2026 DoD SBIR Topics Cancelled & Reposted: 4 Topics Across MDA, U.S. Air Force

AI Summary

This RFP seeks novel hypergolic propellants with reduced volatility and toxicity for missile defense systems. The goal is developing safer, cost-effective fuel alternatives that maintain rapid ignition performance while minimizing hazardous vapor emissions compared to traditional formulations.

This topic seeks novel hypergolic fuels featuring significantly reduced volatility and toxicity compared to traditional hypergolic fuels while maintaining rapid, reliable ignition characteristics essential for missile defense applications. Current DACS systems typically use highly toxic and volatile fuels which, while offering excellent ignition delays and specific impulse, present significant handling and safety concerns. The program desires to explore cost-effective alternative fuels that offer reduced vapor pressures while simultaneously minimizing ignition delays to ensure adequate DACS responsiveness in missile defense scenarios. Candidate solutions might include, but are not limited to: ionic liquids, reaction-driven amines, boranes, and others. Hypergolic fuel blends are also an acceptable alternative so long as they could be justified in terms of miscibility and maintained performance across operational temperature ranges.

Objective

Develop and demonstrate low-volatility, reduced-toxicity hypergolic fuels suitable for Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS) thrusters while maintaining critical performance metrics when paired with standard oxidizers.

AI Summary

MDA seeks an automated cybersecurity control assessment platform that unifies vulnerability scanning and STIG data mapping across cloud, on-premise, and disconnected environments. The solution must eliminate manual correlation work, validate control implementation status, and synchronize assessment data from tactical sites to strategic governance centers.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) requires a standardized, environment-agnostic capability to validate cybersecurity controls across its complex architecture. Current assessment methodologies rely heavily on manual data correlation—assessors spend valuable time mapping vulnerability scan results (CVEs) and STIG checklists to RMF controls (NIST 800-53). This manual process is slow, prone to inconsistency, and diverts high-value human capital from analyzing actual mission risk. The Agency seeks an "Assessment Orchestration" solution that can: -Operate Anywhere: Function identically in cloud-native, enterprise on-premise, and disconnected/austere environments, providing a unified data structure regardless of the target's location. -Automate the "Grind": Ingest raw outputs from standard tools (e.g., Nessus/ACAS, SCAP) and automatically map findings to the relevant security controls (NIST 800-53, with extensibility for NIST 800-171/CMMC). -DCO Alignment: Bridge the gap between Assessment (SCA) and Operations (DCO) by validating the implementation status of directed actions (e.g., Cyber Tasking Orders) on the target system. -Data Portability: Ensure assessment data can be securely synchronized from tactical edge environments to strategic governance hubs for aggregation and trend analysis.

Objective

Develop a universal assessment framework capable of automating Control Validation Tests (CVT) across diverse operating environments (Cloud, On-Premise, and Air-Gapped/Tactical). The solution must ingest data from existing vulnerability scanners and automatically correlate technical findings to NIST …

AI Summary

This RFP seeks commercial space and ground-based sensing and analytics to enhance real-time tactical awareness for warfighters. Solutions should integrate data collection, analysis, and delivery capabilities to address gaps in responsiveness and automation that current systems lack.

