Project NextMRO (Prize Challenge)

Project NextMRO (Prize Challenge)

1. Problem Statement     

The Department of the Navy (DoN) faces critical challenges in maintaining its aircraft, ships, and submarines due to reliance on dozens of disparate, legacy IT systems. These systems lack the modern capabilities required to effectively plan, schedule, and execute maintenance activities across the fleet, leading to inefficiencies, readiness gaps, and increased sustainment costs. The inability to rapidly adapt maintenance practices to emerging threats and evolving operational environments poses a significant risk to fleet readiness and mission effectiveness.

2. Desired Outcomes

To address this urgent need, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in collaboration with the Program Executive Office for Manpower, Logistics and Business Solutions (PEO MLB) Logistics IT Services (LOG IT), is launching the NextMRO Modernization Prize Challenge. This challenge seeks innovative commercial solutions that can replace this fragmented landscape with modern Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) solutions and best practices capable of performing integrated, real-time, data-driven operational and shore logistics.

The DoN requires a modernized Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) system across all levels of Naval maintenance (i.e., Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot for both Maritime and Aviation domains) that can:

• Increase asset availability, minimize downtime and costs, and maximize the operational readiness of naval assets.
• Optimize maintenance schedules and improve resource allocation based on data-driven insights to include workforce availability, predictive analytics applications, and real-time equipment conditions.
• Enable predictive and condition-based maintenance by support applications that proactively identify and address maintenance needs to prevent failures and optimize maintenance schedules.
• Support the ability for worldwide users to view and take action on managing maintenance planning, execution, and closeout activities on any unit's work order data across all naval assets, regardless of domain or maintenance level.
• Provide real-time visibility into enterprise level maintenance readiness and support real-time data analytics to inform decision-making.
• Ensure availability and access to MRO solutions on approved Navy systems and mobile devices to perform maintenance at required locations and in disconnected environments.

3. Scope of the Challenge     

This prize challenge is focused on modernizing Naval Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) processes across all maintenance levels.

For the purpose of this challenge, the identified maintenance levels are:

• Organizational-Level (O-Level): Organizational maintenance is the first level of maintenance performed at or near the operational site by the equipment's user or operator. It focuses on maintaining the day-to-day readiness of the system and includes tasks that can be accomplished with minimal tools, equipment, and training.
  • Aviation Example: Pre-flight and post-flight inspections, servicing fluids, replacing tires, and performing minor adjustments or repairs on aircraft.
  • Maritime Example: Routine inspections, cleaning, lubrication, and minor repairs on shipboard systems, such as replacing light bulbs or tightening bolts.
• Intermediate-Level (I-Level): Intermediate maintenance is the second level of maintenance, performed at designated maintenance facilities or aboard ships with specialized capabilities. It involves more complex tasks, such as fault isolation, component repair, and calibration, requiring specialized tools, equipment, and trained personnel.
  • Aviation Example: Repairing avionics systems, replacing hydraulic pumps, or testing and calibrating flight control systems.
  • Maritime Example: Repairing shipboard electronics, overhauling pumps or valves, and performing diagnostics on propulsion or auxiliary systems.
• Depot-Level (D-Level): Depot maintenance is the highest level of maintenance, performed at centralized facilities with extensive resources and expertise. It includes major overhauls, complete system rebuilds, and modifications to extend the service life or enhance the capabilities of the system.
  • Aviation Example: Overhauling aircraft engines, repairing structural damage, or upgrading avionics systems.
  • Maritime Example: Dry-docking a ship for hull repairs, overhauling propulsion systems, or installing new combat systems.

For the purpose of this challenge, MRO is defined as:

• Maintenance: Routine checks, servicing, and preventive and predictive measures to maintain optimal performance and prevent equipment failures.
• Repair: Performing corrective maintenance by fixing specific defects or damage to restore functionality quickly, often in the field.
• Overhaul: In-depth inspections, repairs, and refurbishments to extend the operational life of equipment.

