Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) Munition Payload Interface Solution - Sources Sought

INTRODUCTION: The U.S. Army Contracting Command – New Jersey (ACC-NJ), on behalf of the Office of the Project Manager, Close Combat Systems (PM CCS), Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, is issuing this sources sought notice as a means of conducting market research to identify potential sources having an Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) munition payload interface solution that is compliant with, is planned to be compliant with, or is an enhanced variant of either the Picatinny Common Lethality Interface Kit (CLIK) Design Standard, or its counterpart for small UAS applications, the small Universal Payload Interface (sUPI). The U.S. Government intends to use the results of this market research to solicit under the Title 10 USC 4022 Authority of the Department of Defense to carry out certain prototype projects, and Title 10 USC 4023 Procurement for Experimental Purposes Authority, however other contracting strategies may be considered based on the results of the market research. Multiple awards may be pursued. All small business set-aside categories will be considered. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding submissions. The Government intends to have an industry day during the Summer of 2026 to share a draft of the Request for Proposal (RFP). Interested sources are encouraged to monitor SAM.gov, which is where any Industry Day Notice will be posted. All contractors interested in this potential future solicitation, must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). DISCLAIMER: THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) TO BE SUBMITTED. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION, AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS, AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. PROGRAM BACKGROUND: The U.S. Government is prioritizing the rapid deployment of low-cost, domestically produced UAS’s, in an effort to achieve battlefield superiority by 2027, focusing on innovation, speed, and frontline adaptability. For example, at the small unit level, the use of small UAS’s to deliver munition payloads, significantly enhances combat capabilities, in that they act as a force multiplier, providing a safer and more accurate means of engaging targets. The U.S. Army is determined to pursue streamlined means of acquiring and delivering a wide range of UAS technologies at an accelerated pace, in order to provide lethal and protective capabilities to soldiers. REQUIRED CAPABILITIES: The U.S. Army has an immediate need for lethality integrated onto unmanned systems, in order to achieve and maintain overmatch capability. The Picatinny CLIK addresses this need by establishing a design document that specifies a common interface between the UAS platform and payload designs. Widespread adoption of CLIK will enable rapid integration of payloads onto commercially available UAS platforms that are compliant with the Picatinny CLIK design standard. Picatinny CLIK is intended to allow payloads to be platform-agnostic and transferable across various sizes and types of UAS’s, while supporting diverse lethal and protective capabilities, including anti-personnel, anti-materiel, anti-armor, obscuration, neutralization, and deception. The sUPI within the CLIK ecosystem, is a platform-to-payload interface tailored for smaller (Group 1 & 2) platforms. The assemblage of devices (platforms, payloads) that are Picatinny CLIK-compliant, will collectively form the Picatinny CLIK ecosystem. Picatinny CLIK also has the following additional properties: a) The physical interface will be scalable across classes of sUAS to maximize compatibility of weapon payloads. b) Power and data requirements will be defined to operate the weaponized payloads, and transfer data to and from onboard lethal effects for mission programming. NOTE: The Government-owned Technical Data Packages (TDP) are marked as Distribution A – approved for public release: distribution is unlimited. ELIGIBILITY: The applicable NAICS code for this requirement is 336411 , with a Small Business Size Standard of 1,500 . The Product Service Code (PSC) is 1550. SUBMISSION DETAILS: Interested companies shall respond by providing the Government with the following information: 1) Brief summary of the company's capabilities, including a description of facilities, personnel, and technical and manufacturing capability. 2) Description of any history or experience manufacturing items that are compliant with CLIK or items that feature CLIK alternatives. 3) Provide Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) prices for an approximate FY26 and/or FY27 production quantity of 1,000 units. If relevant, include a brief description of modifications necessary to make existing product designs Picatinny-CLIK compliant. 4) Respondents are encouraged to provide feedback/comments regarding the CLIK design standard. 5) Provide the organization’s name, address, technical point of contact, position, phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, CAGE Code, Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), website address, FAX, business size, and type of ownership for the organization (public, private, joint venture). 6) Due to current global supply chain and other factors, respondents are asked to identify any components or materials that may be subject to price volatility or scarcity, and address what their firm is doing to mitigate risk related to obtaining materials, price impacts, and production stability. Interested businesses shall submit a brief capabilities statement package (no more than ten 8.5 X 11 inch pages, font no smaller than 10 point), demonstrating the ability to provide the products/systems listed in this Technical Description. Documentation shall be in bullet format. No phone or email solicitations with regards to the status of the RFP, will be accepted prior to its release. Your response to this Sources Sought, including any capabilities statement, shall be electronically submitted to the Contract Specialist, (Zachary Smith), in either Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format (PDF), via email ([email protected]), and the Contracting officer (Peter W. Gerhard) ([email protected]), no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 02 March 2026, and reference this notice number in subject line of e-mail and on all enclosed documents. No award will be made as a result of this posted notice. