, which can be hosted on Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) constrained platforms. Providers will possess the abilities to analyze, design, develop, produce, test, and sustain the identified capabilities.

BAA Manager:

Capt. Niko Petrocelli

AFRL/RIGD

525 Brooks Rd Rome, NY 13441-4505 Email: niko.petrocelli@us.af.mil