Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Joint Airborne Mission Survivability IPT | N0016425SNB10

Opportunity Information: Apply for N0016425SNB10

The Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Joint Airborne Mission Survivability (JAMS) Integrated Product Team (IPT) is a competitive U.S. government grant opportunity focused on accelerating new Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE) technologies in response to rapidly evolving modern missile threats. The core problem the program is trying to solve is that adversary threat systems are advancing quickly enough to stress, and in some cases outpace, the defensive systems currently fielded on U.S. aircraft. JAMS positions itself as a joint, cross-Service effort designed to identify promising ideas, evaluate them quickly, and move the best candidates toward deployment in real-world operational Areas of Responsibility, with an emphasis on solutions that can be shared across multiple platforms and DoD components to reduce duplicated costs and improve commonality.

The announcement is looking for “wide-ranging” ASE-related technologies at Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 3 or higher, with the expectation that proposed efforts include a credible, structured plan to mature the technology to TRL 6. In practical terms, TRL 3 indicates proof-of-concept level work has been demonstrated analytically and/or experimentally, while TRL 6 is typically associated with a prototype demonstration in a relevant environment. The BAA signals a preference for open-architecture approaches, meaning designs that are modular, interoperable, and easier to integrate across different aircraft and mission systems rather than closed, proprietary solutions that are difficult to adapt or upgrade.

JAMS frames its needs using an ASE “protection chain,” analogous to a kill chain but oriented around defensive survivability. The first area is Threat Detection, which includes sensing and identifying hostile threats. The second is Fix, focused on geolocation and enabling threat avoidance, which can include techniques and systems that help aircrews or autonomy stacks understand where a threat is and how to route around it. The third is Signature, covering both tactics/procedures that reduce signatures and hardware or system approaches that can modify or alter an aircraft’s signature to make it harder to detect, track, or engage. The fourth is Defeat, which includes established countermeasures like jammers, expendables, and towed decoys, as well as newer approaches such as effects launched from the protected aircraft or from escort aircraft intended to degrade, seduce, or confuse the threat system. The fifth is Assess, which emphasizes measuring and evaluating whether avoidance maneuvers, signature management, or defeat mechanisms actually worked, supporting better real-time decision-making and improved post-mission analysis and refinement.

In addition to fielded protection concepts, the BAA explicitly calls out enabling tools needed to develop, test, and transition survivability solutions. This includes Modeling and Simulation (M&S) capabilities that can help predict performance, explore tactics, and evaluate system interactions against modern threats, as well as Test and Evaluation (T&E) methods and tools that support credible validation, verification, and rapid iteration. The government is seeking “revolutionary ideas and technology demonstrators,” which typically implies an interest in novel approaches with the potential for meaningful performance improvements, not just incremental upgrades, provided there is a solid maturation path to operationally relevant demonstrations.

Administratively, this opportunity is issued by NSWC Crane under Funding Opportunity Number N0016425SNB10. It is categorized as a discretionary grant under a Science and Technology / Research and Development activity area, with CFDA (now commonly referred to as Assistance Listing) 12.910. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, indicating a broad range of applicants may apply (for example, industry, academia, nonprofits, and other entities, subject to standard federal grant requirements and any additional constraints in the full announcement). The original closing date shown is 2024-12-05, and the posting indicates the opportunity was created on 2024-11-05. Specific award ceiling and expected award count fields are not populated in the provided text, so applicants would need to consult the full BAA package for funding ranges, submission structure, evaluation criteria, and any topic-specific constraints.

The announcement also references a classified secret addendum that contains examples of particularly stressing adversary technologies. Access to that addendum must be requested via SIPRNET, using the provided point of contact: betsy.l.marschand1@navy.smil.mil. This suggests that while the BAA is broadly described at an unclassified level, serious proposers may need to review classified context to align proposed solutions with the most relevant threat systems and operational challenges.

• The NSWC - CRANE in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Joint Airborne Mission Survivability IPT" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.910.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-12-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

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