SOCOM seeking light-attack technologies

U.S. Special Operations Command is looking for companies to develop or study platform-agnostic light-attack technologies, according to an Aug. 11 broad agency announcement.

SOCOM is partnering with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's fighter and bomber directorate to leverage advances in light-attack capabilities in a number of technology areas, ranging from scalable munitions to next-generation sensor systems to improved sensor fusion.

The effort is unrelated to the ongoing light-attack aircraft experiment Air Combat Command is conducting this month at Holloman Air Force Base, NM, according to the notice.

"The intent is to accelerate the delivery of innovative capabilities to the [Special Operations Forces] warfighter," the notice states. "This call seeks white papers addressing basic research, applied research, and/or that part of development not related to the development of a specific system or hardware procurement."

The BAA does not specify how many awards the service expects to make, but notes the target value of each contract will be less than $200,000 for studies and less than $2 million for technology development or demonstration. Studies will likely have a period of performance around six months and development or demonstration contracts around nine months. Awards are expected in late October.