It depends - some agencies you can apply directly without doing a phase 1. Others you need talk to the TPOC of the Phase 1 to find out the process or you have to be invited.
In the current environment - I would contact the TPOC - it could just be stuck in limbo.
SBIRs have been mucked up since last fall. The program lapsed and it just got reauthorized for certain departments. Without that reauth only those who had phase 1's could apply for phase 2's.
We used it for a new Defense/Aerospace projects. Language-wise it's fine although verbose. Intent was to separate similar IP so there was no claim of cross contamination. Built-in threading and a robust standard library is nice.
FWIW - I work in aerospace. I believe this is talking about their FAA Designated Engineering Representatives (DERs). They are employed directly by the company or are consultants - they are subject matter experts in their domain. They act as the FAA delegate within the company. They generally have authority that goes well beyond the typical employee or QA person.
The ones I have worked with have no problem telling management to go pound sand when they are pushing schedule.
^This - we're trying to use one to partially automate some system engineering type activities.
It's great for reviews where any given reviewer could be expected to have a misunderstanding of certain details or skip a section (RAG somewhat helps this) - but it's frustrating for artifact generation where missing details cascade through the project.
As great as the technology (right now) it seems so far from reliable business process automation.
There a couple companies that make a DILS where the localizer and glideslope can be temporarily deployed. The intent is for emergency or short term use.
ARINC 429 definitely one way to do it. It has a fixed baud rate - there is no feedback to the transmitter. Typically, each "bus" contains a single or small subset of messages (called labels) over it.
Somewhat related - but there are a ridiculous number of platform/systems that ship with derivative of Dinkum C++ standard library - MSVC (included). When you lookup the company behind it - it's basically small shop that seems to be primarily one guy up in MA.
Alternatively - you can get an export license for information to the particular person. Kind of like a TAA for a foreign employee. Previous employer had a European EW expert in the US office temporarily. Still not fast and lots of paperwork and limitations.