U.S. Air Force seeks proposals for Relentless Wolfpack weapons program

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has opened a solicitation for Relentless Wolfpack, a program intended to demonstrate that weapons from different vendors can coordinate against targets in contested airspace, according to a call published under the PACER Broad Agency Announcement.

The call, issued by AFRL’s Air Warfare Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, seeks proposals covering autonomy, swarming behavior and interoperability among what the lab calls an “affordable mass cruise missile.” AFRL said the program will demonstrate that multiple weapons from different vendors can work together to synergize effects and neutralize targets in a contested battlespace.

The Air Force expects to make two to eight awards through an Other Transaction agreement for prototype work, with the possibility of follow-on production contracts or agreements. Performers must request the full proposal package by August 26 to remain eligible, and completed proposals are due October 2. AFRL said it anticipates awarding contracts by December 10, with work incrementally funded across fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

The period of performance for the Other Transaction agreement is set at 20 months: 18 months of technical work followed by a two-month final reporting period. AFRL said no funding is currently available for the effort and will not reimburse companies for proposal preparation costs.

Proposals must demonstrate compliance with the Open Systems Architecture standard known as WOSA v3.8 and alignment with what AFRL calls M-Series requirements. Companies that have not achieved WOSA v3.8 compliance by the time of award must present a plan to do so within three months, and AFRL said failure to meet that standard within the window will be cause for dismissal from the project.

The solicitation places heavy emphasis on autonomy. Performers must describe whether their proposed swarm is homogeneous or heterogeneous, list previously demonstrated behaviors such as formation keeping, weapon-target assignment and coordinated time on target, and specify how those behaviors were demonstrated, whether through digital simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing or live cruise missile testing. AFRL also asked companies to address a scenario involving four homogeneous systems working together, followed by a heterogeneous swarm of four to six systems built by four to six different providers.

Performers with existing capability must supply a detailed technical description rather than citing a program name alone, according to the call. AFRL said proposals built primarily on general compliance statements or unsupported claims will be considered inadequate.

Technical merit carries more weight in AFRL’s evaluation than cost, with four subfactors weighted equally: the novelty of the proposed approach, the performer’s understanding of the technical scope, the soundness of the technical approach including risk mitigation, and the potential to transition results into future government programs.

Government-furnished property will be limited to radios provided to individual performers, according to the call. AFRL said it will not provide base support, network access, or additional government-furnished information or software.

The current call follows two earlier public postings on the Relentless Wolfpack effort: a request for information published April 1 and a Grand Challenge special notice published July 13. AFRL did not disclose the total program budget or the value of individual awards expected under this call.