PAR Government Systems Corp., Rome, New York, was awarded an $11,920,160 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a research project under the Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program. The SemaFor program will develop methods that exploit semantic inconsistencies in falsified media to perform tasks across media modalities and at scale. Work will be performed in Rome, New York, with an expected completion date of June 2024. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $1,500,000 are being obligated at time of award. This contract was a competitive acquisition under a full and open broad agency announcement and 37 proposals were received.
DARPA
June 12, 2020
Raytheon Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $37,442,009 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Blackjack program, Phase 2. This contract provides for the research, development, and demonstration of an Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) payload for Blackjack. Raytheon will complete design, fabricate, test, and deliver in quantity space-flight ready OPIR payloads capable of integrating with multiple Blackjack buses and Pit Boss subsystem supporting an on-orbit constellation level demonstration. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, with an estimated completion date of April 2023.
June 2, 2020
Agile Defense Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, has been awarded a $31,225,244 modification (P00052) to previously awarded task order HR0011-15-F-0002 for unclassified information technology services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the task order from $176,513,865 to $207,739,109. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of February 2021. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $12,224,558 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business
June 1, 2020
In the future, anyone trying to figure out how to use limited resources may reap the benefits of computers that are a hybrid of quantum and classical systems.
Such hybrid computers might prove especially efficient and effective at solving certain kinds of problems, such as strategic asset deployment, global supply chains, battlefield logistics, package delivery, the best path for electronics on a computer chip and network node placement. Research also could impact machine learning and coding theory.
May 22, 2020
Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, California, was awarded a $30,114,182 cost reimbursement contract for a research project to study the securing of our national internet infrastructure using measurement, control, and verification for closed-loop control of networks, also known as the Pronto project. The Pronto project will research the creation and deployment of a network, to include 5G, under verifiable closed-loop control as an exemplar for others in government, industry, and education to replicate. Work will be performed in Stanford, California (17%); Menlo Park, California (68%); Ithaca, New York (8%); and Princeton, New Jersey (7%), with an expected completion date of May 2023.
May 19, 2020
Applied Physical Sciences Corp., Groton, Connecticut, has been awarded an $18,822,358 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the base period of a research and development effort for undersea sensing systems. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (60%); Woburn, Massachusetts (20%); Arlington, Virginia (7%); Pawcatuck, Connecticut (4%); Northridge, California (3%); Waltham, Massachusetts (3%); Orange, California (2%); and Concord, Massachusetts (1%), with an estimated completion date of October 2021. Fiscal year 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $15,062,029 are being obligated at the time of award.
April 14, 2020
A U.S. Defense Department research program that has not yet even officially begun may contribute advanced testing devices for COVID-19 and other future pandemics.
The program is being run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is called the Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies. The acronym, DIGET, is pronounced “dig it.”
March 31, 2020
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., McLean, Virginia, has been awarded a $23,361,698 modification (P00039) to previously awarded contract HR0011-16-F-0005 for enterprise support services. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $119,076,169 from $95,714,471. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of May 2021. Fiscal year 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $20,714,282 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
March 20, 2020
RadiaBeam Technologies LLC,* Santa Monica, California, has been awarded a $10,202,941 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program. In Phase I, RadiaBeam Technologies LLC proposes a Laser-Compton approach for meeting GRIT program objectives and carrying out relevant system demonstrations. Work will be performed in Santa Monica, California (80%); Menlo Park, California (9%); Los Angeles, California (7%); and Paris, France (4%), with an estimated completion date of March 2021. Fiscal year 2019 and 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $3,718,701 are being obligated at time of award.
February 19, 2020
Two Six Labs LLC,* Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $7,970,711 modification (P00008) to previously awarded contract HR0011-18-C-0134 for additional in-scope work under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research project. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, with an expected completion date of September 2022. Fiscal year 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $850,108 is being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity. *Small Business
February 11, 2020
ECS Federal LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded an $85,422,289 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development of artificial intelligence algorithms. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Fairfax, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of January 26, 2023. Fiscal year 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds, Army in the amount of $85,422,289 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W911QX-20-C-0019).
January 13, 2020
Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, has been awarded a $31,938,845 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Operational Fires Integrated Weapon System Phase 3 program, which will enable capabilities for a mobile, ground-launched tactical weapon delivery system capable of carrying a variety of payloads to a variety of ranges. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $12,920,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas (68%); Huntsville, Alabama (21%); Toledo, Ohio (5%); Elkton, West Virginia (5%); Kirkland, Washington (less than 1%); and Camden, Arkansas (less than 1%) with an estimated completion date of January 2021.
December 1, 2019
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is experimenting with underground robotic capabilities through its three-year contest—the Subterranean Challenge, also called SubT. This competition aims to spur tactical communications, mapping and search-related robotic technologies for use in subterranean environments.
November 1, 2019
The U.S. Defense Department could one day place thousands of low-cost, floating sensors into the ocean to collect environmental data, such as water temperature, as well as activity data about commercial vessels, aircraft and even fish or maritime mammals moving through the area. But others also are dropping similar sensors in the world’s oceans, and defense researchers suggest many of those systems could be integrated into an even more comprehensive ocean-based Internet of Things.
October 11, 2019
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeing initial success from its Blackjack program, according to Paul “Rusty” Thomas, program manager. The research agency is developing a subset of a constellation, 20 low Earth orbit (LEO) globe-to-globe satellites, to demonstrate a new way of building out space systems.
“We are looking at how we might do space architecture differently,” said Thomas. “We want to limit the integration time, so we can actually get to the point where a payload might not even know what bus it is going to go on, and you can actually think of the payload as the mission.”
September 1, 2019
In four years, researchers funded by the U.S. military may develop a working prototype of a system that allows for a nonsurgical interface between the human brain and technology. Such a system could improve brain control of unmanned vehicles, robots, cybersecurity systems and mechanical prosthetics while also improving the interface between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) agents.
August 28, 2019
Packet Forensics LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, was awarded a $10,000,000 modification (P00004) to previously awarded HR0011-18-C-0056 for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Harnessing Autonomy for Countering Cyberadversary Systems (HACCS) research project. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $21,200,000 from $11,200,000. Work will be performed at Virginia Beach, Virginia, with an expected completion date of August 2020. Fiscal year 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $10,000,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
August 26, 2019
The University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, California, was awarded a $19,843,137 cost-no-fee contract for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research project. Work will be performed in Marina del Rey, California; Arlington, Virginia; and Columbia, Maryland, with an expected completion date of August 2023. Fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amount of $2,905,000 are being obligated at time of award. The contract was a competitive acquisition under a broad agency announcement and nine offers were received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HR0011-19-C-0084).
August 23, 2019
In a dark, wet and rocky research coal mine in western Pennsylvania, teams from around the globe put their robotic systems to the test in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s, or DARPA’s, latest contest. The agency designed the Subterranean Challenge, also known as the SubT Challenge, to spur the advancement of technologies that work well underground, including autonomous and other robotic systems, which could benefit first responders and the military, explained Timothy Chung, program manager, Tactical Technology Office, DARPA, to the media in attendance at the event.
August 6, 2019
Raytheon Co., Goleta, California, was awarded a modification to exercise an option totaling $8,263,421 to previously awarded contract HR0011-19-C-0010 for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency research project. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract from $4,334,736 to $12,598,157. Work will be performed in Goleta, California; Waltham, Massachusetts; Irvine, California; Oxnard, California; and Joplin, Missouri, with an expected completion date of November 4, 2020. Fiscal year 2018 and 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $6,723,915 are being obligated at time of award. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity
