Focus Areas and Submission Instructions

Request for Information (RFI)
for
Department of War
Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Energy, Installations, and Environment (OASW(EI&E)) Submission Instructions and Focus Areas

The four focus areas and associated warfighting capability goals are summarized below:

Focus Area
Warfighting Capability Goals
Areas of Interest (Non-Exhaustive)

1. Advanced Materials & Physical Hardening

Protect assets and personnel from kinetic impacts, thermal effects, and blast overpressures. Metamaterials, energy-dissipating composites, advanced cellular structures, self-healing materials, and novel concrete formulations.

2. Subterranean & Deep-Earth Engineering

Protect command, control, and logistics nodes from precision-guided weapons. High-speed tunneling, modular subsurface facilities, rapid cavern excavation, and shock-isolated underground structural design.

3. Signature Management, Camouflage, & Deception

Mitigate targeting telemetry by masking, distorting, or mimicking physical installations across electromagnetic and optical spectrums. Multispectral signature reduction (visual, thermal, radar, EM), spatial deception, decoy structures, and terrain-integrated facility design.

4. Spatial Dispersal & System-Level Resilience

Mitigate single points of failure to support installation operational capability and survivability under kinetic impact. Decoupled utility grids, cellular base layouts, modular/deployable structures, and autonomous backup utility systems.

Please address the following questions in your response. Frame your answers around operational performance, resilience metrics, and research pipelines.

Section
Warfighting Objective
Inquiries

A. Advanced Hardening

Improve structural resistance to kinetic and blast energy. 1. What material breakthroughs can dissipate or redirect extreme kinetic energy and blast overpressures more effectively than standard reinforced concrete? 2. What are the logistical requirements (transportability, curing time, specialized labor) for deploying these materials in austere environments?

B. Subterranean Operations

Use subsurface placement for physical protection.
1. What methodologies exist to scale subsurface construction and tunneling technologies to protect critical assets? 2. What engineering solutions address subterranean lifelines, including ventilation, power routing, and egress?

C. Signature & Deception

Mitigate remote sensing and targeting systems.
1. How can structural geometry and material coatings reduce detection by remote sensing and automated targeting algorithms?