Endless Forge

Endless Forge is a Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) initiative led by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under solicitation FA2394-26-R-B003, aimed at transforming the U.S. industrial base by replacing traditional vertical supply chains with adaptive, regionalized, surge-responsive manufacturing networks. The program seeks to enable the Department of the Air Force to rapidly scale any weapon system through a platform-agnostic approach that responds in real time to battlefield needs. Proposals must be submitted as white papers through February 19, 2028, with a two-step process: only white papers are currently required, and those deemed aligning with Air Force priorities will be invited to submit full proposals under FAR-based contracts, Other Transactions (OT), grants, or cooperative agreements. The solicitation is open to all small business concerns, with HUBZone small businesses receiving a 10 percent price evaluation preference, and no formal set aside is applied. Key areas of interest include technology sprints in model-driven quality assurance, modular integration, software-defined manufacturing, and secure data exchange, as well as technology demonstrations for attrition-tolerant systems, autonomous collaborative platforms, space systems, and high-speed affordable weapons. The contractor is expected to deliver scientific and technical reports, hardware components and prototypes, and software code under a performance-based framework with model-based acceptance criteria, adhering to MIL-STD-130 and MIL-STD-129 for item marking and shipment labeling. All deliverables must meet CMMC cybersecurity requirements, with annual affirmations maintained in the Supplier Performance Risk System, and CUI/FCI must be protected according to DFARS standards. Contractors must comply with comprehensive federal regulations including anti-kickback, gratuities, contingent fee prohibitions, and the newly added RFO 52.222-90 addressing DEI discrimination, as well as flow-down responsibilities for security and cybersecurity requirements to subcontractors. Submission of completed representations and certifications, as well as adherence to ANSI/NISO formatting standards for technical reports, are mandatory. Payment processing must occur through Wide Area Workflow, and key personnel must be reported at award, annually, and upon addition, with government coordination required before access to sensitive information. The anticipated period of performance is 36 months per award, split into 33 months of technical work and 3 months of reporting, with performance based on deliverables defined in the Contract Data Requirements List (DD Form 1423-1