ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking 14 new rackmount computer servers for its Target Generation Facility (TGF), a high-fidelity simulation environment used to model and evaluate airspace operations within the National Airspace System (NAS).
The Target Generation Facility, based at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J., generates real-time, dynamic aircraft targets across all phases of flight to support air traffic operational testing, human-in-the-loop simulations, human factors research, and early concept validation. The platform enables controllers, engineers, and researchers to evaluate new procedures, automation tools, and airspace concepts in a controlled environment before deployment into live operations.
The solicitation calls for 2U rackmount systems built around single-socket 5th Generation AMD EPYC 9004 or 9005-series processors, specifically a 6-core/32-thread EPYC 9175F-class CPU operating at 4.2 GHz base frequency with up to 5.0 GHz maximum turbo frequency, 512 MB of L3 cache, support for DDR5 memory up to 6000 MT/s, and up to 128 PCIe lanes. Each system must include 128 GB of DDR5-6400 ECC registered memory, a 2 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe solid-state drive rated for up to 14,700 MB/s sequential read speeds, dual-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, redundant 600-watt power supplies, and a clean installation of AlmaLinux 8.10 64-bit server operating system.
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The FAA specifies that neither the complete systems nor individual components are brand-specific, but all proposed hardware must meet or exceed the minimum processor clock speeds, bus speeds, memory performance, and storage throughput identified in the technical requirements. Offerors must provide complete specifications and performance data for evaluation. The requirement is for 14 complete systems, with one set of specified components per server.
Eye on performance
For the TGF, compute performance and deterministic behavior are central to mission execution. The environment must support high target counts, physics-based aircraft performance modeling, realistic voice communications, and distributed lab integration with external systems and partner facilities. As the FAA evaluates emerging concepts such as beyond visual line of sight uncrewed aircraft operations, urban air mobility, trajectory-based operations, and wake recategorization, the underlying server infrastructure must sustain low-latency processing, high I/O bandwidth, and reliable network throughput.
Upgraded servers will support increasingly complex simulations that integrate crewed aircraft, uncrewed systems, automation algorithms, and advanced airspace procedures within a single testbed. By modernizing its computing backbone, the FAA aims to ensure that the TGF can continue to validate new technologies and operational concepts at scale before their introduction into the live National Airspace System.
The agency named Kevin Smith as the primary point of contact for this solicitation. They can be reached via email at [email protected]. Responses are due by 20 February 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. More information is available at https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/61c0452d50b64645aa5eaa695ec1c0b0/view.
