AMD 0003_26RA002.pdf

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers is extended. is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

(a) By completing items 8 and 15, and returning copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or electronic communication which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER.

If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by letter or electronic communication, provided each letter or electronic communication makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required)

13. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT ORDER

NUMBER IN ITEM 10A.

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, appropriation data, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority)

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not is required to sign this document and return copies to the issuing office.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print) 16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)

15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR

(Signature of person authorized to sign)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Signature of Contracting Officer)

16C. DATE SIGNED

Previous edition unusable STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 11/2016) Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. CONTRACT ID CODE PAGE OF PAGES

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NUMBER 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQUISITION NUMBER 5. PROJECT NUMBER (If applicable)

6. ISSUED BY CODE 7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6) CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (Number, street, county, State and ZIP Code) (X) 9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NUMBER

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NUMBER

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

CODE FACILITY CODE

SECTION SF 30 BLOCK 14 CONTINUATION PAGE

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Block 14 (Description of Amendment/Modification):

1. The above numbered Broad Agency Announcement is hereby amended to revise Funding Opportunity (Attachment 26-ATTACH5-C) Autonomy Technologies for Complex Advanced Teaming Operations (CATO) to: (1) clarify the review criteria and procedure for advancing to the next step applicable to each Step of the 3-Step process; and (2) provide instructions for video submissions.

2. The following language is added to Attachment 26-ATTACH5-C "Alterations from Standard BAA Process" to provide instructions for video submissions. "For all video submissions - videos shall be uploaded to the DoD SAFE site at https://safe.apps.mil Please send an email requesting a SAFE drop-off to the Government POC listed below in this attachment. Once the request is received and actioned you will receive an email/link to upload the video to the SAFE site. Concurrent with SAFE site upload, offerors must upload a one page Word document to the Solicitation module of PIEE providing video details to include: Title of the Video; include a statement that it is a summary offer submitted under BAA attachment 26-ATTACH-5C; point of contact name, email and phone number; company name and company CAGE code. This one-page submittal is required for tracking and informational purposes."

3. Attachment #26-ATTACH5-C dated 23 June 2026 is revised to reflect the above noted changes;

the 23 June 2026 version replaces all previous versions. All other terms and provisions remain unchanged.

Section J - List of Attachments

The attachments table has changed from:

Identifie r

Document Name

Document Description Reference Identifier

Date Line Item Page N umbers

Docum ent Type

Provide d Under Separat e Cover

0001 ATTACHMENT

1 - One-Step Process

BAA One-Step Process 05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0002 ATTACHMENT

2 - Two-Step Process

BAA Two Step Process 12 May

Attach ment

No

W911W626RA0020003

0003 ATTACHMENT

3 - Proposal Instructions

Proposal Instructions 05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0004 ATTACHMENT

4 - AR Risk Assessment Program

Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP)

05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0005 ATTACHMENT

5 - 26-

ATTACH5-C

CATO

Project Descriptions _ Topics of Interest

13 May

Attach ment

No

To:

Identifie r

Document Name

Document Description Reference Identifier

Date Line Item Page N umbers

Docum ent Type

Provide d Under Separat e Cover

0001 ATTACHMENT

1 - One-Step Process

BAA One-Step Process 05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0002 ATTACHMENT

2 - Two-Step Process

BAA Two Step Process 12 May

Attach ment

No

0003 ATTACHMENT

3 - Proposal Instructions

Proposal Instructions 05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0004 ATTACHMENT

4 - AR Risk Assessment Program

Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP)

05 Nov

Attach ment

No

0005 ATTACH 26-

ATTACH5-C

CATO AMD

0003_REV3

Project Descriptions _ Topics of Interest

23 Jun 2026 Attach ment

No

The following contract documents were added:

ATTACH 26-ATTACH5-C CATO AMD 0003_REV3

The following contract documents were deleted:

ATTACHMENT 5 - 26-ATTACH5-C CATO

The following contract documents Page Counts were changed:

DOCUMENT PAGE COUNTS

DOCUMENT NAME FROM TO

ATTACH 26-ATTACH5-C CATO AMD 0003_REV3 none

Attachment 5 to BAA W911W625R0006/W911W626RA002

AMENDMENT 0003

Sequence #26-ATTACH5-C (23 Jun 2026) Autonomy Technologies for Complex Advanced Teaming Operations (CATO)

