Domestic Production of Zirconium and Hafnium Metal Organic Precursors - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-DV002

Disclaimer:
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is planned to be released once the SBIR program is reauthorized; however, this topic may ultimately be modified or withdrawn.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $2 Million.

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and demonstrate a pilot-scale manufacturing process for producing high purity tetrakis(dimethylamido)zirconium(IV) (TDMAZ), tetrakis(dimethylamido)hafnium(IV) (TDMAH) and related metal dimethylamide compounds, with a targeted annual production capacity exceeding 6,000 kg of TDMAZ.

Description:

The Department of the Navy is seeking a domestic source of critical chemical feedstocks including TDMAZ, TDMAH, and other metal dimethylamide compounds. These chemical feedstocks can be used as metal organic precursors for atomic layer deposition (ALD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) of metal oxides, nitrides, and carbonitrides used in microelectronics and ceramic manufacturing [Refs 1-3]. While TDMAZ is a vital ceramic precursor for the electronics and semiconducting industry, this effort will also support the use of TDMAZ for the preparation of metal nitrides and carbonitrides for ceramics and ceramic matrix composites.

This SBIR topic seeks to establish a domestic manufacturing capability for the production of > 6,000 kg/year of TDMAZ. Synthesis of TDMAZ and other metal dimethylamides often involves pyrophoric and air/water sensitive reagents, and the proper storage and handling of these reagents is crucial for the development of a cost-effective and large-scale manufacturing process. Along with the production volumes mentioned above, the metal precursors must have a purity > 99% and a target retail price of < $4,000/kg of TDMAZ, preferably < $2,500/kg. The proposed manufacturing facility must be located in the United States or US territories, and the company owning and operating this manufacturing facility must be wholly US owned and based.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Broadening Availability of Regimens for K-9s (BARK) - Open Topic - SBIR Topic DPA26BZ01-NP001

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $250,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop medical products that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs to meet the health needs of both human warfighters and military working dogs.

Description:

Military working dogs (MWDs) are critical to national security, serving as force multipliers by enhancing the lethality and survivability of their teams through their unique senses, agility, and autonomy. Providing effective medical care for MWDs is critical but imposes significant challenges. Not all human medical products work for canines (K-9s), who sometimes require separate, specialized veterinary products. MWD handlers must therefore carry extra medical equipment to provide emergency care for their K-9 partner, exacerbating equipment loads and impeding operational capacity. Specialized equipment also expands medical materiel requirements and dependence on the less-resourced veterinary market, encumbering acquisition and sustainment activities.

Medical technologies that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs can address unmet needs of valuable MWDs while lessening the burden on medics, logisticians, and other contributors to force health protection. Species-interoperable medical technologies, particularly those supporting acute and tactical care, will improve lifesaving medical care for these MWDs while mitigating logistical and operational burdens of treating both human and K-9 warfighters.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting medical technologies that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs. Technologies of greatest interest allow for the replacement of existing products in medical sets with interoperable products, reducing the total amount of medical supplies—expanding capability without expanding the kits. Examples of specific technologies of interest include, but are not limited to:

Filters for donor plasma capable of removing cross-reactive antigens that impede compatibility across species;

Universal synthetic plasma designed with all necessary functional components for transfusion;

Sensors and form-factors that enable physiological monitoring (e.g., core body temperature and blood pressure) or triage in both humans and dogs;

Medical devices (e.g., splints, backboards, tourniquets, mechanical ventilators) designed to be rapidly adjustable at point of care for flexible use across anatomies;

Interoperable medical countermeasures (MCMs) and form-agnostic personal protective equipment to mitigate or protect against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats; and

Delivery mechanisms that can modulate dosing, including through excipients or combination devices (e.g., autoinjectors), to enable universal use of pharmaceuticals and MCMs.

The aim of the solicitation is to create a demonstrative prototype that can quickly progress to pre-clinical or clinical testing during a contracted SBIR Phase II period of performance (PoP). Research that merely tests existing products, including collection of data to titrate dosages or support label expansion of a marketed product to an additional species, is unlikely to achieve the degree of technical innovation a successful proposal should demonstrate. New drug discovery is discouraged but may be considered in particularly compelling cases. Products enabled by proposed research should feasibly be safe and effective in both humans and canines—to be verified in future trials—for use cases where no single existing product serves both patient sets. Technologies of interest should be capable of achieving substantially equivalent or superior performance in humans compared to currently approved options.

An initial white paper describing the technical approach is required and will be evaluated. If DARPA selects a white paper for further evaluation, the Government will issue an invitation to submit a full proposal. The technical white paper should include an overview of the proposed concept with details to support feasibility. The overview should address the bullets below, which are listed in order of importance:

Proposed concept: Describe the proposed research and medical product. Outline the design and operation of the main components that are being proposed for development and mode(s) of action. Use clear calculations, preliminary data, or mechanistic justifications to support feasibility of the proposed concept.

Concept of employment: Identify how the proposed product could be employed. Provide details on the intended use, indication, and effect, and the prevalence and impact of the addressed medical condition. What benefits, including new capabilities or improved metrics, does the proposed solution provide compared to current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) options (e.g., commercially available human- or canine-specific products)?

Path to market: Identify relevant predicate or otherwise established products that have been approved, licensed, authorized, or cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other relevant regulatory authority. Provide a general plan or strategy for securing market access and ensuring regulatory compliance for both humans and canines if the proposed technology is successful and shown to be safe and effective. For any special FDA programs noted (e.g., Breakthrough Device designation, 513(g)), ensure that the white paper describes how the medical product meets the program requirements.

Scalability: Provide a brief analysis of the feasibility of scaling the technology across both the DoW and industry. Are the achievable production costs low enough to merit widespread adoption, especially if alternative human- or canine-specific products are available? Is the system sufficiently familiar or intuitive to medics, handlers, and clinicians that large-scale deployment and administration wouldn’t require significant training or modification of protocols? What are the projected maintenance and storage requirements, operational availabilities, and service lifetimes, and, if applicable, how do they compare with COTS alternatives?

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Advanced Damage Criticality Analysis - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-DV005

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $2 Million.

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop a passive Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system to identify, locate, and characterize the severity of defects and cracks due to fatigue loading or impacts based on novel or advanced technologies with a basis in physics and avoiding qualitative assumptions.

Description:

The Navy seeks an effective passive Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system for Navy ship hulls and other structures that can monitor defects, such as crack growth from fatigue or impacts, and provide actionable information about the severity of the defect in an automated manner, i.e., in real time. Such fatigue cracks develop and grow in Navy ship hull welds and plating from cyclical life-cycle stresses and event-driven forces from severe sea states, collisions, and groundings.