4. Required Capabilities

The following outlines the required capabilities of proposed solutions. Submissions should provide examples of actual project work indicating the ability to develop and deploy such solutions:

A. Functional Attributes:

• Vendors must deliver maintenance applications to support:
  • Preventative and Predictive Maintenance: Facilitate regularly scheduled tasks, leverage available sensor information, and data collection techniques to proactively identify potential equipment failures and schedule maintenance
  • Corrective Maintenance: Assist in reactive repairs to be performed after an asset has broken down
  • Work Order Management: Creation, assignment, and tracking of maintenance tasks and requirements w/ real-time access to documentation via approved devices     
  • Compliance and Documentation: Automated tracking of work controls, safety and legal requirements to include audit-ready records
  • Personnel Management and Maintenance Scheduling: Dynamically align      qualified and trained personnel to preventative and corrective tasks, with the ability to forecast capacity based on planned work
  • Asset Visibility, Data Analytics and Tracking: Real-time monitoring of asset location, condition, and position in maintenance lifecycle. Support user-defined dashboards and analytical insights to support role-based decision-making (e.g. maintenance trends, asset-specific costs, and equipment performance, etc.) based on historical and predictive operational analysis
  • Inventory and Spare Parts Management: Deploy applications to optimize inventory levels (e.g. spare parts, maintenance resources, etc.) based on relevant factors (such as equipment performance, unit mission needs, etc.) and automated reordering

• Vendors platform must address the following repair capabilities:      
  • Troubleshooting and Restoration: Support maintainers identify and diagnose the cause of equipment malfunction and follow-on actions to get equipment back to working order
  • Part Replacement: Identify and locate available parts to replace broken or worn-out components

• Vendors solution must support the following overhaul functions: 
  • Disassembly: Taking equipment apart for inspection and repair
  • Component Inspection: Examining all parts for wear and damage
  • Repair or Replacement: Addressing identified issues, potentially including the replacement of multiple parts while accounting for system effects
  • Restoration: Returning equipment to original working condition to include system reassembly and follow-on testing to ensure it functions correctly

B. Technical Capabilities:

• Scalability and Performance: Capable of supporting up to 200,000 users across geographically dispersed sites (ashore and afloat) minimizing latency and ensuring compatibility across all maintenance levels.
• Cybersecurity: Able to achieve an Authority to Operate (ATO) and support Impact Levels (IL) 4-6, meeting all relevant DoD cybersecurity requirements and standards within DoN approved Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environments. Support zero trust including data tagging for CUI/U-NNPI/NNPI (CRD) Impact Levels 4-6 Attributes Based Access Control (ABAC). Ability to operate with Government designated Identity Data Access Manager (IdAM) solution.
• Disconnected Operations (DDIL): Enable offline functionality for critical operations, including data access, local or detachment processing, and seamless synchronization with centralized systems upon connectivity restoration.     
• Access to Integrated Digital Environment (IDE): The solution must allow for and provide the means to conduct maintenance and modernization using information from the IDE from design agencies for submarines, aircraft carriers, surface ships, and aviation assets. It must also include methods for submitting feedback to the IDE's authoritative data sources..
• AI/ML Tooling: Platform supports ability to deploy both proprietary and third-party AI/ML tools (e.g., workflow “agents”, chat-based LLM support, optimization models, etc.) to assist with previously listed applications (e.g. workload distribution, predictive maintenance, and resource optimization).
• Mobile Access: Provide secure mobile access to platform data and resources   on Navy-approved devices and with Government designated Identity Data Access Manager (IdAM) solution.
• Interoperability: Support system interoperability where interfaces and data formats are flexible through the use of standards-based technology for interfaces and data exchanges. The solutions must be interoperable with DoW (e.g., Advana), and DoN related domains, to include Maritime and Aviation at all levels of maintenance using existing Navy Logistics IT systems and authoritative data, Jupiter, Metrology and calibration, financial, product life cycle management, and supply.  
• Cloud Readiness: Designed for cloud deployment or migratable to DoW and DoN approved cloud and Platform-as-a-Service (e.g. CANES, FS Edge) environments. 
• Customization Approach: Minimize customization of the COTS core business processes to meet Government functional capabilities. Describe your approach to meeting functional requirements through configuration, business process changes, or the use of Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) tool suites. If LCNC is proposed, the solution must integrate seamlessly with the primary COTS platform - maintaining data integrity and also enabling Single Sign-On (SSO) capability.
• User-Centric Design: Systems that enable rapid execution of common tasks with minimal user interaction and reduced cognitive burden, aligning with human-centered design best practices.
• Training: Training curriculum and materials must use a Scaled Agile Framework approach with iterative COTS capability delivery and include a comprehensive and innovative training approach that can effectively support a large and geographically dispersed workforce. Describe your solution’s training methods, materials, and support mechanisms.
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance: Standards should be implemented to support inclusive access for all types of workers, regardless of employment status, role, or physical capability.