Introduction

Description: The Government seeks technology offers that enable autonomy and collaborative teaming capability for uncrewed aviation systems (UAS), operating at high levels of supervised autonomy in tactical Army operations in complex air-ground-littoral environments. Complex environments in this context include littoral, maritime, and urban settings, and terrain with varying elevation, obscuration, and concealment opportunities. Assumptions for operating conditions in these environments will include denied and degraded communication and positioning conditions as well as active and dense hostile presence. Autonomy technologies of interest are software solutions for autonomous mission planning and execution, knowledge representation and sensemaking, mission oversight and decision-making, human-autonomy interface, and network management. These technologies are to be applied in the context of heterogeneous, multi-UAS operations integrated into small unit Soldier formations. Of specific interest are solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies such as large and small language models and agentic AI or other novel approaches. The intent is to lay the foundation for AI-based next generation “learning” enabled autonomy capabilities. The Government will use selected offeror solutions to inform and evaluate modifications and upgrades to Program of Record requirements. The AI-enabled technologies to be demonstrated in CATO are anticipated to be candidates for insertion into the Launched Effects (LE) Family of Systems (FoS) aircraft, the new Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (FTUAS), the existing aviation fleet and existing and planned Ground Systems.

Topic Audience:

Small Business, Large Business, Non-traditional Companies, Venture-Capital-funded startups, Academia, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities/ Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI).

Department of the Army research, Development, Test, & Evaluation (RDT&E) Budget Activity (BA):

Department of the Army Research, Development, Test, & Evaluation (RDT&E) Budget Activities (BA):

BA 2, Applied Research; and BA 3, Advanced Technology Development

Program Element(s):

PE 0602345A / Unmanned Aerial Systems Launched Effects Applied Research PE 0603465A / Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology PE 0603345A / Unmanned Aerial Systems Launched Effects Advanced Technology Development

Project:

A41 - Adv Teaming for Tactical Aviation Operations Tech AL1: Adv Teaming for Tactical Aviation Oper Adv Tech A45 / Air Launched Effects Advanced Technology

Keywords:

Collaborative Autonomy, UAS, AI/ML, Agentic AI, Knowledge Abstraction, Mission Planning, User Interface, User Experience

Budget:

FY26 FY27 FY28 FY29 Total $5M $8M $11M $5M $29M

Program Schedule:

Multiple awards are anticipated each year, based upon availability of funds. Offers in the form of summary offers (see Step 1 below for description of a ‘summary offer’) may be submitted at any time prior to the closing date of this funding opportunity which ends 36 months after the date this funding opportunity is published in SAM.gov. The Government will begin the initial round of Summary Offer evaluations on June 4, 2026 to include all submissions received on or before that date. Future cut-off dates for subsequent evaluation rounds will be published via BAA amendment as applicable.

Due to the iterative nature and pace of advancement of autonomy technologies, the Government may refine its requirements through amendments to this funding opportunity. Offerors selected for award will mature and test their software solutions through phases of development. An industry product may be integrated for assessment at a partner facility hosted by a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC); followed by integration at an industry partner’s Systems Integration Lab (SIL); and, if selected, at the Government’s human-in-the-loop Modeling and Simulation (M&S) facility and/or in Live- Virtual-Constructive (LVC) flight test activities. Industry solutions will be assessed using entry and exit criteria to proceed through each of these phases. Assessments will use operational scenarios as each Offeror’s products progress through phases of development. Operational scenarios could start simple, such as a single UAS conducting a search or rendezvous task and increase in complexity to involve multiple teams of heterogeneous UAS conducting complex autonomous functions, such as collaborative mission planning and execution, scene understanding from multimodal information, and tactical decision making / decision aiding in coordination with human team members in a representative tactical Army scenario. Specific entry and exit criteria will be established by mutual agreement between the Government and the Offeror at the start of each phase, such as:

1. Demonstrate behavior required for scenario used in phase.

2. Perform consistently without failures.

3. Allow the Government to integrate and use the product with other third party products with ease. This includes the impact of restricted rights, if any, and cooperation with other industry partners.

The ideal duration of a phase is six months or less.