The U.S. Navy and other navies around the world have installed SHM systems to monitor hull structural health but almost all are based on using strain gauges to monitor stresses on the hull and inferring crack growth based on fatigue life calculations. For example, the Military Sealift Command (MSC) has worked with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and installed SHM systems consisting of strain gauges and accelerometers on several ships in the T-EPF class, which monitor hull deflection and dynamic movement due to the ship’s loading and the sea states encountered. The data from these sensors is being fed into a digital twin model developed to calculate structural stresses for managing vessel survivability and to minimize operating risk.

There have been some attempts to develop fiber optics sensors to measure strain or Acoustic Emission (AE) sensors to monitor fatigue cracks directly. These approaches have seen varying levels of success, yet, better systems are needed. There may even be some applications for LiDAR use to improve success probability. The Navy is particularly interested in locating and characterizing the severity or criticality of a defect if one is detected. Currently there is not a system available on the commercial market.

The Navy’s need for such hull monitoring capability has become more important with the introduction of high-speed and catamaran vessels, which are more prone to hull cracking due to the designs of the ships, materials of the hull, and stresses experienced in high seas. An ideal system would be capable of monitoring large areas of the ship’s hull with sensing devices that provide cost effective coverage with the following capabilities:

Detect and identify the location of crack growth signals in the hull if they exist in the presence of ship’s background noise without producing false positives or negatives.

Produce results in an automated manner, i.e., real time, so they are immediately available to the operating crew.

Provide insight as to the severity of the crack growth considering the complex geometries found in hull structures with varying thicknesses and stiffeners.

The Navy would benefit from understanding structural risks in real time with the goal of minimizing the possibility of incurring structural damage at sea. The SHM system the Navy needs should provide meaningful information on ship structural health and reduce inspection and maintenance costs during repair availabilities by identifying areas of concern or damage in advance.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

High-Gain Directional Low-Frequency Sonobuoy ArrayNAVY - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV006

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop a high-gain, low-frequency vertical line array of vector sensors capable of long-range passive detection and enhanced signal processing, deployable in an A-size form factor.

Description:

To enhance anti-submarine warfare (ASW) detection and directional sensitivity in deep waters, the U.S. Navy requires a high-gain directional, low-frequency.

The objective is to develop a high-gain, low-frequency vertical line array of vector sensors capable of long-range passive detection and enhanced signal processing, deployable in an A-size form factor.

The system will be deployed from Navy Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft, have capability across multiple operational environments, and will utilize the necessarily varied hardware configurations, passive processing, and frequency characteristics to consistently achieve critical ASW metrics.

The sonobuoy must support deep-water tactical operations. Deployment depths up to 1000’ and 8 hours of life is required. The array design will provide 17 dB of gain at the design frequency in a three-dimensional isotropic ambient noise field as a minimum. The maximum saturation level will be 128 dB/µPa at 100 Hz with a total dynamic range of 96 dB. The sensor solution must be low power and fit within an "A" size sonobuoy (4.875-inch diameter x 36-inch length, weight under 40 pounds). Acoustic data sent to the aircraft from each vector sensor shall consist of Omni, Sine, and Cosine data. The communications link must comply with NATO's STANAG 4718. Long term plans include using the array in a persistent sonobuoy.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and NAVAIR to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Field Deployable Welding Technologies for In-Situ Repair of Thermoplastic Composites Components on Naval Aviation Platforms - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV011

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and transition a portable induction welding system capable of in-situ repair of thermoplastic composite components on naval aviation platforms enabling rapid, field-ready maintenance capabilities for next-generation naval aircraft.

Description:

Modern aviation platforms are increasingly using high-performance thermoplastic composites such as PAEK, PEEK, PPS, or PEI reinforced with Carbon Fiber for structural and semi-structural components. Their attractiveness is due to their superior damage tolerance, impact, and ability to be reworked for repair. Unlike traditional thermoset composites, which can only be repaired by bonded patches or bolted panels, thermoplastic composites can also be repaired by welding, which restores strength without the need to remove additional material. However, currently available welding systems have a large footprint and are available mostly with OEM and only suited for deployment at the Depots. Thus, without field deployable technofixes, repairs will result in long downtime for repair and likely higher scrap rates.

This STTR topic seeks to leverage the research expertise of academic or government labs in thermoplastic processing and electromagnetic heating to partner with a small business in designing a rugged, portable induction welding system that can be deployed shipboard and/or in Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Detachments.

The proposed system should: (1) be capable of welding aerospace-grade thermoplastics (at temperatures up to 400°C); (2) be lightweight and field operable, including on aircraft carriers; (3) be electromechanically ruggedized and safe to operate near avionics and flight-critical systems; (4) have a closed-loop thermal control for temperature; (5) be able to repair skins, fairings, panels, and access doors; and (6) have a weld strength of at least 70% of the parent material.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Next Generation Tropical Cyclone Analysis, Forecasting, and Dissemination Tactical Decision Aid Software - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV010

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Demonstrate an improved automated tropical cyclone forecasting, analysis, and dissemination tactical decision aid capability that uses a modern containerized software backend/frontend and is able to easily integrate legacy and novel component algorithms, models, databases, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Description:

Domestic operational tropical cyclone forecasting at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (DOW), Fleet Weather Centers (DOW), and National Hurricane Center (NOAA) have relied on the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast System (ATCF®) software suite for end-to-end tropical cyclone analysis, forecasting, and product dissemination for over three decades. This one-stop-shop for all data, modeling, post-processing, and user interaction for tropical cyclone information has endured due to its robust assured infrastructure, reliability, speed for executing actions, and long continuity even as forecasters and information have evolved. However, as compute environments and programming languages have changed, it has become more difficult to maintain and upgrade legacy software to take advantage of new capabilities.

This STTR topic seeks the development of a prototype software suite that can learn lessons from the success of ATCF®, but is architected in a modern software ecosystem to mitigate current workflow disadvantages. Fundamentally, the goal is a modular and containerized software application that can variously interact with legacy, current, and future software suites such as components of ATCF®, the Naval Integrated Tactical Environmental System Next Generation (NITES-Next) program, the NOAA Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), and other back-end and front-end APIs. The software architecture must be designed from the outset to comply with DOW DevSecOps principles and prepare the system for the Risk Management Framework (RMF) process. Desired software requirements include design in a modern broadly supported and maintained open programming language that can run online or offline on premises or in a cloud compute environment; hardening against connectivity and bandwidth issues; separation of functionality between logic, database, analysis algorithms, forecast generation , user interface, and dissemination layers; modular component development where different parts can interoperate with other software; and the ability to quickly address software updates and functionality and revert on the client side.

A dual-pronged approach to improving workflow for the tropical cyclone forecast process is envisioned, with parallel development tracks for software architecture creation and decision support aid integration. While the focus of tropical cyclone tools in the 1980s through 2000s was on track and intensity prediction, the forecasting mission has increasingly expanded. This includes the ability to track before storms have formed; 3D storm structure and rainfall evolution; ocean and wave field information; storm surge and hazards; probabilistic uncertainty; and emerging machine learning tools. The software should be capable of generating and disseminating an automated, objectively optimal analysis and forecast product from available data — that is, without significant manual human effort. It is not expected that all these efforts are achievable within the scope of this STTR effort; however, the priority development schedule must be justified, and the software solution must be able to accommodate all of these components within a future strategic plan.

