Today, weapon system production and its supporting supply chains are optimized for the mass production of static designs. While the current approach is effective for stable requirements, the U.S. Air Force must be able to equip our service members faster and more efficiently than ever before. The current industrial base does not meet the need for a continuously adaptive ecosystem to deliver operationally-effective solutions. Existing manufacturing efforts primarily address this by focusing on surge capacity—making more of the same, faster. This fails to address the core limitation: a lack of inherent adaption, the ability to rapidly and efficiently vary manufacturing output to produce novel configurations.
Endless Forge is a new approach because it directly targets inherent adaptability. It will create a fully connected production network where the qualification and certification of a new design are initiated by the digital workflow itself in real-time or near real-time as design changes are explored. By establishing a digital thread actively connecting system-level requirements, with direct engagement by the customer, to model-based quality data on the factory floor, Endless Forge enables true manufacturing adaption powered by autonomous digital connectivity. This digital linkage provides the foundation to confidently and securely explore the design tradespace without the encumbrance of manual processes, ensuring that a new configuration is not only producible but also certifiable for use as part of the manufacturing process. The result is a fundamental shift The result will augment the slow, sequential methods with a process that is constantly ready and agile, where producing a novel system variant is enabled by digital workflow, instead of being encumbered by analog manual processes.
On February 20th, 2026, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) posted a multiple authority announcement (MAA) soliciting white papers for Endless Forge across two areas of interest (AOIs):
- AOI 01: EF Technology Sprints - Activated Digital Thread for Battlefield Responsiveness. The objective is to close the loop between battlefield data and the manufacturing floor, creating an adaptive manufacturing ecosystem that expedites the re-configuration of weapon systems to enhance warfighter lethality
- AOI 02: EF – Technology Demonstration and Leave Behind Capability. AFRL is seeking innovative approaches to demonstrate the overarching EF technology goals. The EF goals can impact multiple systems across multiple warfighting domains, including but not limited to: Attrition-Tolerant Mass & Subsonic Systems (sUAS/Munitions/Decoys), Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACPs), Space Systems and Ground Support Equipment for Space, and High-Speed Affordable Weapons.
To read the complete announcement, visit: Endless Forge Solicitation on sam.gov.