****Update 13 January 2026, Includes and update to the posting to extend the due date and added attachments that Include questions and answers from Industry, please review all attachments*****
Prototyping is a means of testing assumptions about technologies and approaches before expending significant amounts of effort or money building something that may not address the organization’s problem. Prototyping is a low-cost, rapid risk mitigation approach. As such, we propose that the first Aerospace Readiness Enterprise System (ARES) use case be built as a prototype initially, with the following capability goals.
ARES is the Air Force’s enterprise solution for scheduling, standardization and evaluation (stan/eval) and training management which is intended to replace the Patriot Excalibur (PEX), Puckboard, and Graduate/Training Integration Management System (G/TIMS) legacy software programs.
Specifically, ARES will leverage commercial software to the greatest extent possible and be deployed, initially, within the Impact Level (IL) 4 partition with a path to IL-6 deployment thereafter. Further, the Air Force, in support of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK, has an enduring requirement to deploy a robust solution which provides enterprise capabilities for scheduling, stan/eval, and training for increased readiness and lethality.
Starting with the requirements of Air Education and Training Command (AETC) as the basis for this prototype, but not excluding requirements from other MAJCOMs, the prototype should meet as many of the following criteria as possible. Final acceptance of the prototype will be based on its ability to meet the threshold requirements outlined below. The final evaluation of the prototypes will also consider objective criteria as defined below. The prototype shall be completed and available for inspection and use no later than 90 calendar days after contract award.
****The following special instuctions below applies to this posting******
1. Government will accept questions until 1600 EST on 19 December 2025.
2. To Recieve the Bidders Library Please reference section 2.6.7 in the ARES Request for Whitepapers document for process to request access to the Bidder’s Library and please reach out to one the following POC:
Shamieka Gilmore-Williams @ shamieka.gilmore-williams@us.af.mil
Lauren Cheslofska @ lauren.cheslofska@us.af.mil
Leonardo Dominguez @ leonardo.dominguez.1@us.af.mil
Bidders Library will be sent via DOD SAFE
