Medical Extraction BAA (MED FCD): Complete Guide for Startups and Small Businesses
Below is a brief summary. Please check the full solicitation before applying (link in resources section).
Quick Answer
The Medical Extraction Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is an open call from the U.S. Army Medical Future Capability Directorate (MED FCD) for technologies that can retrieve, secure, and move wounded Soldiers out of contested battlefields without exposing rescue personnel to unnecessary risk. It is issued under the broader Army Medical Operational Capabilities for 2040 BAA, submissions are made through the USSOCOM-sponsored Vulcan platform as a Scout Card with a quad chart and white paper, and the call is open on a rolling basis from August 25, 2026 through December 31, 2026 at 10:59 PM CST. One point matters more than any other for planning purposes: MED FCD has stated that it does not currently have the resources or authorization to award or fund contracts under this announcement. This is a visibility, evaluation, and experimentation pathway, not a funded solicitation.
That does not make it low value. It makes it a different kind of asset. Read on for what the Army is actually asking for, how the process works, what it costs you to participate, and how companies convert a MED FCD engagement into real dollars from other parts of the Department.
Quick reference facts
Opportunity name: Medical Extraction BAA (MED FCD)
Parent announcement: Army Medical Operational Capabilities for 2040 Broad Agency Announcement
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Army Medical Capability Future Capability Directorate (MED FCD)
Higher headquarters: Futures and Concepts Command, U.S. Army Futures Command
Submission platform: Vulcan (vulcan-sof.com)
Submission vehicle: Vulcan Scout Card, tailored to this specific Call
Required attachments: Quad chart and white paper
Open date: August 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM CDT
Close date: December 31, 2026 at 10:59 PM CST
Submission window: Rolling and open ended for the full period, no single due date for the initial submission
Funding available under this BAA: None. MED FCD states it cannot directly award or fund contracts
Engagement objectives listed by the Government: FAR acquisition, capability demonstration, technology experimentation, market research
Number of areas of interest: One, focused on medical extraction in contested environments
Anticipated next steps for strong submissions: Virtual briefing with MED FCD, invitation to a technology experimentation event, and possible requests for a formal white paper, statement of work, and cost proposal
Award guarantee: None. Progression through evaluation phases does not imply or guarantee a contract
Data protections cited: Trade Secrets Act, Economic Espionage Act, FOIA Exemption 4, Executive Order 12600
What is the Medical Extraction BAA?
A Broad Agency Announcement is a standing government invitation for ideas rather than a competition for a fixed pot of money against a fixed statement of work. The Medical Extraction BAA is a focused Call inside the Army Medical Operational Capabilities for 2040 BAA, and its purpose is to find technologies and concepts that help tactical medical units at Army Corps level and below clear the battlefield, meaning the evacuation of the wounded, ill, and injured.
MED FCD uses the announcement to build a picture of what industry can actually deliver, to identify candidates worth putting in front of senior military leadership, and to select technologies for operational demonstration and experimentation. The Government has been unusually direct that it will amend or update its technical focus areas during the active period and may issue a separate call for follow-on white papers at any time, so the scope you see today can shift before December.
Who is MED FCD and why does this BAA exist?
MED FCD is the Army organization responsible for developing medical concepts and requirements for the future force. Future Capability Directorates sit under Futures and Concepts Command within Army Futures Command, and they drive functional transformation by shaping concepts, requirements, and experimentation. The medical directorate, previously known as MED CDID, has long been associated with the Army Medical Center of Excellence at Joint Base San Antonio.
The practical implication for a founder is important. MED FCD is a requirements and concepts organization, not a program executive office and not a contracting activity. It does not buy things. It defines what the Army needs, validates that industry can build it, and hands that evidence to the organizations that do buy things. Companies that understand this distinction write far better submissions, because they stop pitching a sale and start offering proof for a requirement.
