DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM SBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) Announcement October 12, 2021: ASO issued for pre-release October 26, 2021: Army begins accepting proposals November 30, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ET IMPORTANT Deadline for Receipt : Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, November 30, 2021. Proposals submitted after 12:00 p.m. will not be evaluated. The final proposal submission includes successful completion of all firm level forms, all required volumes, and electronic corporate official certification. Classified proposals will not be accepted under the DoD SBIR Program. This BAA and the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) sites are designed to reduce the time and cost required to prepare a formal proposal. The DSIP is the official portal for DoD SBIR/STTR proposal submission. Proposers are required to submit proposals via DSIP; proposals submitted by any other means will be disregarded. Proposers submitting through this site for the first time will be asked to register. Effective with this announcement, firms are required to register for a login.gov account and link it to their DSIP account. See section 4.14 for more information regarding registration. The Small Business Administration, through its SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, purposely departs from normal Government solicitation formats and requirements and authorizes agencies to simplify the SBIR/STTR award process and minimize the regulatory burden on small business. Therefore, consistent with the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, the Department of Defense is soliciting proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement. SBIR/STTR Updates and Notices: To be notified of SBIR/STTR opportunities and to receive e-mail updates on the DoD SBIR and STTR Programs, you are invited to subscribe to our Listserv by emailing
[email protected]. Help Desk: If you have questions about the Defense Department's SBIR or STTR Programs, please call the DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk at 1-703-214-1333, or email to
[email protected]. Topic Q&A : The Topic Q&A for this BAA opens on October 12, 2021 and closes to new questions on November 16, 2021 at 12:00 PM ET. Proposers may submit written questions through Topic Q&A at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login or through the SBIR Mailbox at usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.mbx.army-applied-sbir-program@mail.mil. In Topic Q&A, the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing. Once the BAA closes to proposal submission, no communication of any kind with the topic author or through Topic Q&A regarding your submitted proposal is allowed. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic’s requirements. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through Topic Q&A. Proposing firms are advised to monitor Topic Q&A during the BAA period for questions and answers. Proposing firms should also frequently monitor DSIP for updates and amendments to the topics. This Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) is issued under the Army Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR 21.4. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein will be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under 21.4, found here: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/b79ded14dcf54451bcfb11bddf5cd259/view?keywords=%22army%20sbir%22&sort=-relevance&index=opp&is_active=true&page=1. a. Eligibility The eligibility requirements for the SBIR/STTR programs are unique and do not correspond to those of other small business programs. Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of BAA 21.4 for full eligibility requirements. b. Anticipated Structure/Award Information Phase I Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility. For this BAA, Department of the Army will accept Phase I proposals for the cost of up to $250,000 for generally a 3-6-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this ASO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award. Phase I proposals shall not exceed 5 pages. Phase I commercialization strategy shall not exceed 10 slides. This should be the last section of the Technical Volume and will not count against the 5-page limit. Please refer to Appendix A of BAA 21.4 for detailed instructions on Phase I proposal preparation. Phase II Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility. For this BAA, Department of the Army will accept Phase II proposals for the cost of up to $1,700,000 for generally a 12-24-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this ASO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award. Phase II proposals shall not exceed 10 pages. Phase II commercialization strategy shall not exceed 10 slides. This should be the last section of the Technical Volume and will not count against the 5-page limit. Please refer to Appendix A of BAA 21.4 for detailed instructions on Phase II proposal preparation. c. Evaluation of Proposals Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this ASO. d . Discretionary Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) Participation in the Army applied SBIR TABA program is voluntary for each Army Applied SBIR awardee. Services provided to Army Applied SBIR firms under the auspices of the TABA program may include, but are not limited to: Access to a network of scientists, engineers, and technologists focused on commercialization and transition considerations such as protected supply chain management, advanced manufacturing, process/product/production scaling, etc; Assistance with intellectual property protections, such as legal considerations, intellectual property rights, patent filing, patent fees, licensing considerations, etc; Commercialization and technology transition support such as market research, market validation, development of regulatory