Mission-Specialized Large Language Models for Operational Training and Knowledge Integration

STTR topic DON27TZ02-NV012 (U.S. Department of Defense – Navy), Phase I and II. Open to U.S. small businesses; STTR projects partner with a U.S. research institution. Opens: December 2, 2026. Closes: January 6, 2027. The Department of the Navy faces increasing challenges associated with workforce modernization, technical skill development, personnel turnover, distributed operations, and the growing complexity of mission systems and operational environments. As experienced personnel retire or transition, critical institutional knowledge and operational expertise are frequently difficult to preserve, transfer, and scale across the workforce. Simultaneously, Navy training and workforce development communities must support increasingly divergent learning requirements across accession, technical education, and qualification pipelines. Existing training approaches often rely on static instructional materials, fragmented knowledge systems, and limited mechanisms for adaptive or individualized instruction. Commercial large language models (LLMs) demonstrate strong broad-domain reasoning capabilities but are fundamentally limited in their ability to reliably incorporate organization-specific knowledge without hallucination. They are unable to incorporate organization-specific terminology, mission procedures, technical constraints, and authoritative instructional content unique to mission environments. Additionally, these systems frequently generate responses without traceable references, limiting user trust and reducing suitability for technical learning and operational instruction. This gap creates a strong need for a specialized LLM system precisely tuned to an organization's corpus and operational requirements. The Navy seeks development of a hyper-parameterized, explainable LLM framework designed specifically to support mission-focused training and knowledge transfer. The system should enable personnel to learn new technical and operational topics through an…