The problem statement in plain language
Enemy action in a modern fight is expected to break the evacuation chain. Fires, maneuver, electronic warfare, and contested airspace will slow or stop the movement of casualties to a medical treatment facility. Three things happen as a result. Treatment is delayed. Consumption of medical supplies at forward locations goes up because casualties are held longer, which compounds an already strained resupply problem. And the cumulative effect reduces the return to duty rate while increasing preventable deaths.
Urban terrain makes it worse. Routes are blocked by rubble, craters, and debris. Casualties have to be pulled out of collapsed buildings. Medical units may have to interact with civilian medical infrastructure and handle large numbers of injured civilians and enemy prisoners of war alongside their own wounded.
Layered on top of that is the risk to the rescue team. Today, extracting a non-ambulatory casualty from rugged terrain or a compromised urban area usually means putting multiple healthy Soldiers into the same danger that produced the casualty, often on foot, often slowly, often within observation of the adversary. That is the specific gap this BAA is trying to close.
Detailed overview of what MED FCD is looking for
The announcement contains a single area of interest, and every requirement in it is worth reading as a hard filter on your solution.
MED FCD is seeking innovative technological capabilities to facilitate medical extractions in highly contested environments where maintaining a low operational profile is critical. Proposed solutions must be capable of retrieving and securing ambulatory and non-ambulatory casualties who cannot climb or physically assist in their own loading, which reduces the exposure of accompanying rescue personnel. The system must demonstrate high mobility across rugged, unstructured terrain while maintaining rigorous patient stabilization, and the extraction and transport process must inflict no further harm to the casualty.
The five requirements your submission has to answer directly
Self loading without casualty participation. The system has to get an unconscious or immobilized 95th percentile Soldier with full kit off the ground or out of a structure and secured, without that Soldier climbing, gripping, rolling, or helping in any way. This is the single most common place where otherwise strong robotics submissions fail. If your concept assumes the casualty can pull themselves onto a platform, it does not meet the requirement as written.
Reduced exposure of rescue personnel. The Government is asking for low profile, automated, or semi autonomous capability. Every Soldier your system removes from the point of injury is a measurable benefit, so quantify it. If current practice requires four Soldiers for eight minutes at the casualty location and your system requires one Soldier for ninety seconds, or none at all, say so in exactly those terms.
Low operational profile. Signature management is treated as a critical attribute, not a nice to have. Address visual, acoustic, thermal, and electromagnetic signature. Address behavior in GPS denied and communications degraded conditions, because a system that needs a continuous high bandwidth link to a distant operator is not low profile in an electronic warfare environment.
High mobility over unstructured terrain. Rubble, craters, stairs, slopes, mud, snow, doorways, breach points, and the interior of a partially collapsed building. State your ground pressure, obstacle and step height, gap crossing, gradeability, speed with a loaded litter, endurance in hours or kilometers, and how the system is transported to the point of employment.
Patient stabilization with no further harm. This is a clinical requirement, not an engineering afterthought. Address spinal motion restriction, immobilization, ride quality and vibration and shock transmitted to the casualty, thermal protection, airway position, tourniquet and dressing integrity during movement, hemorrhage control during transfer, and compatibility with standard litters, SKEDs, and monitoring equipment. Evidence from a clinician, biomechanical data, or cadaveric or manikin testing carries real weight here.
Technology areas that fit this area of interest
The Government notes that its categories provide context rather than a comprehensive list, so adjacent concepts are welcome. Solutions that typically map well include:
Uncrewed ground vehicles configured for casualty extraction and casualty carry
Robotic or powered litter systems, including self loading litter and transfer mechanisms
Autonomous or teleoperated casualty evacuation platforms with a medical payload
Mechanical casualty retrieval devices such as winch, drag, sled, grapple, and conveyor based loading systems
Exoskeletons and powered assist devices that let one or two Soldiers move a casualty that would normally take four
Low signature aerial lift and resupply platforms with validated casualty carriage
Casualty packaging, immobilization, and litter interface systems designed for machine handling
Subterranean and collapsed structure retrieval systems
Casualty location, triage, and tagging sensors that feed the extraction decision
Autonomy stacks for GPS denied navigation, obstacle negotiation, and human machine teaming with a medic in the loop
En route patient monitoring, telemedicine, and automated care integrated into the extraction platform
Power, energy, and thermal management that supports realistic mission endurance
Modular kits that convert existing tactical vehicles or robotic platforms into casualty carriers
Themes worth weaving into your narrative
MED FCD thinks in concepts, doctrine, and requirements, so the language of the Army medical modernization enterprise helps your submission land. Useful framing includes multi domain operations, prolonged casualty care when evacuation is delayed well beyond the traditional golden hour, return to duty rate, preventable death, Soldier load and burden, the DOTMLPF-P implications of fielding your system, joint interoperability, training burden on a combat medic, sustainment and repairability in the field, and transportability inside existing formations.
