Establishing Ad-Hoc Distributed Network Across Heterogeneous RF Systems - SBIR Topic OSW26BZ01-DV001

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This topic was temporarily posted by the Department of War SBIR Program on March 2nd 2026 and removed the following day.
We believe this topic is planned to be released once the SBIR program is reauthorized; however, this topic may ultimately be modified or withdrawn.

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Funding Amount:

Est. $1.5 Million

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Successful Joint Operations executed by the U.S. Department of War (DoW) rely on tight coordination, synchronization, and tactical communication across multiple service components and platforms. The Joint Force faces real-time communication and coordination challenges between modern, more flexible systems and the much larger inventory of older legacy platforms that were independently acquired by each service. Virtually all platforms have one or more types of Radio Frequency (RF) apertures and backend electronics that could be used to coordinate effects, but they lack the appropriate firmware (FW) or software (SW) to enable cross platform synchronization of those effects due to compatibility or proprietary software interface constraints. Multiple land, sea, air, and space assets would benefit from software and firmware enhancements to increase communication and synchronization effectiveness across the Joint Force.

Description:

The objective of this effort is to assess and implement advanced SW/FW enhancements onto existing platform(s) to enable heterogeneous multifunction RF systems to communicate and synchronize activities to increase effectiveness of Joint Force operations. A large defense contractor that produces high volume, (hundreds or thousands of production units) may be hesitant to change their baseline SW/FW to incorporate new capabilities. The Government is interested in an experienced agile, small business software developer to study and implement communication applications onto a large defense contractor’s target software defined radio (SDR) to enable greater Joint interoperability. Key aspects of the study are to assess SW/FW compatibility with the target SDR; identify hardware and software constraints; assess cyber vulnerabilities; and culminate in a proof-of-concept lab demonstration to establish an ad-hoc network between heterogeneous RF systems. Additionally, the study seeks to generate a roadmap and identify risk reduction activities that should be performed in order to fully integrate these new capabilities into operational systems. The proposed solution should support integration with DoW’s existing RF systems, payloads, and operations to improve mission agility, reduce mission risk, and enhance Joint Operations.

Competitive proposals must originate from performers that have previously demonstrated SW/FW integration of multi-function operations, in a laboratory environment or in open-air testing, between heterogeneous DoW RF systems. The Government is particularly interested in enabling diverse ad-hoc data network node establishment between dissimilar RF mission systems. These DoW payloads or platforms of interest for this application are Communication, Command and Control (C2), Electronic Warfare (EW), or Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems. This use of diverse RF mission platforms, payloads, and leveraging multiplexed signals to establish non-traditional data distribution nodes while still performing the primary mission would greatly increase Joint interoperability.

The proposer will need to work closely with a DoW-DIRECTED defense contractor to implement SW/FW modifications to the target SDR to enable heterogeneous multifunction RF systems to communicate and synchronize activities. The specific defense contractor will be identified to the proposer upon notification of selection for the D2P2 award. FEASIBILITY DOCUMENTATION:

Documentation should include all relevant information including, but not limited to: technical reports, test data, prototype designs/models, and performance goals/results.

Who will win?

If you can achieve the objective above better than any other company on the market, you have a very high-likelihood of success and should apply.

Who is eligible to apply?

Any company that meets the following criteria:

• For-profit company

• U.S.-owned and controlled.

• 500 or fewer employees (including affiliates)

How Can BW&CO Help?

1) End-to-end support including, strategy, writing of the full proposal, and administrative & compliance support.

2) Proposal strategy and review.

3) Administrative & compliance support.

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