October 3, 2025 – Today, the ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute is pleased to announce the availability of a new Tech Project Call centered strengthening the Marine Industrial Base in partnership with the BlueForge Alliance (BFA). This Project Call centers on demonstrating mature technologies that respond to the specific needs of the Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) and aims to accelerate the production of submarines.
Full proposals for this Project Call are due on November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM ET and must be submitted via the ARM Member Community. While our Project Call is publicly available, you must be an ARM Member to submit a proposal. Learn more about membership here.
ARM Institute Project Calls catalyze collaboration between industry, government, and academia to spur keenly needed robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to strengthen US manufacturing and secure the Organic and Defense Industrial Bases. Project Calls provide a key platform for collaboration and innovation, fostering a consortium that works together to lift solutions off the ground that may have otherwise suffered from a lack of funding or technical roadblocks.
About this Project Call
The MIB is facing many current and future challenges across a broad spectrum of industries and capabilities that negatively impact the ability to meet the demand of a “1+2” submarine development requirement (one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class). These challenges include, but are not limited to, current and expanding workforce shortfalls, loss of master-level knowledge, an overburdened and unstable supply chain, and technical challenges that can be mitigated through automated robotic solutions and artificial intelligence (AI).
This project call seeks projects to identify and advance existing technologies into production environments. The proposed solutions should align to at least one of the three capabilities-of-interest described below, which fit into broad technical focus areas, respectively: (1) Welding Automation and Monitoring, (2) Metrology and In-Process Inspection, and (3) Casting Process Automation.
Proposed solutions must be mature, with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7+, and be ready or near ready for production environments. Key differentiators in competitive solutions may include rapid scalability, commercially available products, or robust plans for integration and maintenance. The expectation is that the impact of these technologies is demonstrated in real, shipyard-representative environments by the end of the projects. It is critical for respondents to specify (1) their existing technologies relevance to the specified capability-of-interest, and (2) the degree to which the capability-of-interest meets the broader needs and demand of the MIB as it relates to submarine development.
The ARM Institute will host a public webinar on Oct. 23 at 12 PM ET in support of this Project Call to give the public the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the Project Call content. Can’t join at the scheduled time? Register to receive the recording.
Download the Full Project Call Here
Register for our webinar here
Full templates can be downloaded through the ARM Member Community.
Additional & Upcoming ARM Institute Project Calls
This Project Call is part of a full schedule of Project Calls being released by the ARM Institute this fall. Currently, ARM Institute Members have access to two other Project Calls in draft format as a benefit of ARM Institute membership that will be released to the public following the member-only access period. In total, the ARM Institute expects to issue around five Project Calls between October 2025 and January 2026. ARM Members can access our other Project Calls on the ARM Member Community. Email [email protected] for help using the Member Community or to learn more about membership.
In the spring of 2025 alone, the ARM Institute issued three Project calls leading to approximately $4.5M in funding being awarded to ARM Members for a grand total investment of approximately $8.8M across the projects.
ABOUT THE ARM INSTITUTE
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Agreement Number W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA® network. The ARM Institute leverages a unique, robust, and diverse consortium of 450+ members and partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience. Based in Pittsburgh, PA since 2017, the ARM Institute leads the way to a future where people & robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to produce the world’s most desired products. For more information, visit www.arminstitute.org and follow the ARM Institute on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).