Be equally clear about what you do not do. A submission that claims to solve the entire casualty evacuation problem reads as unserious. The BAA states plainly that a white paper attempting to address the whole scope of the technology described will most likely be rejected.
Funding allowance
This section deserves careful attention, because it is the part most often misread.
There is no funding attached to this BAA. MED FCD has stated in the announcement that while it is an integral part of finding technology solutions for Army requirements, it does not currently possess the resources or authorization to directly award or fund contracts. Selected participants may later be asked for formal white papers, technical statements of work, and cost proposals, but the announcement is explicit that progression through those technical assessment phases is solely for evaluation purposes and does not guarantee or imply a future contract award.
No dollar ceiling, floor, or period of performance is published. Because the Government has not specified a dollar range, there is no target award size to design toward. When a rough order of magnitude cost is requested in a white paper, it should be a defensible estimate of what your proposed effort actually costs, consistent with the level of work you are proposing, including profit or fee if any. Do not inflate it to look substantial and do not deflate it to look cheap. An unrealistic ROM is one of the fastest ways to lose credibility with an evaluator who has seen hundreds of these.
What the Government does offer instead of money:
Direct evaluation of your capability by the Army organization that writes medical requirements
Virtual briefings with MED FCD for high potential candidates
Invitations to technology experimentation events where your system is exercised against realistic conditions
Operational demonstrations facilitated by the directorate
Exposure of your capability to senior military leadership and joint service partners, explicitly for the purpose of maximizing visibility for potential external government funding
A persistent Scout Card profile in Vulcan, which remains discoverable by government users across the ecosystem beyond this single call
Government feedback that can materially sharpen your product roadmap and your future proposals
What participation costs you. Budget realistically for internal engineering and clinical time to prepare the quad chart and white paper, executive time for a virtual briefing, and, if you are selected for experimentation, travel, shipping, prototype hardware, spares, and on site technical personnel. Experimentation events are typically an unfunded expense for the vendor. Companies that treat this as an internal research and development investment tend to be satisfied with the outcome. Companies that treat it as a revenue event tend not to be.
How this becomes real money. A validated requirement plus documented government interest is the raw material for funded pursuits elsewhere in the Department. Common pathways for Army medical extraction technology include Army SBIR and STTR topics and the xTech prize competitions, the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium and other other transaction authority consortia, U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command broad agency announcements, congressionally directed medical research programs, Defense Health Agency and service SBIR programs, Defense Innovation Unit solicitations, and program office funding once a program of record forms around the requirement. A MED FCD demonstration, a letter of support, or a named government sponsor changes the strength of every one of those applications. If your goal is non dilutive capital, the sequence that works is engagement first, evidence second, funded solicitation third.
