Jane Edwards 
- AFRL has sought countermeasures against electro-optical-guided threats
- Two awards planned across a seven-year effort
- The 2027 Defense R&D Summit will examine directed energy, AI and more
The Air Force Research Laboratory has released a solicitation for the Aircraft Defensive Electro-optical Protection Technologies, or ADEPT, program to develop countermeasure systems for U.S. and allied aircraft and aircrew operating in contested airspace.
Directed energy, advanced modeling and other emerging technologies remain central to the Pentagon’s research and development agenda. The 2027 Defense R&D Summit on Feb. 4 will convene Department of War and national security technology officials to discuss investment priorities in unmanned systems, trusted artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum computing, directed energy, and advanced space capabilities. Sign up now to learn where defense R&D budgets are headed and connect with leaders across the defense innovation community.
According to a notice posted Friday on SAM.gov, AFRL will accept proposals through Nov. 9.
The solicitation is the latest call issued under the Multi-Spectrum Defensive Electronic Warfare advanced research announcement.
What Is the ADEPT Program?
ADEPT supports AFRL’s Information and Spectrum Dominance Directorate. It seeks pre-emptive or reactive countermeasure solutions in the electro-optical spectrum, including directed energy, expendable and novel developmental approaches.
The program is organized into two technical areas:
- Hardware & Executable Analysis of Threats, or HEAT, will focus on exploiting the hardware and software of foreign electro-optical-guided threats to produce high-fidelity modeling inputs. These threats include missiles, launch equipment and high-speed loitering drones.
- Advanced Countermeasure Engineering, or ACE, will provide ongoing scientific and engineering support to characterize emerging threats, conduct laboratory and open-air testing, and refine digital threat models.
AFRL expects collaboration across both technical areas on countermeasure design, with the goal of improving aircraft and aircrew survivability and transitioning technologies to operational use. The work calls for expertise in areas such as laser-based testing, missile aeronautics modeling, aircraft and flare signature modeling, high-performance computing optimization, and prototype countermeasure hardware development.
How Will AFRL Award the ADEPT Contracts?
The Air Force plans to issue two cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contracts, one for each technical area. It may award one, all or none of the proposals received. AFRL has set the estimated call value at $74.6 million, and the Air Force may exceed that amount if doing so serves the government’s interest. The HEAT technical area carries an estimated value of $13.7 million, and the ACE technical area carries an estimated value of $60.9 million.
Key acquisition details include:
- Each contract will have an 84-month period of performance, consisting of 81 months of technical work and three months for final reporting.
- AFRL anticipates making awards on March 22, 2027, with estimated funding spanning fiscal years 2027 through 2033.
- The government intends to make awards without discussions but may negotiate with offerors selected for funding.
- Each contract will begin with a single experimentation, evaluation and assessment line item. The government may later establish separate line items for external customer projects, such as F-35 and F-22 efforts.
- The solicitation is unrestricted. Foreign participation is not authorized because the program is classified at the TS/SCI and special access program level.
- AFRL said funds are not currently available and no award will be made until funding is secured.
What Should ADEPT Proposals Include?
Offerors may submit proposals for one or both technical areas, with a separate proposal required for each. Each submission must contain the following:
- A technical and management proposal of up to seven pages, prepared in Microsoft Word, describing the research scope and technical approach.
- A statement of work of up to 10 pages responding to the applicable technical area statement of objectives.
- A cost and business proposal with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that show formulas for calculating cost elements. It must also include a subcontracting plan for efforts exceeding $900,000, though small businesses are exempt from this requirement.
The statements of objectives and the security classification specification contain controlled unclassified information. As a result, interested companies must first email the contracting officials with their CAGE code to receive a secure DOW SAFE download link. Offerors must also submit a certified DD Form 2345 to comply with export control requirements, and proposals must remain valid for 180 days.
What Other Contract Opportunities Has AFRL Pursued?
The latest solicitation adds to a series of AFRL procurement efforts, including a potential $505 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for which the laboratory sought offers in August to provide mission support services to the 711th Human Performance Wing. AFRL is competing the IDIQ, which has a five-year ordering period, as an 8(a) set-aside.
In June, AFRL requested industry feedback on a potential follow-on contract worth between $250 million and $400 million for rocket propulsion testing, engineering and research operations at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The month before, the laboratory released a draft solicitation for its revived AFRL Multiple Award Contract after canceling the original solicitation in April. The potential $10 billion vehicle covers air and space technologies, cybersecurity, electronic warfare and multi-domain operations.
In January, AFRL announced plans to compete a potential $1 billion contract under its Research Engineering Development and Analysis for Cyber Targeting program to support adversary system-of-systems analysis for the Air Force, U.S. Cyber Command and other mission partners.
