FY26 NAWCAD Propulsion and Power Technology Development Program Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)
This Navy BAA funds white papers and, for selected offerors, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-sharing, or cost contracts for propulsion, power, and energy technology development for naval air vehicles.
⚑ Federal contract/BAA mechanism rather than a grant; white paper first, then invited full proposal. · Cost sharing may be proposed and is mentioned in evaluation. · White papers due 2026-09-30; proposals may be limited to invited offerors. · Technical areas are specifically propulsion, power, and energy for naval air vehicles.
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 90 strong | technical depth: central; funds applied research |
| IPPRA | 45 partial | portfolio topics: national_security_defense, energy (primary); social/behavioral work is none; funds applied research; capped at 45 (limited social-science role) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 45 partial | funds applied research; prototyping/demonstration stage; deep-tech content |
Description
The NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION (NAWCAD) AIR SYSTEMS GROUP, Propulsion and Power Engineering Department is looking to solicit for white papers in response to the Government’s Statement of Objectives. For successful offerors, a Request for Proposal will be submitted, and a contract will subsequently be awarded off Broad Agency Announcement 2026 for Propulsion & Power of Naval Air Vehicles. Detailed information is provided in the NAVAIR publication “Guide to Naval Aviation Propulsion and Power Technology Development Programs for Fiscal Year 2026.” The aforementioned guide is attached to the SAM.gov announcement. Evaluations will be conducted by a panel of Government technical evaluators using the following criteria: Scientific and technical merits of the proposed research to include, (1) the degree to which proposed research and development objectives support the targeted technical topic and (2) validity of the technical basis for the approach offered; and potential contributions to the Navy Propulsion, Power and Energy objectives to include (1) relevance to the stated technology areas of interest; (2) anticipated operational military (or commercial, if applicable) utility; (3) ability of proposed system/study to be rapidly ready for transition; (4) suitability for transition to Navy systems; and (5) projected affordability of transitioning the technology to the fleet Other evaluation criteria, of lesser importance but equal to each other are; The offeror’s capabilities, related experience, past performance in similar efforts, research personnel, facilities, techniques or unique combinations of these which are integral factors for achieving the proposal objectives and the realism and reasonableness of cost, including proposed cost sharing. No further criteria will be used in the evaluation. The technical and cost information will be evaluated at the same time. Further details on these criteria are contained in the aforementioned Guide. Selection for award will be based on the potential benefit to the Government weighed against the cost of the proposals, in view of the availability of Government funds. Cost plus fixed fee, cost sharing, and cost contracts are anticipated. Other types of contracts may be proposed, but offerors are advised that the Government is under no obligation to accept. Specific reporting requirements cited on the Contract Data Requirements List (DD1423) shall be specified within each contract award. At a minimum all offerors will be required to submit the following reports: a) Detailed Planning Report; b) Progress Report; c) Financial Reports; d) Test Plans; e) Program Reviews; f) Presentation Material; and g) Final Report. Proposal submission process, format and content, as well as deliverable items are delineated in the above mentioned NAVAIR Guide. Initial proposals or White Papers (WP) should not exceed 30 pages in length, including a cost estimate. BRIEFNESS IS DESIRABLE. WPs RANGING FROM A FEW PAGES TO 15 PAGES ARE THE NORM. Cost estimates in WPs for stand-alone subsets of effort are encouraged. Offerors of those WPs found to be consistent with the intent of the BAA will be invited to submit a formal cost and technical proposal. One original, and later, if invited, of each formal cost and technical proposal are to be submitted. WPs and Proposals shall be submitted to: Stacey Stone; Stacey.l.stone9.civ@us.navy.mil; Procuring Contracting Officer, Patuxent River, MD 20670. WPs and Proposals that include sensitive information can be submitted through the DoD Safe (https://safe.apps.mil/). WHITE PAPER SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY 30 SEPT 2026. The Navy reserves the right to select for award any, all, part of, or none of the responses received and intends to fully fund any resultant contract(s), depending on available funding. The Government will not pay any proposal preparation costs for responding to this Sources Sought. Responses should be forwarded at no cost to the Government. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this Sources Sought is not considered an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost as specified in FAR 31.205-18. Educational institutions, Small Business concerns, Small Disadvantaged Business concerns, Women Owned Small Business concerns, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Veteran-Owned Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, HUBZone Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business and Minority Institutions are especially encouraged to submit proposals for consideration under this BAA.
Eligibility
Applicant restrictions (federal contract). Set-aside: . Notice type: Sources Sought. Organization: DEPT OF DEFENSE / DEPT OF THE NAVY / NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIR DIV.
Apply
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · Department of Defense (BAA-style) conventions SEE A DOD EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — Department of Defense (BAA-style)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.