Alterations from Standard BAA Process.

This funding opportunity adds an additional process consisting of three steps, further described below:

Step One: Summary Offer

Instead of a concept paper, interested Offerors will submit a summary of their proposed solution, hereinafter referred to as a ‘summary offer’. The summary offer may include no more than one page of text/graphics and/or five minutes of video. The file size limit for the summary offer is 500MB. Submission instructions for the Summary Offer non-video are the same as provided in the Master BAA for the concept paper.

For all video submissions – videos shall be uploaded to the DoD SAFE site at https://safe.apps.mil Please send an email requesting a SAFE drop-off to the Government POC listed below in this attachment. Once the request is received and actioned you will receive an email/link to upload the video to the SAFE site. Concurrent with SAFE site upload, offerors must upload a one page Word document to the Solicitation module of PIEE providing video details to include:

Title of the Video; include a statement that it is a summary offer submitted under Master BAA attachment 26-ATTACH- 5C; point of contact name, email and phone number; company name and company CAGE code. This one-page submittal is required for tracking and informational purposes.

The Government will review the summary offers and make a GO/NO GO decision based upon the following criteria: Technical merit of the proposed concept with an emphasis on feasible, achievable, and innovative solutions to achieve the project objectives. Offers who are selected to “GO” will be invited to provide an oral presentation (see Step Two).

Step Two: Oral Presentation

Offerors invited to provide an oral presentation will be contacted by the Government to schedule a time for a virtual oral presentation using the Government’s Microsoft Teams application. The Offeror will submit its presentation materials (pdf, mp3/mp4, or PowerPoint) to the Solicitation module of the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE) one week prior to the presentation date. The Offeror will have a maximum of 45 minutes to provide its technical presentation. The Offeror’s presentation must include a description of the proposed autonomy technology, https://safe.apps.mil/ how it supports Government objectives, and a draft work statement detailing how it will be developed, integrated (to include description of external dependencies), tested, and delivered (including labor hours, labor categories, subcontractors, materials required to complete the proposed work, and projected per unit cost) and data rights offered/strategy. A maximum 30 minute question and answer (Q&A) session will follow the oral presentation with the Government team asking questions first for up to 20 minutes and the Offeror team asking questions for the final 10 minutes. The presentations and Q&A will be recorded. The recording will be kept as a part of the official contract file.

The Government will evaluate the information presented and select offers based upon the following criteria (same criteria used for the 2-step process outlined in the Master BAA):

CRITERIA I: Technical merit of the proposed concept with an emphasis on feasible, achievable, and innovative solutions to achieve the project objectives.

CRITERIA II: The degree to which a defined transition path or strategy to a capability exists.

CRITERIA III: The degree to which the proposed schedule is achievable and affordable based upon the ROM cost estimate.

The review criteria are of equal importance.

Offers will be categorized into one of the following: Of Interest; Of Interest, currently not affordable; or Not of Interest.

Offers determined Of Interest will be invited to submit a proposal and if needed, a revised statement of work to address Government feedback provided during the TEAMS presentation.

The Government Contracting/Agreements Officer will initiate Step Three by sending a written request for proposal to those Offerors whose offer is determined Of Interest.

All Offerors will be notified at the conclusion of Steps One and Two of the review decision.

Step Three: Proposal

Upon receipt of a written request for proposal from the Government Contracting/Agreements Officer, the Offeror shall submit a Technical and Cost proposal in accordance with the proposal instructions contained in Attachment 3 (Proposal Instructions) to the Master BAA and by the due date specified in the request. The Government will review the Technical proposal in accordance with Criteria I-III above excluding the ROM cost estimate to ensure consistency with the oral presentation, revised (if applicable) SOW, agreed deliverables and data rights. The cost proposal will be evaluated for affordability and in accordance with the Cost/Price Criteria specified in Attachment 1 to the Master BAA. The Government will negotiate any remaining issues and make an award to the Offeror.

Opportunities for Fundamental Research

No. There is no opportunity for Fundamental Research activity for this effort. Due to the fast-paced nature of this effort, the Government is searching for technologies that are beyond the fundamental development stage.

