Coordinating Austere Nodes through Virtualization and Analysis of Streams (CA...

NAICS CODE:  541715 FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514 BAA ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE:  Initial announcement BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) TITLE:  Coordinating Austere Nodes through Virtualization and Analysis of Streams (CANVAS)          BAA NUMBER: FA8750-24-S-7003 PART I – OVERVIEW INFORMATION This announcement is for an Open, 2 Step BAA which is open and effective until 21 MAY 2029.  Only white papers will be accepted as initial submissions; formal proposals will be accepted by invitation only.  While white papers will be considered if received prior to 1600 hours Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 21 MAY 2029, the following submission dates are suggested to best align with projected funding: FY25 by 15 Jun 2024 (Please note: For FY25, AFRL is seeking whitepapers for TA1 ONLY; further, see Figure 2 on page 7; for FY25, AFRL will only consider components in WHITE; TA2 and TA1 SHADED components will not be considered for FY25. FY26 by 15 Jun 2025 FY27 by 15 Jun 2026 FY28 by 15 Jun 2027 FY29 by 15 Jun 2028 Offerors should monitor the Contract Opportunities on the SAM website at https://SAM.gov in the event this announcement is amended. CONCISE SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT:          This BAA is seeking innovative research to develop a capability to continuously orchestrate command and control (C2) processes in an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) operational environment through distributed workflow execution. We are particularly interested in approaches to orchestrate the execution of distributed workflows that adhere to maintaining flexibility, while adapting to a dynamic operational environment.  The Air Force plans to complicate the adversary’s targeting problem through the distribution of forces to increase survivability and maintain functionality. Successful distributed C2 operations will rely on distributed control and decentralized execution, with an assumption that specific conditional authorities will be delegated to lower tier nodes.  As the Air Force transitions from monolithic C2 nodes to many distributed nodes, it will require a capability to execute distributed C2 workflows across multiple locations while maintaining awareness of changing states to functions, resources, and mission objectives.  The Coordinating Austere Nodes through Virtualization and Analysis of Streams (CANVAS) program proposes to meet these demand signals by designing and developing a system prototype that assumes contested and degraded environments will be normal for executing distributed operations. The CANVAS program proposes to develop a system for distributed task execution that includes a virtual C2 layer (TA1) to realize the concept of maintaining centralized command in distributed operations and a decentralized C2 framework (TA2) to support the execution of workflows across many physically dispersed C2 nodes.  Virtualizing the C2 layer will allow AF command nodes to conduct tradeoff analysis of business rule changes and conditions-based authorities, through simulating the execution of dynamic workflows under operationally relevant conditions, before pushing changes that align with commander’s intent into the decentralized C2 framework. Populating downstream changes from the command node that achieve intent of the system, will allow distributed teams to execute local workflows through trust, shared awareness, and understanding of commander’s intent.  Orchestrating these changes through intent-based networking concepts will achieve real-time tracking of the downstream effects within the workflows and graphs of the decentralized C2 framework.   The TA2 execution framework fills a critical operational gap within ACE by realizing the full utilization of capacity of operational and tactical C2 elements while increasing the resiliency of these same elements. TA2 will research and develop the ability to orchestrate operational processes, while optimizing for limited resources in a contested environment. BAA ESTIMATED FUNDING:  Total funding for this BAA is approximately $24.9M.  Individual awards will not normally exceed 48 months with dollar amounts normally ranging from $200K to $3M.  There is also the potential to make awards up to any dollar value as long as the value does not exceed the available BAA ceiling amount.    ANTICIPATED INDIVIDUAL AWARDS:  Multiple Awards are anticipated.  However, the Air Force reserves the right to award zero, one, or more Procurement Contracts, Other Transactions, or Assistance Instruments, for all, some, or none of the solicited effort based on the offeror’s ability to perform desired work and funding fluctuations. There is no limit on the