Timeline
August 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM CDT: Announcement opens for submissions
August 25 through December 31, 2026: Rolling submission window. Scout Cards may be submitted at any time during the period
Any time during the active period: The Government may amend or update technical focus areas, and may issue a separate call for follow on white papers
Continuous: MED FCD evaluates submitted Scout Cards against the BAA criteria and contacts high potential candidates
After initial contact: Virtual briefings and technology experimentation coordination, with possible requests for formal white papers, statements of work, and cost proposals
December 31, 2026 at 10:59 PM CST: Announcement closes unless amended
Recommended working schedule
Because the call is rolling and evaluation is continuous, earlier submissions get more calendar time in front of evaluators and more opportunity to be matched to an experimentation event. A workable internal schedule looks like this:
Week 1: Confirm fit against the five hard requirements. Decide which single slice of the problem you are addressing. Register or refresh your Vulcan account
Week 2: Build or update the Scout Card, gather performance data, capture imagery and video of the system operating
Week 3: Draft the quad chart and white paper. Have a clinician or former medic review the patient stabilization claims
Week 4: Internal red team review against the area of interest language line by line, then submit
Ongoing: Prepare a fifteen minute virtual briefing deck in advance so you can respond to interest within days rather than weeks
Do not wait until December. A submission that arrives in the final week has almost no runway for the briefing and experimentation activity that creates the value.
How to submit, step by step
Register on Vulcan at vulcan-sof.com. Vulcan is a technology scouting platform sponsored by USSOCOM and used by organizations across the Department of Defense, including this Army medical directorate. Account setup and validation take time, so start here.
Build or select a Scout Card. A Scout Card is a persistent, structured profile of a single solution. If your technology is already in Vulcan, select the existing card rather than creating a new one.
Do not create duplicates. The Government is explicit that duplicate Scout Cards for the same solution will be removed. Vulcan allows you to tailor elements of a submission to the context of a specific Call without maintaining multiple cards for the same solution.
Tailor the submission to this Call. Use the area of interest language. An evaluator should be able to see the mapping between your capability and the five requirements without hunting for it.
Attach the quad chart. PowerPoint is preferred. Word and PDF are acceptable as long as the file opens and reads cleanly.
Attach the white paper, following the Section A through D format below. Reference the BAA number in the subject or title of the response. Submit as PDF or Microsoft Word.
Submit before the deadline and be ready to respond quickly if MED FCD reaches out. Contact information for the contracting officers is provided to interested companies by MED FCD when they are asked to submit a proposal, so you will not have a named point of contact before that happens.
White paper format
The announcement specifies four sections.
Section A. Title, the technology area of interest you are responding to, period of performance, estimated cost of the task, name and address of the offeror, technical and contracting points of contact, telephone and fax numbers.
Section B. Task objective with a description of the work to be performed.
Section C. Technical summary and proposed deliverables. Include the anticipated period of performance and a rough order of magnitude cost, which is the total cost plus profit or fee if any. This is not a cost proposal and does not include the material that normally accompanies one. Provide a short technical description of the concepts and the plans to accomplish the technical objectives, briefly describe the technologies to be pursued, and identify any independent research and development work already underway in your company that has direct application. Address only the specific part of the BAA you intend to accomplish. A white paper that tries to cover the whole scope will most likely be rejected.
Section D. Quad chart. The quad has to present the capability as a single page snapshot and must visually convey the concept of employment, meaning what the capability will actually accomplish in operational terms, a description of the technical effort needed to get there, the benefit to MED FCD, your technical and management resources, costs, and schedule with major milestones.
Practical guidance on the quad chart
The quad is usually what determines whether anyone reads the white paper. Treat the concept of employment quadrant as the most important real estate on the page and use a real image or a clear graphic of the system moving a casualty in the environment described, not a rendering on a white background. Put numbers on the page. Weight, dimensions, casualty capacity, terrain performance, endurance, current technology readiness level, and the count of Soldiers required at the point of injury with and without your system. Leave the marketing adjectives out entirely.
Intellectual property and proprietary information
The Government acknowledges that information provided in response to this BAA is presented in confidence and may contain trade secret, commercial, or financial information, and it agrees to protect that information from unauthorized disclosure to the maximum extent permitted or required by the Trade Secrets Act at 18 U.S.C. 1905, the Economic Espionage Act at 18 U.S.C. 1831 and following, Freedom of Information Act Exemption 4 at 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), Executive Order 12600 covering pre disclosure notification procedures for confidential commercial information, and any other applicable statute or regulation.