Government Contracting POC: Devon Wolfe, devon.k.wolfe2.civ@army.mil or Laurie.a.pierce2.civ@army.mil Government Technical POC: Aaron Malave, 757-878-2542, aaron.malave.civ@army.mil

Topic Descriptions

Preferred Areas of Focus by Topic:

Autonomous Mission Planning and Execution

The Government seeks mission-specific planning functions to perform threat-informed, pre-mission team configuration and composition, and multi-aircraft mission planning and sequencing of tasks based on commander’s intent, orders, rules of mailto:devon.k.wolfe2.civ@army.mil engagement, airspace control measures, available situational knowledge, etc. Also of interest are task level planning and execution functions for command and coordination of aircraft actions and payload actions capable of dynamically reacting to changes in situational awareness (SA) information or commander’s intent and issuing alerts when execution anomalies arise.

Knowledge Representation and Sensemaking

The Government seeks solutions that implement advanced perception algorithms capable of correlation and fusion of multimodal, multi-aircraft situational awareness data for high confidence automated object/target detection, recognition, identification, and operational state assessment. Also of interest are algorithms for higher order abstractions and representations of four-dimensional SA, terrain data and mission data to include all relevant entities of interest and higher order knowledge abstractions for scene situational understanding, sense-making, and predictions that inform mission planning and mission oversight functions as well as commander’s decision making, with the ability to seek out additional data when current information is inadequate.

Mission Oversight and Decision-Making

The Government seeks solutions for decision support and mission oversight functions capable of monitoring status of mission based on quantified criteria, anomalies in execution or inadequacy in execution, and reporting by other software agents.

Solution must be able to make decisions to change course and direct re-tasking to remedy shortfalls within its prescribed authority as delegated by the commander. Solution must be able to communicate with human commander and provide decision support information as required or as requested. Solutions with predefined guardrails or contingency management options in situations where remedies exceed delegated authority and decision-making authorities cannot be reached will be a plus.

Human-Autonomy Interface

The Government seeks intelligent user interface products for functions that provide human situational understanding and keep humans aware of autonomy performance. Solutions must be able to receive operator inputs, latest threat reports, mission graphics inputs, parse and digitize orders received, and request additional data when necessary for use by planning agents. Interfaces must be able to present information from mission oversight and planning agents on their ongoing status, actions, and decision-making. Also of interest are interface features that allow human interaction with autonomous systems at any preferred level of engagement, to include direct control of autonomous air and ground uncrewed assets when necessary.

Network Management

The Government seeks intelligent network management functions capable of planning mission-specific network topology suitable to teamed mission objectives within constraints of denied, disrupted, or intermittent communications conditions.

Also of interest are functions capable of optimal communication resource allocation during mission execution, adapting configuration throughout the mission in response to changing environmental and mission requirements. Desirable functions will also facilitate integrating the team into higher echelon command and control as well as verification and authentication of connecting entities.

Design for Agility, Safety, & Security:

The Contractor shall apply systems engineering processes and design principles into the development of hardware and software solutions. These design principles shall be implemented using agile processes such as scrums and Software Principles for Development Solutions (SPDS), which are essential to incorporating safety, security, and agile requirements into product development. The Contractor shall provide the necessary engineering analysis to identify the safety and security-related impacts as applicable and recommend or implement mitigating functions or features of the system in accordance with widely used best practices to mitigate safety or security related risks. The Contractor shall provide recommendations of safe and secure operational employment of systems when required. When requested by the Government, the Contractor shall develop and implement selected functions or features, test and verify systems and establish protocols and procedures for employment of systems.

Basis of Need/Capabilities Gap:

The rapid advancement of adversary capabilities in anti-access, area, and spectrum denial pose increased survivability risks to our forces and drive the need for highly autonomous uncrewed systems at the forward edge. Current capabilities in deployed systems do not enable the speed and scale required. Advancing autonomy that employs AI/ML is an imperative. The Army is in the midst of rapid transformation with a key emphasis on the “Air Ground Littoral” space for the land domain’s role.

