Research and Studies for the Office of Net Assessment

Background
The solicitation is for research and studies for the Office of Net Assessment. The work involves assessing future undersea competition, exploring heuristic future security environments marked by varying degrees of nuclear proliferation, analyzing space as an area of military competition, diagnosing specific areas of military competition in which the United States has or might plausibly develop a position of considerable competitive advantage, studying historical topics of interest to the DOD, exploring potential future maturation and proliferation of technologies and concepts associated with precision strike, studying economics in peace and war, innovative approaches to design and execute wargames that explore the competition between peer and near-peer competitors, addressing the role and value of information in military conflict, understanding possible future developments in machine intelligence and biotechnology, and analyzing whether broad characteristics of U.S. society are sources of strategic advantage or vulnerability.

Work Details
The tasks include assessing future undersea competition accounting for current and emerging trends in nation-state and non-nation-state objectives, associated operating concepts, and advances in commercial, scientific, and military technology; exploring heuristic future security environments marked by varying degrees of nuclear proliferation; analyzing space as an area of military competition undergoing significant change; diagnosing specific areas of military competition in which the United States has or might plausibly develop a position of considerable competitive advantage; studying historical topics of interest to the DOD with a particular emphasis on military history and strategy; exploring potential future maturation and proliferation of technologies and concepts associated with precision strike; studying economics in peace and war including the study of economic conditions affecting relative military power; innovative approaches to design and execute wargames that explore the competition between peer and near-peer competitors; addressing the role and value of information in military conflict; understanding possible future developments in machine intelligence including machine learning, automated reasoning, human-computer interaction, and robotics; understanding possible future developments in biotechnology including synthetic biology, genetic engineering, human cognition, barriers/enablers of biotechnology development; analyzing whether broad characteristics of U.S. society are sources of strategic advantage or vulnerability.

Period of Performance
The period of performance typically ranges from one to five years. Options will be considered at the discretion of the awarding authority.