Back-end capability should include: (1) a modern development software framework that can easily include or remove proprietary and open source algorithms as desired and is built and deployed as a containerized architecture; (2) a robust state management (e.g., database) for storm information and aids with backwards compatibility and export for current ATCF® “deck file” formatting; (3) concurrency for data fetching and processing to reduce data latency for time-critical forecast workflows; and (4) defined APIs to provide data access to clients, such as front-end graphical user interfaces (GUI) or downstream machine-to-machine programs. Further, the back-end capability should support backup capability, likely through a distributed system of servers.

Front-end capability should include: (1) thin client(s) for use on desktop workstations and possibly within web browsers, facilitating both on-site and remote operation with both client-side and server-side rendering tested for DOW network responsiveness; (2) flexible means of calling external scripts/functions/APIs with configurable input data, allowing forecasters to trigger different production pipelines and workflows that could be defined externally; (3) editable runtime configuration facilitating separate profiles for different operational systems or users; (4) means to integrate with internal and/or external AI systems or agents to facilitate future workflows; and (5) GUI and storm management capabilities consistent with ATCF®, with additional emphasis on performant map navigation and rendering, multi-product and format overlays (from gridded and sparse data, such as from kml, kmz, ShapeFiles, GeoTiff, HDF, netCDF, GRIB2, Zarr, GeoJSON, etc.), and dynamic filtering and alerts for data as they populate in real time. It is imperative that software developed be done so with an emphasis that support does not require skills beyond those currently required and normally used by support staff at forecast centers.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Highly Loaded Grain in 2.75" Form Factor - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-DV004

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $2 Million.

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Design, develop, and demonstrate a Highly Loaded Grain (HLG) technology in a 2.75 inch rocket motor to extend range in a tactically relevant form factor.

The objective of this SBIR Direct to Phase II topic is to utilize HLG to increase the range available in a 2.75” rocket motor and advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of HLG technology. HLG is a propellant technology that improves total impulse in a given volume, as well as provides capability for mission flexibility. The Mk66 is a low cost 2.75” rocket motor utilizing minimum smoke propellent and is in use with unguided rockets and the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS II) All Up Round (AUR). Increasing the range available at an affordable cost in a Mk66 motor case is needed to pace emerging threats.

Description:

Key Technology Guidelines:

Rocket motor case: 2.75" Mk 66 case

Grain design: HLG propulsion technology

Ballistics software: CLWire provided by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD)

Risk posture: Low/moderate risk for non-HLG specific components

Total Impulse: Increase by 30%

Thrust Profile: Implement all-boost and boost/sustain thrust profile with performance guidelines provided by NAWCWD (Maximum Expected Operating Pressure (MEOP) and initial thrust dictated by legacy Mk 66 system)

Propellant: Objective: Min-Smoke, Threshold: Reduced Smoke

Materials: Maximize compatibility/usage of existing rocket motor materials (propellant oxidizers and binders, insulation, liners, etc.)

Environments: thermal (-65 °F to 160 °F) (-53.9 °C to 71.1 °C) and mechanical environments (shock/vibe) required to enter military usage.

Nozzle and igniter: medium risk with path towards tactical design.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Reentry Test Body Telemetry Antenna - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV039

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Design, develop, and test a reentry body antenna or antenna system capable of transmitting high speed, real time, inflight, encrypted data. The data transmission should be in bands alternate to S band such as the K & Ka bands and communicate with geostationary satellites used as a pass-through mechanism to relay the encrypted data to ground.

Description:

The development of a next-generation telemetry communications antenna for Navy Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) reentering test bodies is critical in advancing developmental technologies being evaluated on flight tests. While common ground tests such as wind tunnels, arc jets, and vibration provide insights into predictable reentry environments, flight testing remains the gold standard in evaluating reentry bodies (RBs) and their onboard technologies. Flight tests evaluate a reentry body’s ability to withstand the harsh and sometimes unpredictable environments of flight to include launch, separation, and reentry.

The current technology to monitor SLBM payloads during flight include a transmitter/receiver system between the reentry body and ground stations. Data is captured during flight and transmitted to the ground in the S band (2-4 GHz), making data transfer slower than higher frequency bands [Ref 3]. Due to the S band being a highly populated frequency band and the power on the RB required to telemeter data in the S band back down to the ground receiver, midflight data transmission is both slow and costly. Additionally, since the transmitter/receiver system today is only between the RB and ground station, real time data transmission is lost during a portion of the flight when the RB is the furthest away from the ground, otherwise commonly known as “over the top” of the flight trajectory as well as during reentry when the body enters plasma blackout. To solve this problem, the technology proposed should use alternate frequency bands, such as K and Ka bands (18-40 GHz) and make use of geostationary satellites as a pass-through mechanism to capture real time data from the RB and telemeter the encrypted data back down to the ground at high speeds in order to minimize data transmission latency and loss. The use of alternate frequency bands allows for high data rate information exchange [Ref 1]. This new technology would solve the issue of losing real-time data transmission midflight.

By having real-time, high-speed data throughout the duration of flight on a flight test, the Navy can better understand technology performance throughout the various environments and environment transitions and can more effectively diagnose issues or failures resulting in faster technology maturation.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain at least a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and SSP in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Leveraging Machine Learning for Advanced Passive Sonar Tracking - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV025

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop advanced automation to detect, locate, classify, and correlate contacts across multiple sonar sensors and multiple display surfaces.

Description:

Passive sonar systems employ a standardized signal processing pipeline to track, classify, and localize underwater contacts. This automated process, often referred to as "automation," begins after front-end processing generates visual displays for sonar operator analysis and automated processing. Existing algorithms that track energy signatures on these displays typically include Kalman filters, probabilistic multi-hypothesis trackers, and particle filters. However, these traditional tracking methods, as implemented in current operational systems, often fail to fully leverage the potential of modern machine learning techniques. This SBIR topic seeks to incorporate cutting-edge machine learning technologies into passive sonar processing to significantly improve tracking, classification, fusion, and localization of current anti-submarine warfare passive sonar systems. The specific threshold and goals for performance improvement are as indicated in the following table.

Targeted Improvement

Metric

Threshold

Objective

TrackingIncrease Hold Time Ratio10%

20%

TrackingReduce Time to Detect10&

20%

ClassificationIncrease Probability of Correct Classification10%

15%

ClassificationReduce Probability of False Alerts10%

15%

Track FusionIncrease Probability of Correct Association15%

20%

LocalizationReduce Area of Uncertainty15%

20%

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and ONR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Bridge Environmental Light Pollution Mitigation and Control - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV017

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and deploy a safe, sustainable technology suited for controlling light pollution, thereby reducing ambient light levels across a bridge environment and providing adequate situational task lighting at select workstations across the bridge.