5. Additional Attributes        

Proposals should demonstrate an understanding of the unique requirements of each maintenance level (O, I, and D) for both Maritime and Aviation domains. While a single integrated platform is desired, solutions may propose modular approaches that address specific maintenance levels. Proposals should clearly articulate how their solution can scale and adapt to support the diverse needs of the entire NextMRO ecosystem. Specifically, solutions should describe how their platform addresses:

• Operational Availability: Solutions must be maximally available. Planned maintenance or other administrative activities should be limited to 4 hours per month.
• Resource Constrained Environments: Ability to reduce data footprint to support low-bandwidth environments. Describe containerization strategy to ensure consistent deployment and to optimize data transfer and resource usage.
• Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD): Deploy updated software releases remotely via Government designated Developmental Secure Operations (DevSecOps) pipelines.
• Data Interoperability/Exchange: Ability to establish APIs to interact with middleware solutions using a common language or protocol. Data must be securely, accurately, and reliably transferred in normal operations and prioritized   in DDIL conditions.
• Cross-Maintenance Level Support: Integrate data, streamline and automate workflows, optimize resources, and meet specific compliance requirements across all three maintenance levels.
• Deployment and Licensing: Description of training, business model (e.g. license type, subscription, etc.), and system sustainment 

In addition to the cross-cutting requirements identified above, the below remain key “abilities” that any solution must be able to fulfill within specific functional domains.

• Aviation:
  • Scale to support over 4000 aircraft across multiple Type/Model/Series (TMS) stationed afloat and ashore with a user count in excess of 75,000.
  • Redistribute existing aircraft between squadrons.
  • View, update, or delete aircraft data related component inventory from the authoritative source.
  • Electronically release aircraft safe-for-flight information.
• Maritime:
  • Scale to support over 400 afloat and ashore sites with a user count in excess of 90,000.
  • Provide an integrated common business process for preventive, corrective, and alteration management at the maintenance unit level.
  • Plan procedures for work package development, which includes determining methods for all planned maintenance, planned modifications, and unplanned maintenance and repairs.
  • Establish system and component status and control/prevent work or operations of various other items that have the potential to harm equipment or personnel (e.g. Gas Free, Tag-Out, etc.) during maintenance tasks.
  • Plan resources for work by identifying and requesting procurement of materials, components, parts, tools, equipment, labor skills, and facilities necessary to perform maintenance.
• Support the execution and certification of work by allowing approval/verification of maintenance tasks with configurable approval engines to certify the work was performed correctly and is ready for return to service.
• Demonstrate ability to consolidate work requirements, which include reviewing, documenting, updating and consolidating all work notifications.
• Ability to establish system and component status and control/prevent work or operations of various lockout/tagout material items that have the potential to harm equipment or personnel during maintenance tasks.

6. Submission Requirements

Teams will submit a white paper (in PDF format) outlining their technological capabilities and how they address the Problem Statement and Desired Outcomes (Section 1 & 2), Required Capabilities (Section 4), and Additional Attributes  (Section 5). Submissions shall be no more than 10 pages (excluding cover page). Teams are encouraged to focus on their unique value proposition and innovative approaches to solving the challenges outlined in this Announcement. 

Submissions should clearly articulate how their solution addresses the diverse needs of all maintenance levels (O, I, and D) for both Maritime and Aviation assets, and how their approach to training will enable effective user adoption across the fleet.

The Government will evaluate submissions using the following criteria:

• Technical Viability and Alignment: Demonstrated technical feasibility and clear alignment with stated Problem Statement and Desired Outcomes (Section 1 & 2), Required Capabilities (Section 4), and Additional Solution Requirements (Section 5). This includes demonstrating an understanding of the unique requirements of each maintenance level (O, I, and D) for both Maritime and Aviation assets, as well as a viable approach to training a large and geographically dispersed workforce. For example, highlight past deployment and integration experience with proprietary APIs and hierarchical force element data structures in a disconnected environment, if applicable.
• Innovation: Novelty and potential impact of the proposed solution.
• Team & Company Viability: Ability and expertise of the team/company to successfully demonstrate capabilities through the Challenge, deliver, scale, and sustain the proposed solution.

