Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST)
Open Pre-Solicitation Posted
This opportunity was awarded. See its 4 award notices in the notice history.
- Solicitation number
- FA8650-20-S-1958
- Agency
- Air Force Research Laboratory Air Force Materiel Command, Department of Defense
- Responses due
- Set-aside
- No set-aside
Opportunity facts
- NAICS code
- 541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)
- Place of performance
- Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433, United States
- Points of contact
-
- Richard Bailey richard.bailey.26@us.af.mil +12554241
- Timothy Matelski timothy.matelski@us.af.mil (937) 713-9848
- Kathryn Skaleski kathryn.skaleski@us.af.mil (385) 635-7858
- Armando Campos-Ortiz armando.campos-ortiz@us.af.mil
Notice details come from SAM.gov. Updated .
About this opportunity
The Air Force Research Laboratory intends to solicit research and development proposals for the Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST) program, with a solicitation close date of March 31, 2027. This is an unrestricted Advanced Research Announcement (ARA) open to businesses and educational institutions of all sizes; no set-aside applies.
AFRL/RYW (as of the most recent July 2026 update, the Information and Spectrum Warfare Directorate) seeks methodologies, tools, and capabilities to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems—including manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles; on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems; Electronic Warfare systems; and munitions—and to protect those systems against cyber-attack. Work encompasses cyber security assessment and hardening, cyber resilience, agile platform architectures, open system architecture standards, modeling and simulation, RF simulation, and sensor performance measurement for Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments.
The Government will issue individual calls on a rolling basis, each designated as either one-step (full proposals only) or two-step (white papers followed by proposals). White papers must include period of performance, task objectives, technical summary, proposed deliverables, and rough order of magnitude costs. Full proposals require separate technical/management and cost/business volumes with detailed cost breakdowns by labor category, overhead, materials, subcontractors, travel, and consultants. All submissions must be unclassified.
Total estimated program value is $808.5 million across multiple awards ranging from $1 million to $200 million. Contract awards will be FAR-based cost-reimbursement (requiring DCMA-adequate accounting systems), Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity with multiple award fair opportunity, or Other Transactions under 10 U.S.C. 4022–4023. NAICS code 541715; small business size standard is 1,000 employees. Proposals will be evaluated on technical merit and cost realism.
Notice text
8 versions
Update #8 · Latest ·
UPDATE July 2026: Update to the Contracting POCs.
UPDATE April 2026: Minor administrative updates to convert existing legacy FAR and DFARS citations to Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) and Revolutionary DFARS (R-DFARS) citations.
UPDATE January 2026: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
AFRL/RFW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #7 ·
UPDATES April 2026: Minor administrative updates to convert existing legacy FAR and DFARS citations to Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) and Revolutionary DFARS (R-DFARS) citations.
UPDATES January 2026: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES November 2025: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES September 2025: minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES April 2025: to update technical points of contact, remove all references to the Model Contract and Section K in this announcement as these documents wil be provided with each Call, and makes minor administrative updates to the announcement
.AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #6 ·
UPDATES January 2026: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES November 2025: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES September 2025: minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES April 2025: to update technical points of contact, remove all references to the Model Contract and Section K in this announcement as these documents wil be provided with each Call, and makes minor administrative updates to the announcement
.AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #5 ·
UPDATES November 2025: Minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES September 2025: minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES April 2025: to update technical points of contact, remove all references to the Model Contract and Section K in this announcement as these documents wil be provided with each Call, and makes minor administrative updates to the announcement
.AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #4 ·
UPDATES September 2025: minor administrative update to extend the solicitation close date.
UPDATES April 2025: to update technical points of contact, remove all references to the Model Contract and Section K in this announcement as these documents wil be provided with each Call, and makes minor administrative updates to the announcement
.AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #3 ·
UPDATES April 2025: to update technical points of contact, remove all references to the Model Contract and Section K in this announcement as these documents wil be provided with each Call, and makes minor administrative updates to the announcement
.AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #2 ·
AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Update #1 ·
AFRL/RYW has a need to investigate and develop methodologies, tools, techniques, and capabilities to identify susceptibilities and mitigate vulnerabilities in avionics systems, protect those systems against cyber-attack, provide simulation capabilities required to develop, mature and transition advanced sensor and avionics technologies, develop platform architecture technologies that enable revolutionary and agile capabilities, and expand emerging open system architecture standards and approaches for existing and next-generation Air Force and DoD weapon systems in multi-domain environments. The goal is to explore new and emerging concepts related to development, integration, assessment, evaluation, and demonstration of cyber security, open system architecture (OSA), novel avionics and sensor technologies, and multi-domain technologies. For this solicitation, avionics is defined to include manned, unmanned, autonomous, and remotely piloted vehicles, on-board Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, munitions, and any equipment, component, or subsystem that could compromise mission assurance of the Air Force weapon system or tactical platform.
Attachments
Show all 14
Notice history
| Notice | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| FA8650-20-S-1958-Call-06-Simulation Environment for Technology Research and Assessments (SENTRA) | Solicitation | |
| Mission Systems Open Architecture Prototyping, Experimentation, and Demonstration (MOAPED) | Solicitation | |
| Agile and Resilient Platform Architectures (ARPA) | Award Notice | |
| Agile and Resilient Platform Architectures (ARPA) | Award Notice | |
| Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST) | Solicitation | |
| Integrated Demonstrations and Applications Laboratory (IDAL) Cognitive Enabling Technologies (ICET) | Award Notice | |
| Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST) | Solicitation | |
| Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST) | Solicitation | |
| Trusted and Elastic Military Platforms and Electronic Warfare (EW) System Technologies (TEMPEST) | Pre-Solicitation |
And 1 more award notice.
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