Description:

The Navy seeks a light mitigation technology for adequate situational lighting compliant with the Bridge Light Pollution Mitigation and Control Program (BLPM & CP). A comprehensive review of collisions involving U.S. Navy ships cited bridge lighting conditions as a possible contributing factor, stating the need to adhere to military standards for light producing displays and equipment installed on the bridges of surface combatant ships. The principal BLPM & CP’s objective is to resolve non-compliance of current bridge equipment and hardware with Military Standard MIL-STD-1472H, DOW Design Criteria Standard for Human Engineering [Ref 2]. Existing hardware often fails to satisfy requirements as outlined in the referenced standard (MIL-STD-1472H).

Light pollution mitigation efforts are necessary for all light producing technology installed on surface ship bridges/pilot houses. Reducing the undesirable effects of excessive or poorly designed lighting (i.e., light pollution) on night vision and bridge-watch stander performance will create greater situational awareness for crew members in a darkened bridge environment, therefore enhancing ship safety at sea.

The Navy seeks light mitigation technology for the bridge environment that complies with MIL-STD-1472H and enhances the effectiveness of all lights (e.g., screens, indicator lights, LED) during dark operations. This solution must also include a ruggedized work light that complies with free translation in three-dimensional space and free rotation on all three axes of rotation. There is currently no commercial technology that can meet this need.

The light should comply with all surface ship environmental standards regarding Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3), shock, vibration, and power quality and be able to produce light at the levels described in MIL-STD-1772H. The work light shall allow bridge watch standers to observe printed material at nighttime while still preserving night vision. A shipboard bridge work light must provide a focused beam of light with minimal glare, must be adjustable to direct light precisely where needed, and must offer the ability to control brightness levels with a cool color temperature to minimize eye strain while performing detailed tasks like reading or writing notes especially for crew members in a darkened bridge environment.

This scope of this effort includes all light emitting devices on the bridge, and is not limited to the following bridge systems:

Navigation Radar

Surface Search Radar

Situational Awareness Radar

Electronic Charting System

Ship Control Consoles

Voyage Data Recorder

Bridge-to-bridge Radio

Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical (HM&E) Systems

Damage Control Equipment/Displays

Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) Systems

Desired light mitigation solution parameters include but are not limited to:

Overlay applications, easily applied to existing displays, requiring no special tools, equipment, hardware, fixtures, adhesives, tapes, or fasteners.

Collapsible, foldable, stackable, and/or portable solutions to allow effective and easy storage when not in use.

Various optical densities and sizes of Neutral Density filter material may be overlaid on displays.

Solutions shall allow operator adjustment during application or installation.

Temporary covers, fixtures, filters, shades, etcetera must not alter the original design characteristics nor interfere with normal operation of mitigated light emitting sources.

Technology should not require external electrical power nor include additional electronic control systems or require any form of computer network connections.

Solution shall not leave any adhesive residue behind on surfaces after removal.

Mitigations may also include other formed caps to cover various instrumentations to reduce or eliminate light pollution associated with installed bridge equipment and other environmental light polluters.

Solution must be able to withstand extreme environmental conditions (e.g., high humidity, persistent vibration, temperature below 40° degrees Fahrenheit, etc.).

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Power Interfaces - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV016

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system to support intermittent pulsed power loads by providing a consistent load to the generation source during pulsed power duty cycle.

Description:

A Navy ship’s electric plant and the electrical load aboard the vessel mimics an electrical microgrid structure to distribute power. Conventional plant designs have separate mechanical propulsion and weapons systems with the electrical plant to support hotel and combat systems. Future all-electric naval ships will require all prime movers to have the functionality of distributed electrical generators to power a wide variety of loads ranging from conventional electronics, electric propulsion systems, and pulsed power systems to drive electric weaponry. The pulsed power systems will draw power from the ship’s electrical distribution to enable continuous operation.

While large-scale energy storage may support operations, high-rate intermittent storage is necessary to ensure the electrical distribution and prime movers are provided with relatively consistent loading. During the charge process of the pulsed power system, a considerable amount of power will be drawn from the electrical grid for time durations on the order of seconds with a lapse in between charges. The large power drawn in an intermittent fashion is difficult to control and difficult for non-stiff electrical generators to supply. Enabling technologies to support a supplemental high-rate storage system is required for pulsed power loads to be effectively used on board the ship without disruption to other loads or damage to the distributed generators.

SMES systems are a relatively new technology that can charge and discharge energy at rates to support the various loads that new Navy ship designs are targeting. Innovative R&D is needed to model and validate novel high-rate, intermittent energy storage and control architectures that can rapidly accept high intermittent currents to load-level prime movers during the pulsed-power duty cycle. The architecture should be designed to minimize the impact this type of operation has on the electrical generators and support the pulsed load modules’ operation. The energy storage must be able to accept rapid charge from the generation system within the constraints of the duty cycle of the pulsed power system and then provide this stored energy on the order of seconds to allow for cyclic capability in a continuous manner. New high-peak power energy storage technologies and designs are needed to accomplish this goal. Control system architectures and algorithms must also be developed to ensure load leveling in all modes of operations while ensuring safety and constant operation. These devices, with the requisite conversion schemes, are necessary in highly dense packages to allow for implementation in volumetrically constrained environments. Proof of principle hardware tests and validated computer design models are desired.

The Navy seeks a full-scale pulsed power SMES system to store energy between 4-10 MJ at a 2-4 MW power level. The energy storage system developed is expected to charge at a rate of > 1 MW and to deliver power > 1 MW. The energy will be pulsed at a power duty cycle > 80% at a discharge/charge ratio of 1:1 and accept power at a sub-second response rate. The Navy desires the energy storage interface to withstand voltages > 1000 V.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Nudging Behaviors for Better Sleep - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV016

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop software for personalized and adaptive behavioral interventions (i.e., nudges) using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) wearable hardware devices to promote and improve sleep outcomes and human performance in dynamic environments.

Description:

Despite extensive research on the mechanisms of sleep and behavioral modifications to improve sleep, relatively little is known about how context-sensitive behavioral nudging systems—those that dynamically suggest small, adaptive changes based on real-time data—can improve sleep quality and overall performance outcomes in complex, high-stakes settings. Fatigue caused by inadequate sleep negatively affects service members' performance and has contributed to accidents—resulting in deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to ships, vehicles, and aircraft [Ref 1]. “Nudging” refers to subtle interventions that steer behavior without restricting choices [Ref 2]. For example, non-obvious changes in how options are presented (e.g., ordering, timing, framing) have been shown to significantly affect sleep behaviors and dietary choices [Ref 3]. Recent advances in wearable sensor technology (e.g., smartwatches, rings, sleep trackers, etc.) allow for continuous collection of physiological and behavioral data. Many hardware devices are coupled with software that provide notifications, advice, and suggestions, but these are often canned, static statements that are simply pushed to the user (i.e., a one-way notification) and are not personalized to the user and/or their data.

