Aerospace Readiness Enterprise System (ARES) Notional Schedule Update

The government's ARES project seeks vendor proposals for developing an Air Force scheduling and training system within the Operations Enterprise Architecture (OpsEA) Salesforce platform. The solicitation clarifies that proposals can adopt either Salesforce-native no/low-code development or a prototype-based approach that can run on Salesforce but may diverge for specific requirements. Key aspects addressed include OpsEA's role in providing CI/CD pipelines, security tools, identity management (Okta/SailPoint), and data integration with systems like ARTEMIS and Envision. Vendors must ensure their solutions integrate with enterprise IDS, comply with ATO CSSP monitoring, and adhere to SDK guidelines and Sherpa team processes for design and release management. The prototype phase is funded at $500K per team, lasts three months, and requires development at an IL4 security level, with a roadmap to IL6. The government emphasizes that while extensibility and scalability to future use cases (e.g., IL6, multi-level security, DDIL operations) are not prototype deliverables, they are crucial for the production roadmap. Certifications for Salesforce development are mandatory for sandbox access.

This document provides an update from Kessel Run Flight Operations regarding the Aerospace Readiness Enterprise System (ARES) acquisition. It outlines a notional acquisition milestone schedule, with key dates including the release of the final solution solicitation on December 15, 2025, and the prototype OT award on February 25, 2026. The schedule is subject to change as the government aims to expedite the process. The update also includes a notional Bidder's Library Table of Contents, detailing various documents classified as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) or Unclassified (U), covering topics such as master data dictionaries, software development kits, user experience, and relevant Air Force regulations. The government will not be accepting questions on this update; all questions should be held until the final solution solicitation is released and submitted through the Agreements Officer.

The Kessel Run Flight Operations (Flight Ops) Aerospace Readiness Enterprise System (ARES) has released an updated notional acquisition milestone schedule. This schedule, current as of December 2, 2025, outlines key dates including the release of the Final Solution Solicitation on December 15, 2025, receipt of solutions by January 9, 2026, and a Prototype OT Award by February 25, 2026. A Production OT Award is anticipated by August 10, 2026. The government aims to aggressively reduce this schedule where possible. Industry questions regarding this update will not be accepted until the Final Solution Solicitation is released, at which point questions must be directed to the Agreements Officer via the SAM.gov posting.