Leidos Awarded $20 Million Air Force Munitions Research Contract

The Air Force Research Laboratory announced it has awarded Leidos a $20 million ceiling contract (approximately $20 million) for advanced research supporting munition readiness over approximately five years. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract will be performed in Reston, Virginia, and at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with an ordering period ending Aug. 14, 2031.

Advanced Research for Munition Readiness Details

The award was made under AFRL’s unrestricted Air Delivered Effects Broad Agency Announcement, FA8651-22-S-0001. The original BAA document establishes a two-step process in which the government evaluates white papers before requesting full proposals for favored concepts, while also permitting calls for proposals in specific research areas.

The IDIQ gives AFRL a flexible mechanism to issue orders that rapidly explore, mature and demonstrate advanced missile and munition technologies. The award notice did not specify individual research projects, which will instead be defined through subsequent orders. No funds were obligated at the time of award, so the $20 million represents the vehicle’s maximum potential value rather than guaranteed spending.

The broader Air Delivered Effects program spans basic research, applied research and advanced technology development. Its technical areas include weapon airframes, sensors, information processing and control, modular open systems, weapons autonomy, cyber resilience for precision-guided munitions, prototyping and experimentation. That breadth allows AFRL to investigate components and concepts before transitioning successful technologies to weapon program offices or later acquisition phases.

AFRL’s Munitions Directorate is the Air Force’s principal organization for conventional munitions technology development and conducts research, development and testing in support of conventional weapons programs. Locating part of the work at Eglin places the effort near the directorate’s laboratories and the base’s weapons test infrastructure, supporting the progression of concepts from laboratory research to demonstrations in relevant environments.

The BAA was issued for competitive selection of research proposals and is not set aside for a specific category of business. The Air Force did not disclose how many bids or proposals were received for the Leidos award. AFRL at Eglin is the contracting activity, and the contract number is FA8651-26-D-B003.

Leidos’ AFRL Munitions Research Work

Leidos, headquartered in Reston, has received other AFRL munitions research work, including efforts involving artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning for autonomous target acquisition, signal and image processing development and real-time implementation, and payload development. The Air Force did not identify a single incumbent or predecessor contract for the new munition-readiness vehicle.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under FA865126DB003 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.