Delivering adaptive behavioral nudges that learn and track the user’s state and responses, evolve over time, and promote sustained positive behavior change is also critical for mitigating the impact of sleep on operations. The objective of this STTR topic is to develop personalized and adaptive behavioral interventions (i.e., nudges) using COTS wearable devices to promote and improve sleep outcomes and human performance in dynamic environments. Achieving this objective requires: (1) research into integrated theoretical frameworks for personalized behavior change, grounded in cognitive, physiological, and contextual variables, and informed by mathematical tools such as dynamical systems modeling; (2) the development of adaptive algorithms that leverage Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to integrate with existing wearable and embedded sensors to identify optimal timing, modality, and content for real-time, minimally-intrusive, adherence-supporting behavioral nudges across diverse user states and operational contexts; (3) the exploration of human-centered communication strategies for delivering behavioral insights and recommendations, ensuring interventions are not only well-timed but also subtle and capable of supporting an ongoing user-system relationship built on trust and voluntary engagement; and (4) empirical testing in ecologically valid environments, including experiments that collect sleep and performance metrics to evaluate effectiveness, generalizability, and long-term behavioral impact.

Equal emphasis will be placed on (1) advancing theoretical models of behavior change, sleep regulation, and performance adaptation and (2) developing AI/ML systems and communication strategies for delivering behavioral nudges.

This topic focuses on sleep behavior due to its broad applicability to the general population, its foundational role in human performance, and the relative ease and reliability of measurement. Proposed efforts should aim to develop generalizable algorithms that integrate complex mathematical modeling and ML with cognitive-behavioral theory to drive adaptive behavioral interventions. These interventions must be compatible with existing wearable and embedded sensor ecosystems – this topic explicitly does not aim to develop new hardware, but instead to maximize the utility of currently available commercial sensors as inputs to a personalized, adaptive nudging system.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Virtual Reality Model Walkthrough - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV015

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop software for a commercially available Virtual Reality (VR) headset to view new ship construction models in an immersive environment.

Description:

When constructing a DDG-51 Class Destroyer, Navy engineers regularly need to perform design reviews to verify and validate proposed ship changes. Currently, these design reviews are held using screenshots and model sharing of the ship’s Computer Aided Design (CAD) models. However, 2D rendering of 3D spaces and objects can make it challenging to assess the actual layout and configuration of items. This can lead to errors in the ship design process, requiring costly rework later in the ship construction cycle.

The Navy seeks an innovative solution for VR software that allows Navy engineers to view the ship construction models as though they were standing in space. The proposed solution would allow the shipbuilder and the Navy to be better able to detect and correct errors early in the construction process. Additionally, such software could be used to train new engineers in the layout and navigation of the ship before they board it for the first time. There is currently no commercial technology that can meet this need.

The development of VR software faces several technical challenges. First, the shipyards use Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA) and Ship Constructor CAD models. The VR model must be capable of accurately using the outputs of both these CAD programs. The Navy understands this can be difficult and will require good knowledge of CAD file formats. Secondly, the user must be able to navigate virtual space and manipulate the environment. Many VR programs have some form of self-directed navigation. Destroyer spaces can have complex interior layouts and minimizing any motion sickness the user might experience while navigating VR can be a challenge. The solution should be able to load and view multiple CAD files, navigating between them with minimal lag and overlaying them to view discrepancies.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Advancing Human Modeling Tools for Enhanced Performance and Survivability in Austere Environments - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV015

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop an advanced suite of parametric human modeling tools incorporating USN/USMC aircrew anthropometric databases, empirical posture data, and 3D scans.

Description:

The goal of this STTR topic is to leverage newly available data and advances in digital human modeling to improve modeling fidelity for USN/USMC and other DOW aircrew to improve acquisition outcomes. Resulting improvements to operational and environmentally appropriate protective clothing and equipment size, design, and tariffing (i.e., determination of how much of each size needs to be procured and distributed) will yield significant benefits to Fleet readiness and sustainment, safety, performance, protection, and affordability.

Digital Human Modeling (DHM) applications and tools are used to design and assess items for the DOW including protective clothing, footwear, body armor, flight equipment (e.g., helmets, oxygen masks, survival vests, G-suits, torso harnesses, etc.), seating, restraint systems, workstations, cockpits, controls, ground vehicles, and much more. Using this technology early in the product lifecycle is essential to reducing development cost and schedule and informing design tradeoff decisions. Historically, use of DHM has been subject to a variety of limitations that affect model fidelity, which is how well the model represents reality. These limitations result in reduced utility of the technology when the limitations are understood, but more concerning are the potential adverse outcomes where the limitations have either not been understood or have been ignored. This is concerning for all types of design applications, but especially problematic in aviation where safety of flight is crucial. There is an abundance of feedback from aircrew regarding poor fit or lack of availability of the sizes of protective clothing and operational equipment they need. They experience pain and injury, reducing performance and impacting readiness. There is now the potential to exponentially improve DHM capabilities due to a variety of advances in 3D scanning, model development, and availability of aircrew population specific anthropometric data and empirical posture data representing real-world conditions for military aircrew.

Limitations to current DHM capabilities related to the users include issues with intuitiveness of the tools, the degree of expertise required for effective use, and the significant amount of time it takes to develop expertise. There is a shortage of expert users in both the DOW and industry. Manikins used in DHM analysis are commonly selected from built-in software libraries with inappropriate anthropometric measurements for the population and/or design being evaluated. DHM users with a poor understanding of anthropometry often fail to consider the multivariate nature of anthropometric accommodation ignoring the need to consider more than one measurement at a time and neglecting the critical interactions of the measurements. Users positioning/posturing manikins routinely use guesswork in the absence of empirical data to account for clothing and flight equipment, restraint systems, cushion compression, flesh compression, and postural variation. They often have a limited understanding of aircrew operations and/or environment leading to incorrect assumptions when setting up their models.

For some DHMs the anthropometric measurements that can be adjusted are not the ones that matter for design application and the underlying anthropometric data used in the application may not represent the target population. Multivariate use cases have been developed and in use on DOW aircraft acquisition programs since the mid-90s [Ref 1], but manikins representing the use cases are often not included in DHM manikin libraries causing users to default to inappropriate use of the manikins that are available. Until recently, the only USN/USMC aircrew anthropometric data available was from a 1960s database that did not include women. Currently, there are no DHM applications that include USN/USMC aircrew anthropometric data or associated multivariate use cases.

Another important consideration is that the commercially available DHM applications allow for analysis of one or more manikins, to include a family of multivariate use cases, but do not allow for parametric modeling of an entire population needed to accurately quantify the accommodation levels of a design.

