SAM.gov: DARPA-SN-26-88
Type: Special Notice (forthcoming formal solicitation)
Posted: May 29, 2026
Response deadline: July 13, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT
Inactive date: July 14, 2026
Agency: DARPA Defense Sciences Office (DSO)
Program Manager: Sunil Bhave, DARPA DSO
POC: [email protected]
Contracting office: 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA 22203
PSC: AC12 — National Defense R&D Services; Applied Research
NAICS: 541715 — R&D in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
Set-aside: None
Estimated value: $5M–$25M (AI estimate)
Program Overview
PINPOINT — Precision Inertial Navigation & Positioning On an Integrated Tesseract — is a forthcoming DARPA DSO program to develop revolutionary GPS-independent inertial navigation sensors that break through the decade-long performance plateau of low-cost MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) inertial measurement units.
“The PINPOINT program aims to address the critical vulnerability faced by the defense community due to over-reliance on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for precision navigation, particularly when GPS is denied.”
— DARPA-SN-26-88 official description
The Technical Approach
Current MEMS IMU designs constrain mechanical structures to operate within their linear regimes, avoiding complex nonlinear behavior. This is why MEMS IMU performance has plateaued for over a decade despite massive investment.
PINPOINT will pursue three interlocking technical thrusts:
| Thrust | Description |
|---|---|
| Nonlinear mechanical dynamics | Actively leverage — rather than avoid — the nonlinear behavior of vibrating mechanical structures to extract higher precision |
| Advanced surface materials | Novel materials that alter the mechanical potential landscape of sensing elements |
| Complex physical potential wells | Sensor architectures that operate in multi-dimensional mechanical state spaces (“tesseract” concept) |
The program builds directly on DARPA’s HALOVS (Highly Accelerated Learning of Vibratory Systems) portfolio, which studied the fundamental physics of vibrating mechanical structures under extreme conditions. PINPOINT translates those theoretical discoveries into deployable sensors.
Why “tesseract”? A tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of a cube — a structure that describes how multiple dimensions interact simultaneously. Applied to sensor design, the “integrated tesseract” concept describes a sensor architecture that operates across multiple physical domains simultaneously rather than treating each measurement axis in isolation, allowing the system to extract more precise information from mechanical motion than linear designs can achieve.
Operational Urgency
| Adversary | GPS Jamming Activity |
|---|---|
| Russia | Extensive jamming throughout Ukraine war; persistent interference across Baltic region (Finland, Estonia, Poland) affecting commercial aviation |
| China | Extensive testing and deployment around Taiwan and South China Sea; any Taiwan Strait conflict involves sustained EW against U.S. navigation |
| Iran | Deployed GPS jamming during conflict with Israel and the U.S.; American pilots and drone operators reported interference in the Persian Gulf |
“Every battlefield is a GPS-denied environment.” — Jeff Thompson, CEO, Red Cat Holdings (2025)
What DARPA Is Looking For
From the Special Notice, DARPA expects successful proposals to require:
- Deep, integrated partnerships between academic research institutions and commercial industry from the outset — not formed after award
- Teams that integrate: fundamental physics (nonlinear dynamics), advanced materials science, precision MEMS manufacturing, and real-time adaptive control systems
- Building on the HALOVS scientific portfolio — teams should be familiar with this prior work
This is not an incremental MEMS improvement program. DARPA is explicitly pursuing physics that current sensor designs avoid. The team composition requirements are different from standard defense R&D.
Key Dates
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Special Notice published | May 29, 2026 |
| Preliminary responses due | July 13, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT |
| Formal solicitation | Forthcoming (expected summer 2026) |
| Formal proposal deadline | TBD |
How to Respond
Responses to the Special Notice (preliminary, not binding) should be sent to [email protected] by July 13, 2026.
The formal solicitation with specific technical requirements, performance metrics, and proposal instructions will be published separately. Watch SAM.gov for the follow-on BAA or solicitation under the same program name.
Ecosystem Context
PINPOINT joins a growing DARPA GPS-independence portfolio:
| Program | Approach | Status |
|---|---|---|
| PINPOINT | Nonlinear MEMS inertial navigation | Forthcoming (SN May 2026) |
| RoQS | Robust Quantum Sensors for navigation | Phase 1 launched Aug 2025 |
| ANS | Adaptable Navigation Systems (cold-atom interferometry) | Ongoing |
Related companies to watch: Q-CTRL (RoQS awardee), Safran Federal Systems (RoQS awardee), Red Cat Holdings (GPS-denied drone navigation), Honeywell, Northrop Grumman (high-end IMUs), Xona Space Systems (LEO PNT).
Related: DARPA PINPOINT Signal Dispatch | DoD PNT Enterprise Strategy Wiki | Inside GNSS May/June 2026
SAM.gov direct link: https://sam.gov/opp/3bdef1a824aa43cd9574c9022db4a1f7/view