Firefox — R&D- Defense System: Aircraft (Applied Research/Exploratory Development)

DEPT OF DEFENSE · DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY (DARPA) · DEF ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGCY is soliciting Firefox — R&D- Defense System: Aircraft (Applied Research/Exploratory Development). Solicitation number DARPA-PS-26-137. Classified under NAICS 541714 — Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology). Product/service code AC12 — R&D- DEFENSE SYSTEM: AIRCRAFT (APPLIED RESEARCH/EXPLORATORY DEVELOPMENT). Responses are due by 09 November 2026 15:00 UTC. Posted on SAM.gov, the US federal contract opportunities system; registration is required to bid.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed a non-invasive coherent optical system capable of recording neural signals in humans. To expand this foundational technology and enable the development of revolutionary, non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), DARPA's Firefox program is soliciting approaches to overcome key technological hurdles: 1) development of components enabling dynamic rastering/scanning of the incoming coherent optical signal to target multiple regions of interest and 2) development of new data processing architectures beyond the digital domain to handle the high data rates and computational burden inherent to scaling the amount of neural data recorded by the optical system. The ultimate goal of the Firefox program is to use these innovations to develop a 100-channel, non-invasive BCI with 50-micron spatial and 100-microsecond temporal resolution.