The NAWCAD Human Systems Engineering Department has recently completed an aircrew/aviator anthropometric survey and is also collaborating with the USAF on the Seat Specific Posture Model (SSPM) Project to collect empirical posture data to improve modeling fidelity. This project was initially intended for the purpose of developing an aviation specific postural analysis tool in the RAMSIS DHM but will be useful for other applications as well. One example that this STTR topic proposes is that this aircrew data be used in in the development of aviation-specific parametric accommodation models. The US Army has successfully developed this type of modeling tool for ground vehicles with a great many advantages to their acquisition programs and alleviation of many of the limitations documented above [Refs 2,3,4].

There have also been significant advances to head, hand, and body models that can be leveraged to greatly improve DHM state of the art and acquisition outcomes [Refs 5-11]. Integration of aircrew-specific anthropometric and 3D scan databases would ensure modeling efforts reflect the intended population. Aviators are a distinctly different population and appropriate representation of them in modeling applications is essential. Model input parameters can be adjusted to represent the goals of the modeling effort (i.e., desired accommodation levels and target population or subpopulation) with adjustable demographic variables such as sex, age, and race/ethnicity. Modeling tools can incorporate the ability to consider not only traditional 2D anthropometric measurements, but 3D shape and/or non-traditional measurements with the goal of improving size design and fit prediction [Refs 12, 13]. Through new and affordable 3D body scanning technologies [Refs 14,15], it is possible for an individual’s specific anthropometry as well as their feedback on fit and preferred size to be run through an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to allow for ongoing improvements in size design, fit prediction, and tariffing. There have been advances in the development of head models that do not include hair artifacts [Ref 16], an important consideration in design. Improvements of head and hand models for dynamic or functional fit can improve the ability to digitally evaluate if masks maintain a seal when pilots talk or change facial expression and if gloves are designed appropriately for all pilot tasks, not just one static hand position. Posable manikins representing intended individuals or populations (multivariate use cases) can be easily customized and imported into any CAD environment or DHM software application for a variety of uses.

It is important to note that the proposed tools are meant to be supplemental not duplicative of other modeling tools currently available or in development. Having these proposed modeling tools be interoperable or integrated with existing or emerging tools is highly desirable. What makes these tools unique from existing/emerging modeling tools:

Inclusion of USN/USMC aircrew anthropometric databases and 3D scans.

Inclusion of SSPM project aircrew posture and reach data.

Solution is not computationally and/or time prohibitive to use.

Fills a gap in providing a solution that does not require an artisan modeler to make use of the models (easy to learn, simple user interface).

Leveraging existing models/methods for expeditious transition.

Models to be exported in common file formats to be interoperable with a broad range of CAD/DHM applications. No specific software applications are required.

Not strictly PPE focused but also applicable to clothing design.

Includes accommodation modeling tool for aircraft cockpits and workstations.

Will represent digital twins of individuals like other modeling tools, but will also provide population virtual assessment of fit, size design, tariffing recommendations, and report population accommodation levels.

Will allow for principal component analysis on a population and representation of boundary cases customized for specific applications.

Includes ability to import anthropometric data for a group of participants and create bivariate plots for visual comparison to aircrew population data.

Models will be web-hosted and freely/easily available to DOW civilians and contractors.

Intention is to have web-hosted instructional materials, user forum, document library, and subject matter expert information to encourage best practices and collaboration.

Framework will be built in to allow import of other population databases so other military populations including foreign military partners can be represented.

The proposed suite of tools would need to be easy to use, affordable, and easily accessed (e.g., hosted webapps and/or downloadable standalone applications) to facilitate practitioner usage and standardization. Accompanying guidance in the form of teaching materials, a user forum, links to relevant papers and reports, and a registry for subject matter experts and facilities wishing to be listed would be beneficial inclusions. The ability to create visualizations should also be considered. Allowing the import of anthropometry in a .CSV file for overlay with existing anthropometric databases in the form of bivariate plots of key anthropometric measurements is extremely helpful for population comparisons as well as confirming that human participants used for physical assessments adequately represent the target population. This proposed effort also seeks to put a framework in place that will allow incorporation of data from other populations and use of the models for other applications and users to include the entire DOW, foreign military partners, NASA, industry, and academia.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Non-Radio Frequency, Covert Maritime Transceiver - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV014

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop a reliable and covert transceiver for use in contested areas where the use of traditional radio frequencies are not permitted in order to remain concealed. The Navy is looking for new technologies that can transmit and receive wireless communications from distances of at least 5km. The signal medium may be, but not limited to, acoustic, infrared, or ultraviolet. The communications link must be highly resistant to interference, detection, and exploitation.

Description:

Covert communications have continuously evolved during the history of warfare. Paradigm shifts in communication (in warfare) have enabled evolutionary tactical advantages that have lasted for finite periods of time until an adversary adjusts technology and tactics to detect, and in some cases monitor, seemingly covert communications. Various modalities are available to attempt to provide secure, covert communications including many Radio Frequency (RF) techniques, free-space optics (laser comm.) and others. Due to the United States’s reliance on RF for communications and sensing (e.g., radar), various peer-adversaries have engineered around many of these modalities putting secure communications at risk. For this reason, it is necessary to go “out-of-band” to provide a modality of communication not commonly used and enabled by technology that is wholly new and therefore restricted by rarity. Another limitation to this application is the need to avoid bulky, power-hungry systems that may require a high degree of attention in order to operate properly.

Therefore, the Navy is looking for a low power, small communications transceiver that offers low probability of intercept (LPI) and low probability of detection (LPD). The new technology must be able to acquire, track, and maintain a secure communications link between rapidly moving vehicles (manned and unmanned). Emerging applications include cognitive operations with other autonomous systems for armed combat, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR), casualty extraction, and field communications. Each of these applications have different objectives but all require uninterrupted, high bandwidth, and secure communications.

Attributes:

- Must be able to communicate between two or more points at least 5km away

- Low Size, Weight, and Power/Cost (SWaP-C)

- Reliable, continuous communication link

- Field Programmable

- LPI/LPD

- Flexible data rate requirement (up to 10MB/s)

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and NAVAIR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

AI-Assisted Modernization and Optimization of Theater Mission Planning Center (TMPC) Software - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV013

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop an AI-driven toolset to automate the modernization of Theater Mission Planning Center (TMPC) software, focusing on refactoring legacy code, optimizing performance, integrating advanced cybersecurity, and ensuring compatibility with modern and next-generation mission systems.

Description:

TMPC software is built on legacy code that presents challenges in maintainability, performance optimization, cybersecurity, and integration with evolving mission systems. Current modernization efforts rely on manual refactoring, which is time-consuming, error-prone, and costly. There is a critical need for an AI-driven capability to automate code refactoring, optimize computational efficiency, and integrate cybersecurity features without disrupting TMPC’s core functions. This effort will enable seamless software upgrades while maintaining backward compatibility with existing operational platforms.