7. Timeline:

• Phase 1 - Announcement & Down-Select
  • September 19, 2025: Announcement Release - DIU Website
  • September 23, 2025: “Ask Me Anything” Session (1300 EST / 1000 PST) Registration Link
  • October 03, 2025: Competition Close (2359 EST / 2059 PST)
  • NLT November 07, 2025: Phase 2 Participants Announced & Preliminary Use Case Distributed
• Phase 2 - Initial Demonstrations: The vendor shall deliver selected software solutions against prioritized Government Functional Use Cases using synthetic data and simulated interfaces within the appropriate ecosystems to designated Government test sites for operational effectiveness evaluation which includes end user hands on testing, observation, and interaction during demonstrations. This Phase will also evaluate the proposed vendors’ software solution towards meeting the mission objectives and alignment with end user needs, and address questions requested by the Government.
  • Week of December 08, 2025: Preliminary Use Case Demonstration, Solution across Maintenance Levels (Maritime O/I/D, Aviation O/I/D)
  • NLT December 19, 2025: Phase 3 Participants Announced & Detailed Use Cases Distributed
• Phase 3 - Final Demonstrations: The vendor shall deliver selected software solutions prioritized Government Functional Use Cases using Government provided data and interfaces to designated Government test sites for operational evaluation, training, and user-driven feedback. These efforts will support assessment of the capability’s effectiveness, usability, and integration potential in representative mission ecosystem environments. This Phase will require delivery of software solutions twenty (20) days after completing Phase 2. Prizes awarded in Phase 3 will take into account the direct user feedback of operational users as they train and test systems and capabilities provided by vendors.
  • Week of January 19, 2026: Solution Demonstration across Maintenance Levels (Maritime O/I/D, Aviation O/I/D)
  • NLT January 30, 2026: Winners Announced

8. Awards and Follow-On Opportunities:

• Up to $8.5M in awards will be distributed to top-performing vendors across the three phases
• Direct eligibility for a follow-on prototype Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement.
• Potential for other follow-on opportunities such as Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).
• Opportunity to contribute to a critical national security mission.

9. Eligibility:

• Ability to secure an active registration in Sam.gov if selected as a finalist (exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis).
• Ability to demonstrate the solution’s capabilities by November 2025.

10. Questions:

Please direct your questions to info@diu.mil.

About PEO MLB LOG IT 

Program Executive Office for Manpower, Logistics & Business Solutions (PEO MLB LOG IT) is responsible for delivering comprehensive and integrated information technology solutions that enable the Department of the Navy's manpower, logistics, and business operations. 

About the Defense Innovation Unit

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) strengthens national security by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology in the Department of Defense and bolstering our allied and national security innovation bases. DIU partners with organizations across the DoD to rapidly prototype and field dual-use capabilities that solve operational challenges at speed and scale. With offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Chicago and Washington, DC, DIU is the Department’s gateway to leading technology companies across the country.

Intellectual Property Considerations: Applicants retain ownership of existing Intellectual Property (IP) submitted under this Challenge and agree that their submissions are their original work. Applicants are presumed to have sufficient rights to submit the submission. For any submission made to the Challenge, you grant DIU a limited license to use this IP for testing and evaluation for efforts specifically related to the Challenge. DIU will negotiate with individual competitors in the event additional usage, integration, or development is contemplated.

Other Transaction Authority: This DIU Challenge public announcement is an open call to small businesses and non-traditional defense contractors seeking innovative, commercial technologies proposed to create new DoD solutions or potential new capabilities fulfilling requirements, closing capability gaps, or providing potential technological advancements, technologies fueled by commercial or strategic investment, but also concept demonstrations, pilots, and agile development activities improving commercial technologies, existing Government-owned capabilities, or concepts for broad Defense application(s). As such, the Government reserves the right to award a contract or an Other Transaction agreement for any purpose, to include a prototype or research, under this public announcement. The Federal Government is not responsible for any monies expended by the applicant before award and is under no obligation to pursue such Other Transactions.

Satisfying Competition Requirements: This DIU Challenge Open Call Announcement is considered to have potential for further efforts that may be accomplished via FAR-based contracting instruments, Other Transaction Authority (OTA) for Prototype Projects 10 USC 4022 and Research 10 USC 4021, Prizes for advanced technology achievements 10 USC 4025, and/or Prize Competitions 15 USC 3719. The public open call announcement made on the DIU website is considered to satisfy the reasonable effort to obtain competition in accordance with 10 USC 4025(b), 15 USC 3719 (e) and 10 USC 4022 (b)(2). Accordingly, FAR-based actions will follow announcement procedures per FAR 5.201(b).

DIU reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the Challenge, or any part of it, for any reason, at DIU’s sole discretion.