Aircraft Defensive Electro-optical Protection Technologies (ADEPT)
Funds development of aircraft electro-optical defensive countermeasure technologies to protect U.S. aircraft and aircrew in contested environments, under an Air Force solicitation for two technical areas.
⚑ Federal contract solicitation; applicant restrictions apply. · Technical area page limits were amended (TA2 page limit revised to 20 pages; earlier amendment changed technical proposal limits). · DoD SAFE link request deadline specified as 2026-11-06 12:00 PM Eastern Time.
This is a defense engineering/electro-optical countermeasures solicitation centered on aircraft protection hardware and executable threat analysis, which is far outside IPPRA’s social-behavioral/public-opinion portfolio. The team’s security work is on attitudes, risk perception, and warning/communication—not weapons development or applied materials/DE/EO systems.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-10-17
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 topic: national_security_defense (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
16 October 2026 Amendment 2- Solicitation amended to revise the technical proposal page limit for Technical Area 2 from 15 pages to 20 pages and to identify 06 November 2026, 12:00 PM (Noon) Eastern Time as the deadline for requesting DoD SAFE link for proposal submission. Also, adding a Q&A attachment. 28 September 2026 Amendment 1- Solicitation amended to revise technical proposal page limit to 15 pages per Technical Area. In support of the AFRL Information and Spectrum Dominance Directorate (AFRL/RF), the objective of the ADEPT effort is to develop pre-emptive or reactive countermeasure solutions —including expendable, directed energy, and novel developmental solutions in the EO spectrum—to protect U.S. aircraft and aircrew in contested environments. The ADEPT program is divided into two separate technical areas: Hardware & Executable Analysis of Threats (HEAT) Advanced Countermeasure Engineering (ACE)
Eligibility
Applicant restrictions (federal contract). Set-aside: No Set aside used. Notice type: Solicitation. Organization: DEPT OF DEFENSE / DEPT OF THE AIR FORCE / FA2377 USAF AFMC AFRL PZL AFRL RYKS.
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