The Pentagon’s innovation arm is seeking industry proposals through April 15 for a modular capability aimed at improving situational awareness for aircrews operating in contested environments. The effort targets a key gap in airborne mission systems: the absence of a real-time, unified picture of the battlespace. Without it, crews must rely on outdated systems, which reduces aircraft survivability and crews’ ability to adapt quickly during complex missions.
In a recent solicitation, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) outlined its interest in a solution called a modular Open Mission Engine (OMEN). This system would support a range of mission applications and plugins, enabling rapid development, deployment, and sustainment of mission applications across approved airborne and mobile form factors.
DIU said proposed OMEN solutions must be equipped with an open software development kit, published application interfaces, reusable high-fidelity commercial grade user interface components, and support for cross-platform deployment.
The first application on the platform will be an aviation Tactical Moving Map tool that improves in-flight situational awareness, threat understanding, and mission decision support under degraded, disrupted, intermittent, or limited communication environments. The moving map tool will serve as a baseline for future mission capabilities.
DIU also wants a data integration layer within the solution that “normalizes operational and aeronautical data through a language-agnostic Critical Abstraction Layer and modular protocol adapters.”
“Offerors should describe how their architecture ingests, normalizes, exposes, and sustains these data flows in a standards-based, extensible way,” the solicitation states.
In addition, DIU will consider capabilities that extend the operational utility, deployment, interoperability, management, and sustainment of OMEN and related mission services.
Responses to the solicitation are due April 15. DIU is expected to use its Commercial Solutions Opening process to move to prototype awards with successful offerors.