DARPA Sets Virtual Proposers Day on Innovative Systems for Military Missions
DARPA's Tactical Technology Office (TTO) will hold a two-day virtual proposers event May 3 and 4 to provide detailed information to vendors about an array of plans and projects for the year.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Tactical Technology Office (TTO) will hold a two-day virtual proposers event May 3 and 4 to provide detailed information to vendors about an array of plans and projects for the year.
The agency released its Innovative Systems for Military Missions broad agency announcement (BAA) HR001117S0014 on the Federal Business Opportunities website, which solicits executive summaries, white papers and proposals for advanced research, development and demonstration of innovative systems for military missions. Innovative system concepts of interest to the TTO typically address emerging technical opportunities, advanced systems concepts, emergent threats or new technology-enabled concepts of operation.
Three fundamental thrusts currently are guiding much of DARPA’s overall efforts to develop breakthrough technologies for national security, says Brad Tousley, director of the TTO. The three are: rethink complex military systems, harness information and create technological surprise. As part of the agency’s crosscutting themes across ground, maritime, air and space domains, the TTO is has narrowed innovation focus to power and propulsion technologies, autonomous systems across the domains and rapid and agile solution development, Tousley says.
“DARPA is not about the incremental,” adds Fred Kennedy, the office’s deputy director. “We’re not interested in doing things which are derivative of topics, which are already being tackled by DARPA or being tackled by the services or others. What we’re really interested in is disruptive. We’re interested in things which are new, which are orthogonal to the approaches we’re taking today.”
The office seeks responses related to the following focus areas:
- Ground systems
- Maritime/undersea systems
- Air systems
- Space systems
- Cross-domain systems, or those systems that address the "seams" between domains that potential adversaries could target
Access the 2017 TTO virtual proposers day participation and select “ENTER PROPOSERS DAY.” Follow the steps to submit information. Upon submission, vendors will be sent to the 2017 TTO Virtual Proposers Day confirmation page where they can view the “TTO Challenges” and “Doing Business with DARPA” and other TTO videos.
During the two-day virtual event, DARPA program managers also will hold 15-minute meetings individually with vendors to discuss ideas and technology solutions. Meeting attendance will be limited to three individuals per session and one session per business unit. The deadline to request the meeting is April 26, or when all slots have been filled. Questions can also be emailed to planners.
