Broad Agency Announcement - Biomedical Research and Diving Equipment Development

Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for BAA N00024-27-S-0001 BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND DIVING EQUIPMENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE AREAS OF DIVER HEALTH, SAFETY, AND EFFECTIVENESS, AS WELL AS SUBMARINER SURVIVABILITY IN A DISABLED SUBMARINE Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is soliciting pre-proposals and full proposals for applied Biomedical Research and Diving Equipment Development with a focus on Diver Health, Safety, and Performance, Deep Diving Advancements, and Submarine Escape and Rescue. The program's goals are presented in detail below. It is the intent that this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) be open for a two-year period from the date of publication. Specified dates are given in paragraph 2.a. below for submission of pre-proposals and full proposals to be awarded within Fiscal Year (FY) 2028 and 2029. 1. Primary Areas of Interests Program objectives are to focus research on improving or developing diving equipment for rapid transition to fleet capabilities, and biomedical aspects of Diver Health, Safety, and Performance, Deep Diving, and Submarine Escape and Rescue to develop and/or improve procedures that increase Navy personnel safety and effectiveness. The typical project will be two years or less, although three-year projects will be considered. Contracts awarded as a result of these BAAs historically average around $300K or less in annual cost. This information is provided for informational purposes only to provide a sense of scope desired by NAVSEA. This is not an obligatory value and pre-proposals/proposals valued above or below will be considered. However, budgetary constraints are a deciding factor in the selection for award. a. Diving: This interest area is comprised of five task areas focused on items that impose limitations on diver capabilities, specifically: breathing gas supply; human performance; protection from the undersea environment; decompression; and tools, transportation and training. Focus areas for each task are: Breathing Gas Supply (product goal should meet both US Navy General Specification for Diving and Manned Hyperbaric Systems and US Navy Dive annual requirements): Improve carbon dioxide (CO2) scrubbing materials or systems (i.e. canister systems), used for both free-swimming (i.e. underwater breathing apparatuses (UBAs)) and fixed systems (i.e. recompression chambers), that extend diving duration; Develop portable, minimal power input, ambient oxygen (O2) concentrators capable of working in conjunction with existing diving air compressors; Improve helium reclaim systems to support mixed gas and saturation diving systems and compact, portable mix-making system to reduce large gas storage logistical footprints; Develop CO2 sensor and improve O2 sensors for measuring ppO2 in closed-circuit UBA; Develop innovative diluent gas solutions that combine the advantages of nitrogen's abundance and availability and helium's non-narcotic properties; Develop high-pressure air flasks, hoses and regulators, with high pressure defined for this purpose as greater than 5,000 pounds per square inch (psi), for surface-supplied diving (SSD) emergency gas supplies (EGS) and SCUBA/ closed and semi-closed UBAs. Current diver worn EGS is not sufficient to provide organic gas supply for recovery from deepest depths if primary gas source is lost. Human Performance: Improve understanding of oxygen toxicity mechanisms and oxygen toxicity mitigation development; Develop pharmacological or other novel mitigations to prevent or delay pulmonary and CNS oxygen toxicity; Develop and/or refine underwater noise protection strategies, equipment, and diver underwater exposure limits; Improve current comprehension of the environmental and physiological mechanisms via which sound is perceived via wetted auditory interface; Develop permissible exposure limits (PEL) for typical broadband noise sources in the aquatic mission environment; Develop compact, adaptive, wearable acoustic dosimetry technology for use in conjunction with PEL and to inform long-term auditory hazards associated with diving; Develop methods to assess and mitigate diver underwater sound/blast/implosion exposure. Refine the understanding of hypercapnia and its effects on divers and mitigations thereof; Improve understanding of gas (N2, O2, CO2) narcosis to include mitigations and predictions of equivalent narcotic depths; Improve understanding of effects on the human body from immersion, exertion, breathing resistance, and temperature, or a combination thereof, in relation to working underwater; Develop breathing standards for resting and working personnel in dry hyperbaric environments to 6 Atmospheres Absolute (ATA). (3) Protection from the Environment: Improve knowledge of submerged body heat loss/retention to inform development of future heating/cooling systems; Develop analytical tools for exposure planning for deep / long duration diving operations based off know levels of thermal protection and environmental factors (i.e. depth, temperature, etc.); Improve heating/cooling methods/systems for submerged free-swimming divers; Examine novel mechanism for actively cooling a diver underwater. Specifically in helmeted or unhelmeted and tethered and untethered conditions. The system should be capable of functioning in a highly contaminated environment; Improve physical protection for divers in contaminated water (i.e. full encapsulation) to include novel non-permeable membranes; Improve equipment and procedures used to decontaminate divers and diving gear; Improve equipment and/or procedures to detect and quantify biologic and/or chemical contamination on-site within 24 hours of diving; Develop permissible exposure limits for common biological/chemical contaminants for risk mitigation planning. (4) Decompression: Develop/test decompression models valid across the full spectrum of U.S. Navy diving, including diving to depths beyond 300 fsw; Develop pharmacological or other novel mitigations for preventing or treating decompression sickness; Improve decompression sickness diagnosis through, but not limited to, the utilization of algorithms; Improve decompression guidance using alternate gas mixtures. (5) Tools, Transportation and Training: Improve diver communications, both wired and through-water; Improve the ability to track diver location underwater from surface support craft; Improve through-water data communication for divers (text, navigation, biometrics); Improve diver propulsion devices to include diver worn and diver as passenger. b. Submarine Escape and Rescue: This interest area relates to optimizing submariner survival in a disabled submarine event. Focus areas are: Development of rapid, accurate methods to assess a disabled submarine (DISSUB) atmosphere, with focus on Submarine Escape Action Limit (SEAL) gases, to internal pressures up to 6 ATA; Develop novel means to mitigate oxygen toxicity (Pulmonary and CNS) aboard a pressurized disabled submarine; Develop novel means to accelerate or eliminate saturation decompression of a pressurized disabled submarine (DISSUB) survivors, including but not limited to, greater oxygen use; Evaluation of the utility of non-hyperbaric interventions to prolong survival and accelerate decompression from a pressurized DISSUB; Evaluation of the impact of starvation, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and/or gas narcosis at 2- 5 atmospheres absolute (ATA) on decision making in a pressurized DISSUB; Improve understanding and guidance of thermal stress (with focus on hyperthermia) and associated fluid loss in a pressurized DISSUB and rescue vehicles to 5 ATA by: Development and evaluation of physiological heat stress limits based on time and environmental conditions, and Development and evaluation of heat mitigation measures (body cooling) under conditions of increased temperature, humidity, and elevated CO2 (2.5 - 3%); Improve understanding and guidance for mitigation of surface interval decompression sickness (DCS) risk associated with rescue using ...