The DoD STTR Program objectives include stimulating technological innovation, strengthening small businesses’ role in meeting DoD R&D needs, fostering and encouraging minority and disadvantaged persons’ participation in technological innovation, and increasing commercial application of DoD-supported R/R&D results. 

AF invites small business firms and research institutions to jointly submit proposals under this STTR CSO.  Firms with the capability to conduct research or research and development (R/R&D) supporting the Agility Prime Technology Demonstration Program and commercialize the proposed results are encouraged to participate.

Though the topic is truly ‘Open’ (agnostic of industry, technology, and problem area), we have identified known areas of interest for which potential DAF Customers and/or funding have already been identified. These areas, which are designed to facilitate streamlined customer discovery, are broken out into broad ‘Focus Areas’, are described below.

For this specific solicitation, the sole Focus Area supports the Agility Prime initiative:

FOCUS AREA 1: Orb/eVTOL/UAM (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing/Urban Air Mobility): The objective of this Focus Area is to explore potential commercial products being developed in the emerging eVTOL/UAM market for potential disaster response, humanitarian aid, and logistics missions. This sub-topic is intended survey a large scope of technologies to include: autonomy; advanced aircraft materials and manufacturing; novel acoustics techniques; subsystem, aircraft, and portfolio design and analysis tools; rapid mission planning for dense air environments and logistics efficiencies; command and control of air vehicles; robotic landing gear; large flotation devices; modular payload designs; air vehicle data networks and RF waveforms; sense and avoid architectures, algorithms, and sensors; electrical power storage, generation, charging; distributed electric propulsion control techniques.