This topic seeks to rapidly field non-missile-warning, space and/or ground enabled sensing and analytic capabilities that enhance warfighter decision speed. Space Force Components and Combatant Commands increasingly depend on commercially derived, space and/or ground enabled insights, but existing systems lack the responsiveness, automation, and sensing diversity needed for real-time tactical awareness. Adversary advancements and dynamic operational environments have outpaced traditional acquisition approaches, creating critical gaps that Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) is working to solve.   Aligned with the Space Force Commercial Space Strategy, this topic solicits innovative, unclassified concepts across the sensing-to-analysis continuum including data collection, phenomenology exploitation, analytic fusion, and information delivery that can deliver meaningful operational utility within one year. Proposed solutions may introduce new sensing or analytic methods or significantly advance existing commercial approaches. An initial operational capability (IOC) is defined as a functional prototype that provides testable outputs directly to operators.   Solutions may include hardware, software, analytic tools, sensing concepts, data-processing architectures, or integrated workflows. Stand-alone capabilities and service-based models are acceptable, and performers may leverage commercial space-as-a-service or existing commercial space infrastructure. Approaches must deliver timely, operationally relevant insights without requiring government development of new space hardware.   Representative in-scope areas include novel phenomenology sensing, automated exploitation pipelines, multi-sensor fusion, change detection, activity characterization, material or environmental signature analysis, deep maritime or littoral monitoring, rapid-revisit analytics, unconventional sensing approaches, space-to-air or space-to-ground tipping and cueing, high-cadence environmental insight, incorporation of AI/ML, and fusion of structured or unstructured data. Out-of-scope areas include missile warning/tracking, kinetic interceptors, satellite buses, and launch vehicles. The overarching intent is to operationalize commercial capabilities rapidly and ensure warfighters receive meaningful, unique insights at the speed of need. The intent of this effort is not focused on Operational Planning Product (OPP) generation through the Global Data Marketplace but targets a new innovative solution (view Reference 1 for additional context).

Objective

The objective of this Phase I effort is to identify, assess, and demonstrate the feasibility of novel, non-missile-warning space and/or ground enabled sensing and analytic capabilities that can deliver rapid, commercially derived insights with meaningful operational utility. The effort seeks concept…

AI Summary

The DAF seeks a portable, context-aware authentication framework enabling secure identity validation and Zero Trust access control in austere, disconnected environments. This technology addresses operational gaps where traditional CAC and PKI systems fail during expeditionary missions lacking reliable connectivity to centralized identity servers.

Modern DAF operations are increasingly defined by mobility, expeditionary reach, and the necessity to operate in contested or infrastructure-sparse environments. Traditional authentication methods—such as Common Access Card (CAC) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)—were designed for stationary personnel within predictable, fixed-network environments. In multi-domain and joint logistics corridors, these legacy dependencies create operational friction, introduce significant access delays, and present systemic cyber vulnerabilities when connectivity to centralized identity providers is degraded or unavailable. To address this critical gap, the DAF seeks the development of Project ATOM (Authentication on the Move): a secure, context-aware, and portable authentication framework capable of validating identity and mission-relevant authorization at the tactical edge. This solution must function independently of static, cloud-based infrastructure, enabling continuous, Zero Trust access control that moves with the warfighter or autonomous asset. The solution may demonstrate capabilities such as - Context-Aware Authentication: Utilizing multi-modal inputs—such as biometric, behavioral, and situational environmental data—to verify identity and authorization levels dynamically; - Disconnected Operation: Maintaining robust authentication and access control protocols in Denied, Degraded, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) environments without reliance on persistent backhaul to a central identity server; - Cross-Domain Portability: Ensuring seamless identity and access validation across diverse transportation domains, including Air, Land, Sea, and Space; - Zero Trust Integration: Implementing granular, policy-based access control that adapts to real-time changes in the mission environment and potential adversarial activity; - Resilient Infrastructure: Withstanding harsh expeditionary conditions, including electromagnetic interference (EMI) and limited hardware resources, while maintaining low-latency performance; - Scalable Interoperability: Integrating with existing Department of War (DoW) identity standards and mission-critical applications to minimize friction while maximizing security posture. This topic seeks technologies capable of enabling decentralized identity validation that support modernization efforts outlined in the DAF Zero Trust Strategy and the broader objective of resilient, multi-domain operations.

Objective

The objective of this Phase I effort is to design and demonstrate the feasibility of a dynamic, portable, and context-aware authentication framework prototype for secure identity and mission-authorization in austere, disconnected, or high-mobility environments. This Phase I effort will focus on defi…