A -- BAA07-08 Polymer Ice

Description BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) 07-08 DARPA Polymer Ice WHITEPAPERS DUE 03/06/2007 FULL PROPOSALS DUE 04/24/2007, TECHNICAL POC: Dr. Mitchell Zakin, DARPA/DSO, Phone: (703) 248-1509, Email: baa07-08-@darpa.mil; URL: www.darpa.mil/dso. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION: The unrestricted mobility of enemy forces in the crowded urban battle space, including individual combatants and vehicles, severely reduces the effectiveness of military and peacekeeping operations. This, coupled with difficulties in the identification of adversaries amongst the local populace, creates a dangerous, uncertain, high-risk environment that risks coalition and civilian casualties. As such, there is an immediate need for methods to deny enemy transit while simultaneously maintaining our own. An effective solution is found from the basic tenet: to get from Point A to Point B, one must have sufficient traction with the ground. In response to this challenge, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking innovative proposals to develop Polymer Ice, a polymer-based artificial ice material that achieves effective mobility control by the precise and reversible reduction of ground traction. The Polymer Ice program aims to replicate the properties of black ice, a thin, translucent, slippery coating of ice on roadway surfaces that forms spontaneously in cold temperatures, but for use in a broad range of hot, arid environments such as found in Iraq and Afghanistan. A non-toxic reversal agent, carefully matched to the chemical characteristics of Polymer Ice, will be developed to rapidly restore traction when applied to a Polymer Ice-coated surface. Most importantly, incorporation of the reversal agent into combat boots and tires, to achieve instantaneous traction restoration on contact, will provide true asymmetric mobility capabilities to our war fighters. This is akin to having the ability to run effortlessly on wet ice, while adversary mobility is simultaneously severely restricted. It is envisioned that a Mobility Control System would consist of Polymer Ice (or raw materials used to produce Polymer Ice in real-time), a spray-on reversal agent, boots/tires with built-in reversal agent, a dispersal means, and a means for clean-up of the reversed material. Such a system will provide unprecedented situational control and sustained operational tempo, including the ability to shape the terrain by constraining adversaries to specific areas, control ingress/egress to buildings, degrade the ability of our adversaries to shoot and chase us, and gain time for our war fighters to act rather than react. PROPOSAL EVALUATION: Evaluation of proposals will be accomplished through a technical review of each proposal using the following criteria, in descending order of importance: 1. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL MERIT 2. VALUE TO DEFENSE 3. CAPABILITY OF THE PERSONNEL AND FACILITIES TO PERFORM THE PROPOSED EFFORT 4. COST REALISM AND REASONABLENESS ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: Proposers choosing to respond to this BAA must read the associated PIP available at www.fedbizopps.gov and www.grants.gov, which provides specific information about this BAA, including instructions on how to respond. Point of Contact Anthony E. Cicala, Contracting Officer, Phone: (571) 218-4639, Fax: (703) 248-1927, Email: anthony.cicala@darpa.mil