Sound practice still applies. Mark proprietary material clearly and consistently on every page and every file. Describe your approach at a level that demonstrates feasibility without disclosing the specific implementation details that constitute your competitive advantage. Confirm export control and International Traffic in Arms Regulations status before you transmit technical data, especially if you have foreign nationals on your engineering team or a foreign parent entity. Keep in mind that a Scout Card is designed to be discoverable by government users across the Vulcan ecosystem, which is a benefit for visibility and a reason to be deliberate about what goes into the card versus what stays in a marked attachment.
Who should respond
This BAA is a strong fit if you are a robotics, autonomy, uncrewed systems, exoskeleton, medical device, or casualty handling company with hardware you can point at, even at low technology readiness level, and if you can absorb the cost of an unfunded engagement in exchange for requirements insight and senior leader visibility. It is a particularly good fit for dual use companies from search and rescue, mining, wildland firefighting, industrial rescue, and civilian emergency medical services, where the physics of moving an incapacitated human through bad terrain is already your core problem.
It is a poor fit if you need a contract award inside the next twelve months to survive, if your concept exists only as a slide deck with no path to a demonstrable prototype, if your solution requires the casualty to assist in loading, or if you cannot support travel and hardware costs for an experimentation event.
Common reasons submissions fail
Trying to address the entire scope of the announcement instead of one specific slice
Assuming casualty participation in loading, which contradicts the stated requirement
Treating patient stabilization as a secondary feature with no clinical evidence behind it
Ignoring signature management and degraded communications entirely
A quad chart full of adjectives and no numbers
No concept of employment, so an evaluator cannot picture the system in use by a real medical unit
An unrealistic rough order of magnitude cost, in either direction
Submitting a generic corporate capability statement rather than a tailored response to this Call
Duplicate Scout Cards, which the Government will remove
Submitting in the last two weeks, leaving no time for briefing or experimentation
How to convert this engagement into funding
Treat the MED FCD submission as the first move in a sequence rather than the end of one. Submit early and get on the calendar for a virtual briefing. Ask directly, during that briefing, which organizations own the transition path for the capability and whether the directorate can identify a government sponsor. Say yes to experimentation and show up prepared, because performance in front of operators is the evidence that funded solicitations reward. Capture everything that comes out of the engagement, including feedback, performance data, imagery, and any written expression of interest. Then use it. That package strengthens an Army SBIR or STTR proposal, a consortium white paper, an other transaction authority pursuit, a medical research program application, or a direct approach to a program office, and it does so far more than a well written proposal with no government relationship behind it.
Frequently asked questions
Is there funding available under the Medical Extraction BAA?
No. MED FCD has stated that it does not currently possess the resources or authorization to directly award or fund contracts under this announcement. Selection and progression through evaluation phases is for assessment purposes only and does not guarantee or imply a future contract award.
What is the deadline for the Medical Extraction BAA?
The announcement closes on December 31, 2026 at 10:59 PM CST unless it is amended. Submissions opened on August 25, 2026 at 1:00 PM CDT and are accepted on a rolling basis throughout that period.
Who issued the Medical Extraction BAA?
The U.S. Army Medical Capability Future Capability Directorate, known as MED FCD, which sits under Futures and Concepts Command within U.S. Army Futures Command. It is issued as a Call under the Army Medical Operational Capabilities for 2040 Broad Agency Announcement.
What do I have to submit?
A Vulcan Scout Card tailored to this Call, with a quad chart and a white paper attached. The white paper follows a four part format covering administrative data, task objective, technical summary with rough order of magnitude cost, and the quad chart itself.
What is a Vulcan Scout Card?
A Scout Card is a persistent structured profile of a single technology solution inside the Vulcan platform, which is a technology scouting environment sponsored by USSOCOM and used by government organizations across the Department of Defense. The card makes your capability discoverable by government users beyond the specific Call you submit it to, and attachments provide the specificity that a particular Call requires.
Can I submit the same Scout Card to multiple calls?
Yes, and you should. Vulcan lets you tailor elements of a submission to the context of each Call without maintaining multiple cards for the same solution. Duplicate cards for the same solution will be removed.