The Air Ground Littoral system of systems leverages advantages of both the air and ground domains, providing commanders with expanded maneuver options and the ability to exploit the four-dimensional battlespace to enable the joint fight. The system of systems is a human machine integrated formation that incorporates crewed and uncrewed ground and air systems, ground and air launched effects, remote sensors, indirect fires and fire control radars, network, and command and control systems to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic effects across the depth and breadth of the battlespace. The speed and scale required of multi-domain operations drives the need for capabilities that take advantage of AI technologies across all warfighting functions. Army Aviation, and more specifically, the Research and Development portfolio of the AvMC TDD Autonomy and Teaming Branch, aims to advance the employment of AI-enabled autonomy technologies for UAS and enable high impact human machine integrated formations. These integrated formations span key warfighting functions such as Mission Command, Maneuver, Fires, and Protection. The insertion of AI-enabled autonomy technologies must enhance the effectiveness of each human commander’s warfighting role, mission, and impact in every echelon.

Solution Guidelines:

1. Anticipated SOW Tasks: The Government anticipates that the following recurring tasks will be performed for the research topics in each phase executed over six-month cycles. However, Offerors may use or modify these tasks or create a different set of tasks when they propose.

a. Requirements Analysis (one month): Map features of the developed product to the operational scenario activities and identify functions enabled or not enabled by the product. Document and deliver this analysis to the Government.

b. Software Drop (two months): Prepare and deliver product to a third-party integration environment. The

Government will provide information about interface requirements and computing environment where product will be installed. The Government may provide test harness or additional information for Offeror to test product before drop to third party. Deliver installation instructions and user manual corresponding to software drop.

c. Update and Retest (two months): The Government anticipates one iteration of fixes to software product before repeated integration and test at third party. This task will be limited to making corrections and bug fixes to code and not inserting new features to software.

d. Retrospective & Reporting (two weeks): Conduct retrospective jointly with Government to assess changes needed for next phase. Analyze test data and assess performance of software delivered and tested. Deliver results of integration and test.

e. Next phase planning (two weeks): If selected to proceed into the next phase, plan new operational scenario and key features to incorporate for integration and test jointly with the Government.

2. Phase Schedule: The initial one to three phases are anticipated to be in M&S, with down select decisions before proceeding to additional phases in higher fidelity M&S facilities or SILs, followed by down select again to proceed to LVC flight testing, with more mature products advancing in a faster schedule. A product that meets the requirements for insertion into the Program of Record development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) environment will be transitioned to the Program Office at the earliest opportunity.

3. Government Furnished Property/Information: The Government expects to provide operational scenarios and use cases, capability descriptions of various asset types (vehicle platforms and payloads), as well as integration guidance, test harnesses, if applicable, and interface requirements for each phase of integration and test. Additionally, the Government expects to integrate Offeror’s software product with other third-party products at a partner facility or a Government owned Modeling & Simulation facility to assess performance in operationally representative scenarios.

4. Deliverables: Notional/anticipated deliverables are listed below to help inform the Offerors’ submissions. The list is not all inclusive, and additional deliverables may be identified as necessary. Required deliverables will be based on inputs to each topic listed above. Offerors may modify or add to deliverables list to suit their proposed approach.

- Requirements Analysis Document in contractor preferred format

- Software executable code releases

- Installation Instructions and User Manuals

- Test and Analysis Reports

- Software function description for safety and security review (required if product selected for flight testing).

- Software Version Description (Option if transitioning to a program office).

If product is selected to proceed to flight test phase, expect to need to submit additional documentation along with software release to describe functionality that may have a safety impact.

If product is identified as a candidate for transition to a program of record, Offerors should expect to submit deliverables in response to program office’s requirements, including delivery of software for security scans.

Anticipated benefits: Offeror solutions that perform effectively in this effort will demonstrate measurable increases in ability to autonomously handle complex and dynamic situations over baseline solutions. Autonomy capabilities enabled by AI solutions are expected to provide substantial improvements over scripted, non-AI-based solutions in the speed, breadth, adaptability, and resilience of performance. However, they must do so as trusted agents integrated in a mixed crewed-uncrewed formation and remain true to the commander’s intent and the rules of engagement.

ATTACH 26-ATTACH5-C CATO AMD 0003_REV3

CONTRACTING DIV KO, BLDG 401 VICTORY BOULEVARFD

FORT EUSTIS, VA 23604-5577

UNITED STATES

DEVON WOLFE, EMAIL: DEVON.K.WOLFE2.CIV@ARMY.MIL TELEPHONE: 7578782071

AdminBy:

SCD: PAS: