NCDMM Soliciting RFI on Advancing Metal Alloy Systems

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Innovation Capability and Modernization (ICAM) Office, in collaboration with the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), is currently soliciting technical white papers for a request for information (RFI) to explore development and transition of metallic alloys and manufacturing processes to potentially enhance capabilities of current and future defense platforms and weapon systems. 

 “For the past generation, most DoD [Department of Defense]-funded materials development has focused on cost savings and reducing construction timelines,” says Matthew Draper, technical director—Metallurgy and Manufacturing, ICAM. “However, in today’s era of renewed global power competition, there’s an urgent need to accelerate the transition of breakthroughs and discoveries into deployable equipment and capabilities.” 

The RFI for Accelerated Capability Metals Enterprise (ACME) aims to accelerate the transformation of innovations, inventions, and scientific discoveries into operational equipment and capabilities, specifically seeking to advance development and transition of new, high-performance metallic alloy systems and associated manufacturing processes with enhanced properties. The request is open to all application domains, including sea, air, land, and space. 

Submitters must indicate how a prototype will be developed and manufactured to address the technical challenges. The prototype must prove the operational practicality and benefits of the proposed material and/or process. At the start of the technical approach, identified technologies must be at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 or higher and advance to at least TRL 6 by the end of Phase I. The Phase II effort should then progress the work to TRL 8 or higher. Multiple submittals are permissible; however, each submission should only address one specific topic area. 

The deadline to submit responses is 5 p.m. EST on Friday, January 31, 2025. The OSD ICAM office and NCDMM will only consider submitted topics addressing the objectives outlined in the RFI. The OSD ICAM office and the Government reserve the right to issue no awards, or multiple awards, of varied scale and scope, against the information received within White Paper submittals. 

For more details and specific RFI guidelines, visit https://www.ncdmm.org/rfi/rfi-accelerated-capability-materials-enterprise-acme/. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.