What technology readiness level does MED FCD expect?
The announcement does not specify a required technology readiness level. Because the objective is evaluation, experimentation, and demonstration, concepts from early prototype through advanced prototype are generally in scope, but you need something more than a paper concept if you want to reach an experimentation event. State your current level honestly and show the path to the next one.
Does my system have to be fully autonomous?
No. The announcement asks for low profile, automated, or semi autonomous capability. Teleoperated and Soldier assisted systems are responsive as long as they reduce the exposure of rescue personnel and can secure a casualty who cannot assist in loading.
Does the system have to handle non ambulatory casualties?
Yes. This is the central requirement. The system must be capable of retrieving and securing both ambulatory and non ambulatory casualties who are unable to climb or physically assist in their own loading. A solution that depends on casualty participation does not meet the stated requirement.
Do I need a security clearance or a government sponsor to submit?
The announcement does not state a clearance requirement for submission. Later experimentation events, particularly classified ones, can require cleared personnel, and government sponsorship becomes relevant as a technology moves into selection and experimentation. Plan for that possibility rather than assuming it.
Are small businesses and startups eligible?
Yes. Broad agency announcements of this type are open to a wide range of respondents, and this Call is explicitly aimed at innovative capability wherever it exists. Small businesses, startups, universities, and nontraditional defense entrants are all appropriate respondents. If you anticipate any future contracting relationship, get your System for Award Management registration, unique entity identifier, and CAGE code in order early.
Can non U.S. companies respond?
Foreign entities should proceed carefully. The announcement does not publish an eligibility restriction, but export control, International Traffic in Arms Regulations, foreign ownership control and influence considerations, and any subsequent contracting action will all shape what is actually possible. Companies with a U.S. subsidiary and U.S. based engineering are in a materially stronger position.
Will my proprietary information be protected?
The Government acknowledges that responses are presented in confidence and commits to protecting trade secret, commercial, and financial information to the maximum extent permitted by the Trade Secrets Act, the Economic Espionage Act, FOIA Exemption 4, and Executive Order 12600. You are still responsible for marking proprietary material clearly and for calibrating how much implementation detail you disclose.
What happens after I submit?
MED FCD evaluates Scout Cards against the BAA criteria on a continuous basis and contacts high potential candidates to coordinate virtual briefings or technology experimentation events. Selected participants may be asked for formal white papers, technical statements of work, and cost proposals. None of this guarantees an award.
How much cost should I put in the rough order of magnitude estimate?
No dollar range is published, so base the number on the actual cost of the specific effort you are proposing, including profit or fee if any, and make sure it is consistent with the scope of work described. The estimate should look like something an engineer built, not something a salesperson chose.
Is it worth responding if there is no money?
For most hardware companies working on casualty movement, yes, provided you go in with the right expectation. You are buying direct access to the organization that writes Army medical requirements, structured feedback on your capability, a chance to demonstrate in front of operators and senior leaders, and a documented government relationship that materially improves your odds in the funded solicitations that follow. You are paying for it with engineering time and, if selected, travel and hardware. Decide that trade deliberately.
How do I find funded opportunities for this technology instead?
Army SBIR and STTR topics, xTech competitions, the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium and other other transaction authority consortia, U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command announcements, congressionally directed medical research programs, service and Defense Health Agency SBIR programs, and Defense Innovation Unit solicitations all fund technology in this space. Which one fits depends on your maturity, your entity type, and whether you already have a government sponsor.
Can BW&CO help me respond?
Yes. We help deep tech, medtech, and defense adjacent companies decide whether an opportunity like this is worth their time, position the capability against the stated requirement, build the quad chart and white paper, prepare for the government briefing, and sequence the engagement into funded non dilutive pursuits afterward.
Next step
If you are building casualty extraction, robotic mobility, exoskeleton, or en route care technology and want a candid read on whether this BAA is worth your engineering hours, we will tell you straight. BW&CO has helped clients secure more than $350 million in non dilutive funding, and the first conversation is about fit, not a pitch.
Innovation Funding Simplified.