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the Government. The Government will accept written questions via email only. In addition to the Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer, please include the following personnel on any question submissions: MAJ Jacob LaGue, [email protected]. Information and materials submitted in response to this request WILL NOT be returned. DO NOT SUBMIT CLASSIFIED MATERIAL. If your organization has the potential capacity to provide the required products/systems, please provide the following information: 1) Organization name, address, primary points of contact (POCs) and their email address, CAGE Code, UEI, FAX, website address, telephone number, business size, and type of ownership for the organization (public, private, joint venture); and 2) Tailored capability statements addressing the requirements of this notice, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations shall address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. All data received in response to this Sources Sought that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary, will be fully protected from any release outside the Government . Attachments: - Picatinny_CLIK_1760580463_Distro A - sUPI_Payload_Brief_Distro A - sUPI_Platform_Brief_Distro A ----INDUSTRY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS - 24 February 2026---- QUESTION 1: When you state 1,000 units, does that mean 1,000 munitions? If so, how many release mechanisms are you looking for to go with the 1,000 munitions? RESPONSE 1: It would be 1,000 units of whatever CLIK-compliant module you organization wants to bring to the table, whether that’s a weapons release system, munition, etc. QUESTION 2: What problem are you looking to solve with this sources sought? It's clear the CLIK and the smaller sUPI for the Group 1-2 systems, appear to be the solutions desired. It would really help if we understood the problem well enough to respond. RESPONSE 2: See below. 2a) The Government is conducting market research to understand what UAS lethal payload components exist amongst industry, that are either compliant with the design standard defined by the Picatinny CLIK ecosystem, or could become compliant. This could be a weapons release system to drop existing munitions or purpose-built munitions, a fireset box to employ existing munitions or purpose-built munitions, munitions, etc., which adhere to the CLIK design standard to enable a modular, “plug-and-play” environment. The intent is to create an ecosystem of CLIK-compliant platforms and payloads so the Warfighter does not have to overcome the burden of integration, and can quickly swap out payloads to meet specific mission requirements. 2b) The publicly releasable Picatinny CLIK and sUPI ICDs, can be downloaded from this website: https://ac.devcom.army.mil/picatinny-clik/. Please continue to monitor this website for more detailed documents. 2c) To clarify, the Government views sUPI as the common platform-to-payload interface for the PBAS program. The larger CLIK ICD is better suited for the larger Medium / Long Range Reconnaissance programs (MRR / LRR). QUESTION 3: Is there a specific target for this device/system? That could mean either a specific Group of UAS is targeted, or the integration is planned with specific platforms in mind. RESPONSE 3: See below. 3a) The Picatinny CLIK ecosystem is currently supporting the PBAS, MRR, and LRR programs. Each program has their own specific target requirements that generally fall under the categories of anti-personnel, anti-materiel, and anti-armor, from a lethality perspective. 3b) The offices of primary responsibility for those programs, will dictate the specific platforms. Picatinny Arsenal is responsible for the safe and rapid integration of lethal payloads onto any platform selected by those programs. Adopting the Picatinny CLIK design standard is key to ensuring any payload can integrate with any platform. QUESTION 4 - Is this effort to standardize the munition payload interface aligned with PM UAS Marketplace efforts? We've been anxiously awaiting to see the results that come out of their Group 2 process, which wrapped up nearly 60 days ago now. RESPONSE 4: This effort is to standardize the platform-to-payload interface, so that the Warfighter can very quickly employ the right payload for the mission at hand, every time. QUESTION 5: Is the Army requesting ROM pricing on a Qty 1,000, on a total warhead solution that utilizes the sUPI interface, a fuzing solution without warhead that utilizes sUPI, or something else? RESPONSE 5: The Government is conducting market research to understand what UAS lethal payload components exist amongst industry, that are either compliant with the design standard defined by the Picatinny CLIK ecosystem (to include sUPI), OR could become compliant. This could be a weapons release system to drop existing munitions or purpose-built munitions, fireset box to employ existing munitions or purpose-built munitions, munitions, etc., that adhere to the CLIK design standard to enable a modular, “plug-and-play” environment. The intent is to create an ecosystem of CLIK-compliant platforms and payloads, so the Warfighter does not have to overcome the burden of integration, and can quickly swap out payloads to meet specific mission requirements. The ROM for the 1,000 units would support whatever component or subcomponent your company wishes to submit, that is either already CLIK / sUPI compliant, or if not, a described path to becoming compliant.