The proposed solution will leverage machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze, refactor, and optimize TMPC’s codebase while preserving mission-critical functionalities. Additionally, AI-assisted software validation and security enhancements will ensure that modernized TMPC software meets the evolving requirements of Navy mission planning environments.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and NAVAIR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Sensing to Measure and Validate Corrosion in Naval Systems - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV012

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and deliver a sensory tool that can be used to monitor and assess several modes of corrosion activity as a function of time within Navy ship systems and subsystems. The sensory tool will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) identify and estimate component life in a given platform/system for a given material selection, CAD geometry, and environment during the ship operations. AI can incorporate a set of mathematical models that will detect when the error happens and when to do maintenance. The main objectives of AI are to reduce maintenance time, production downtime, and the cost of component supplies.

Description:

It is increasingly important for corrosion rate analysis to be performed on steel structures such as ships, offshore platforms and bridges to determine their safe operating life and for the development of effective and efficient maintenance practices. Optimal timeframes for asset availability and for planned redundancy also demand information about corrosion rates. Corrosion loss affects the effective load capacity of steel plating through causing plating thickness loss. The design of steel ships typically incorporates a corrosion allowance, i.e., an amount of corrosion loss that can be tolerated before the structural system is considered compromised. Corrosion protection measures include paint coatings and sacrificial anode systems for immersed areas. However, these methods are not always wholly effective, and continual maintenance usually is required but not always applied. In extreme cases, repair and replacement of structural details may be necessary, incurring very considerable cost penalties due to direct repair costs. It follows that the estimates of the expected rate of deterioration are important inputs for optimal maintenance and repair decisions for ships.

Naval ships are exposed to a range of corrosive environments and as a result the patterns of corrosion vary widely. The structural details and the orientation and position within the space within a given environment also will cause different corrosion patterns and rates. For immersion environments, influences on corrosion include chemical factors such as salinity, oxygen content, pH, and presence of pollutants; physical factors such as temperature and pressure; and biological factors such as bacteria and biomass. For ballast tanks the immersion environment usually is considered the most critical but in modelling the corrosion process attention might also need to be given to the occurrence of repeated wet/dry cycles as a result of the tanks being filled and emptied to adjust the freeboard trim of the ship. In addition, the presence of sacrificial anodes may have some influence, although they are effective only under immersed conditions and for uncoated areas. Thus, a de-ballasted tank will not be protected. It follows that the amount of corrosion in a ballast tank is a function of the environment, the type of corrosion protection, and the tank status. Apart from corrosion protection and operational practices, the main influence on the environmental parameters is the result of the conditions encountered during operations – what might be called the trading route, including geographical influences.

The number of hours a ship is generally in an operating or training status have decreased. Navy corrosion maintenance costs continue to escalate, reaching upwards to nearly $10B/year. Roughly 40% of those costs are caused by corrective maintenance that can be attributed to the improper selection of materials, usually from design process decisions that addressed system requirements without considering materials corrosion behavior in environments for which they are planned.

The application of a resistant coating on ships, offshore structures, and pipelines is the primary prevention method of corrosion wastage in the marine industries. To guarantee coating integrity and to be able to thoroughly survey for corrosion wastage on marine structures, new advanced nondestructive methods are being sought. The requirements of convenient and rapid determination of corrosion wastage on coated structures, even in the difficult spatial positions of the structure, will require advanced technologies which are being developed for other industries that also require very high structural integrity. Corrosion detection and monitoring are essential diagnostic and prognostic means for preserving material “health” and reducing life-cycle cost of industrial infrastructures, weapon systems, ships, aircraft, ground vehicles, pipelines, etc.

Sensor system attributes of small size, low weight, open plug-and-play interface architecture, self-diagnostics and validation make this a valuable interface and controller platform for other industrial and military monitoring applications. The system simplicity and low cost allows for wide area coverage by monitoring multiple sites on an individual structure and for fleet-wide vehicle condition monitoring. Other than Military vehicles, the smart sensor system has market potential in stationary structures, industrial processes, and civil and commercial transportation. By collecting and consolidating datasets into a fleet management system, DOW can better allocate maintenance resources and increase availability and service life objectives for these platforms. The collected data drive sustainment analytics and fleet management by increasing the accuracy of predictive maintenance schedules and decreasing inspection intervals and unnecessary preventative maintenance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a pivotal role in interpreting the vast amounts of data collected by drones. Machine learning (ML) algorithms analyze the images to identify patterns of corrosion, thereby enabling more accurate and timely maintenance decisions. This level of automation reduces human error and ensures that Navy vessels remain in optimal condition. AI is a machine’s capability to impersonate human behavior, respond perceptively, solve problems, and make decisions automatically without human interference or with less human interference. The main objective of AI research involves general intelligence, automated planning, perception, natural language processing, knowledge representation, and robotics.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Compact Battery Operated Mid-wave Infrared (MWIR) Hyperspectral, High-Definition, Real-Time Video Camera Integrated with Photonic Crystal - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV011

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and demonstrate a compact battery-operated mid-wave infrared (MWIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) photonic chip video camera for integration into mobile network enabled small sensor platforms.

Description:

Hyperspectral imaging allows quantitative evaluation of material composition and spatial distribution and finds numerous applications in areas such as remote sensing and military reconnaissance. In particular, the operational utility of HSI for detection, recognition and identification of hard-to-detect targets in environments cluttered with background noise is especially critical. Spectral imaging can aid the detection, acquisition and tracking of a potentially camouflaged, low-signature target, with significantly improved accuracy that cannot otherwise be detected using more conventional imaging means.

Conventional HSI systems [Refs 1, 2] tend to use large, bulky optical elements, such as a Michelson interferometer or other tunable optical filter components to spectrally resolve the input optical signals, and therefore usually have the characteristics of significant size, weight, and power (SWaP) consumption, mechanical complexity, as well as non-compliance with military specifications. More importantly, the mechanical mechanism of the conventional tunable filtering system gives rise to extremely slow spectral scanning speed and thus, slow imaging speed at that rate of one hyperspectral image per approximately one to two minutes. Traditionally, hyperspectral algorithms have considered only static images, and existing algorithms process single frames without regard for sequential similarities or correlations. The difficulty in capturing and processing hyperspectral video sequences in real-time is correlated directly to the high dimensionality of the data. As a result, conventional HSI systems cannot be deployed to the more demanding field applications that require images that can be captured and analyzed on a real-time basis at a much higher frame rates due to HSI’s inherent image acquisition speed bottleneck.

A typical hyperspectral image consists of a high-resolution 3-dimensional (3-D) data cube, with two dimensions in space and a third dimension in wavelength. A focal plane array (FPA) can only acquire a 2D data set in one exposure. In the conventional approach, spectral scanning is thus often used to attain the third dimension of wavelength for a 3-D data cube. As stated earlier, this process makes HSI operation very slow because wavelength scanning requires multiple exposures over a specific spectral range. In addition to the very slow scan speed, it also suffers from a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) resulted from a high level of noise in infrared detectors and a low light throughput caused by narrow-band filters used in spectral scanning. The use of narrow-band filters also limits the number of spectral bands.

