The U.S. Department of Defense Naval Supply Systems Command has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to support research in countering weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass effect (WMD/WME).
The program solicits innovative proposals for research on WMD/WME counterproliferation, nonproliferation, and strategy to be conducted during the Jan. 2016 through Sept. 2017 timeframe.
The BAA is open to all disciplines, fields, and domains that are involved in expanding knowledge for national defense, and could potentially improve policy and international relations for combating WMD/WME. Offerors are invited to propose research that addresses topics within the following general categories:
- Delivery systems including missiles, aircraft, ships, submarines, and unconventional modes
- Preventing new modes of delivery (including for biological weapons)
- Dealing with existing global horizontal and vertical proliferation concerns and their causes
- Developing strategies for preventing and minimizing the consequences of WMD/WME use
- Facilitating resilience and recovery
- Anticipating new and emerging threats
- Safety and stability of existing WMD arsenals
- Enhanced enforcement mechanisms for existing treaties, regimes, and international organizations
- International mechanisms for WMD/WME elimination and global health security
- Understanding perceptions and assumptions about WMD/WME
- Strategic stability and emerging dynamics in other domains (space, cyber, maritime)
- Prevention of attacks against critical national infrastructure
- CBRNE forensic attribution, situational awareness, and verification
The effort additionally seeks to identify strategic weapons of the future, including such topics as infectious diseases, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, additive manufacturing, and autonomous systems.
The government is particularly interested in anticipating and preventing threats to strategic stability and understanding non-obvious linkages between civilian technologies and possible warfare.
This BAA will not fund training or studies aimed at the development of new technologies. Issues related to conventional forms of terrorism, and topics whose primary focus is on cyber security, are also outside of its purview.
Further details are available via Solicitation Number: NPS-BAA-15-002. The BAA remains open until March 31, 2016.