or manufacturing plans, brand development; Regulatory support such as product domain regulatory considerations, regulatory planning, and regulatory strategy development. Vendors. The Army will select a preferred vendor for the Army Applied SBIR TABA program through a competitive process. Alternately, a small business concern may, by contract or otherwise, select one or more vendors to assist the firm in meeting the goals listed above. The Applicant must request the authority to select its own TABA provider in the Applied SBIR proposal, demonstrating that the vendor is uniquely postured to provide the specific technical and business services required. Participation. Participation in the Army Applied SBIR TABA program is voluntary for each Army Applied SBIR awardee. If a small business concern selects their own vendor, they must include the request in the Applied SBIR proposal. If a small business concern opts to use the Army preferred vendor, the firm may opt into the program at any time during execution of the SBIR project. Resources. The Applied SBIR program sponsors participation in the TABA program. The resource limitation for each firm is: Phase I Firms: Up to $6,500 per project per year (in addition to the base SBIR award amount); Phase II Firms: Up to $50,000 per project; Army-Preferred Vendor: In addition to the base SBIR award amount; Firm-Selected Vendor: Included in the base SBIR award amount and must be included in Phase II proposal. e. Due Date/Time Full proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, Price/Cost Volume, and Company Commercialization Report inclusive of supporting documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission website per the instructions outlined in BAA 21.4 Section 4.3 Electronic Submission no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, November 30, 2021. Army SBIR 21.4 Topic Index A214-042 Datalink-Enabled AI for Fires Optimization OBJECTIVE: It is projected in the future fight, the speed of battle will be imperative and every munition employed must be effective. AI/ML will be a great enabler for improved flexibility to changing battlefield conditions and rapid decision making. Armaments Fire Control Radar to Projectile Datalinks currently in development can provide the infrastructure to bring operational data back for algorithm training and also for optimization during tactical operations. AI/ML can be inserted at multiple points along the Kill Chain to optimize Fires and enhance performance. Datalink architecture enables round to round applications as well as ground to round. The topic objective is as follows: develop Machine learning architecture that can ingest battlefield data and optimize conditions based on new information on the threat picture. This architecture can be used with real data that is collected via ground radar to projectile datalinks and trained to develop algorithms for implementation in real time systems. This can exist at multiple points in the kill chain and use multiple types of ML optimization algorithms. DESCRIPTION: Currently, the only battlefield condition data at the edge is provided by forward observers. The FDC Commander does not have enough information to make rapid decisions and adjustment of fires or maneuver of projectiles in flight. Also, gun hardened Tactical Datalinks for munitions/radars are still in development to be exploited and utilized fully. Therefore, this topic aims to utilize Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to produce Optimization networks and algorithms that can be inserted in the Fires kill chain for rapid and flexible mission adjustments in real time. It also aims to leverage Ground Radar to Projectile Datalink architecture that links projectiles in flight to Fire Control (FC) Radars and Fire Direction Center (FDC) to identify data that can be used to train ML algorithms along the kill chain. Some examples of ML in this context include but are not limited to: Optimization of Projectiles/Targets to maximize efficiency and minimize overkill while adapting to changing battlefield conditions; Use datalink to collect onboard sensor data from operational environments to train Aided Target Recognition algorithms; Use ML to quickly assess Gun errors based on first projectile in flight’s initial trajectory and correct next rounds in real time; Training architecture that can quickly optimize and produce best courses of action with confidence levels to report back to Commander for action. The new approach will be to utilize new Radar to Round datalinks to bring back data from the front lines to update battlefield conditions. This can be anticipated to develop optimization algorithms that can provide alternate scenarios and choices to the commander with various confidence levels to enable faster decision making. If successful, it could have the following impact: enable rapid adjustments of fires, including projectiles in flight based on changing or new threat target information; enable efficient Fires and optimization of all resources (radar, datalink, rounds in flight); enable round to round communications and optimization algorithms for minimizing overkill." PHASE I: This is a Direct to Phase II effort. Please see Phase II Topic Description for further instruction. PHASE II: Phase II will consist of the following: Develop techniques and initial simulation environment, produce initial optimization problem sets and demonstrate; Further develop multiple optimization algorithms and environments based on various AI/ML insertion points in the Fires Kill chain; Develop and train with multiple scenarios generated from User discussions. PHASE III: Phase III will consist of the following: Implement real time algorithms to be inserted into Platform FC, FDC, Munition and Radar Programs of Record. KEYWORDS: Datalink; optimization; machine learning; AI/ML; radar REFERENCES: Weapon Systems Handbook 2021-2021, https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/2020-2021_Weapon_Systems_Handbook.pdf