Infrared spectroscopy routinely uses spectral multiplexing to overcome the challenge of detector noise. This is known as the Fellgett’s multiplexing advantage [Ref 3]). The best example is Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Instead of spectral scanning, it projects an unknown spectrum onto a serial of sinusoidal functions constructed by a Michelson interferometer and thus greatly improves light throughput. However, it is difficult to integrate FTIR with FPA because of their bulky size and single channel operation. Recently, on-chip multiplexing has emerged as a new approach for hyperspectral sensing. It uses the spectral response of judiciously designed nanostructures to construct the multiplexing basis. Exploiting optical interference and resonance effects at the nanoscale, these nanostructures can provide a highly complex and diverse range of response functions suitable for efficient multiplexing [Ref 2]. They can be directly integrated into FPA to have an ultra-compact form factor. Multiplexing can be performed in both spectral and spatial domain. Advanced data-driven optimization such as machine learning can be used together with compressive sensing to reconstruct 3D data cube in single-shot operation [Ref 4].

It is therefore the objective of this SBIR topic to develop a battery-operated, compact, high-performance MWIR HSI camera system capable of capturing HSI video at real-time or higher frame rates in the room temperature thermal infrared region. One of the key challenges in on-chip photonic multiplexing of a photonic crystal-integrated FPA is the computational design. Constructing the multiplexing basis is a delicate balance between the physical limit of on-chip photonic structures and the imposed requirement from demultiplexing algorithms. The former requires solving multi-scale Maxwell’s equations, and the latter requires large-scale data-driven optimization of demultiplexing algorithms. The coupled design process needs to be iterated efficiently to reach any useful design. It is expected that this challenge can be addressed by using massively parallel simulation of electrodynamics paired with efficient optimization algorithms such as adjoint method.

The project should demonstrate a systematic design method that leverages large-scale simulation, machine learning, and data-driven design to realize real-time hyperspectral video imaging. The final goal of this project is to experimentally demonstrate a battery operated MWIR HSI video camera with the following specifications.

System required parameters include:

Wavelength range: 3-5 microns

Array size: Threshold -- 1280 x 1024 pixels; Objective -- 2048 x 1536pixels

Spectral resolution: below 5 nm

Pixel pitch: Threshold – 12 microns; Objective – 8 microns

Real-time hyperspectral video imaging Programmable; 0.0015 Hz to 125 Hz frames per second

Acquisition time of hyperspectral image with 500 spectral bands: Size and Weight: 7.5 grams and Battery Type: Lithium-ion battery enhanced by using carbon-based nanostructures with a specific energy > 600 Wh/kg at 0.5C discharge rate, and specific capacity of > 600 Ah/kg.

Low power consumption, starting at 600 mW

Humidity Non-condensing between 5% - 95%

Non-Operating Temperature Range -57 °C to +80 °C (-65 °F to +176 °F)

Operating Temperature Range -40 °C to +71 °C (-40 °F to +160 °F)

Operational Altitude 40,000 ft (~12km)

Shock 40g w/ 11ms half-sine pulse, 3-axis

Vibration 5.8 grms 3-axis, 1hr each

Responding to the 21.2 AC1 S&T Domain comments: Surface Optics produces multi-spectral camera that can only provide multispectral images with about 10 spectral bands. Also, their multi-spectral camera is in the SWIR band. This current topic is for the first time a topic that can produce MWIR hyperspectral images at better than real-time video frame rate (24 frames per second or higher) with up to 500 (not 10 in the multispectral camera situation) high-resolution hyperspectral images per frame. This current proposed technology can produce up to 50 times more spectral information than the current multispectral camera in the market. Hence, there is zero overlap in terms of technology innovation between what Surface Optics and other commercial concerns market as multi-spectral or hyperspectral cameras and this current topic. In fact, the current proposed topic's performance and SWaP are far superior to any commercially available hyperspectral images by a 10 to 1 to 50 to 1 wide margin.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

E-2D Large Language Model Entity (ELLMENT) - SBIR Topic DON26BZ01-NV010

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop and implement a traceable, explainable, referenced, and reasoned Large Language Model (LLM) that functions as an on-demand Natural Language Processing (NLP) decision-support assistant for Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) and mission crew aboard a carrier-based, all weather, tactical battle management, airborne early warning, and command and control aircraft.

Description:

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) technologies are transforming how complex data is understood and acted upon in operational environments. This SBIR topic seeks to explore the development of a domain-specific LLM system to support rapid insight generation from structured and unstructured documents (e.g., Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures [TTPs]), mission logs, communications, and other high-volume data sources relevant to tactical operations.

The goal is to deliver a modular, self-contained AI/NLP solution that can assist NFOs and mission crew by summarizing, reasoning over, and extracting meaning from dense operational material in real time. This LLM must be specifically designed to operate in a stand-alone configuration in accordance with information assurance policies, with mechanisms for traceability, where the information came from and how is it connecting to the goal, source attribution, and model transparency. The system must also support future extensibility to multi-modal data ingestion.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and NAVAIR in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below:

Robust Universal Adaptive Denoising Technology - STTR Topic DON26TZ01-NV009

Disclaimer:
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.

Sign up below to be notified as soon as this topic is released again. In the meantime, we’d recommend you start planning to respond if within your capabilities.

Funding Amount:

Est. $240,000

Deadline to Apply:

Est. April 29th, 2026.

Objective:

Develop robust denoising approaches that are highly adaptive and effective.

Description:

Signal denoising has shown to be highly effective in improving performance of signal processing radio frequency and acoustic sensing systems. The main hindering signal in these applications is noise as it degrades the ability to sense low level signals masked by ambient noise sources which may be external to the sensor or generated by the sensor itself. The main goal of this SBIR topic is to develop a denoising technology that suppresses noise while preserving the underlying signal features. Traditionally, denoising methods have struggled to maintain performance when presented with highly non-stationary or complex noise patterns. The traditional approaches typically require extensive and time-consuming tuning to achieve desired performance. On the other hand many of learning-based methods have demonstrated excellent denoising performance but suffer from limited robustness. Therefore, the method’s performance will drop if the training conditions do not adequately reflect the characteristics of the operational environment. The Navy seeks improvements in denoising performance greater than 10 dB.

For such a system installed on an aircraft, it will experience both wind- and aircraft-generated noise. That noise has components that are narrow band (< 10 Hz wide) and broadband (10s to 100s of Hz wide). The spectrum of interest for sensing extends from approximately 10 Hz to 1000 Hz. When compared with more traditional active noise cancellation techniques, the denoising approach should be capable of providing 6 dB of additional cancellation and show potential to deliver 10 dB or more cancellation.

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.

Request to talk with a member of our team by completing the form below: