SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - SYSTEM INTEGRATOR FOR BAO KIT INCREMENT II
- Notice Date
- 2/26/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, ASC - Aeronautical Systems Center, 2275 D Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 45433-7218
- ZIP Code
- 45433-7218
- Solicitation Number
- BAOKITII
- Archive Date
- 4/3/2009
- Point of Contact
- Nancy G. Leggett,, Phone: (937) 255-1696, Major Joshua McAllister,, Phone: 937-255-3832
- E-Mail Address
-
nancy.leggett@wpafb.af.mil, joshua.mcallister@wpafb.af.mil
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 1. The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) 670 Aeronautical Systems Squadron (670 AESS), Wright-Patterson AFB OH, is submitting a Request for Information (RFI). The Air Force requests information on the feasibility of using a systems integrator for the Battlefield Air Operations (BAO) BAO kit increment II. A. The 670 AESS in support of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is interested in reviewing concepts for implementing a systems integrator for increment II of the BAO kit II. The BAO system will greatly improve Special Tactics Terminal Control applications of effects; directly related to Special Reconnaissance, Unconventional Warfare, Direct Action, Counter Terrorism, and Close Air Support, mission areas by improving individual Situational Awareness (SA). Additionally, the enhanced standoff range, and precision provided will mitigate the risk to ground forces while improving their SA. This improved SA will be translated to better SA for aircraft/ C2 assets, and in turn improve targeting efficiency, accuracy, and survivability resulting in actionable precise information and control of effects. The BAO kit II will enable targeting and SA technology to meet AFSOC mission requirements. The system will be capable of employment day or night, in adverse weather, and in a variety of threat spectrums from terrorist attacks to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats. The BAO kit II will be designed as a safe, reliable, available, and maintainable system. Joint interoperability, compatibility, and connectivity with Joint Force command and control infrastructure and supporting agencies and assets are essential to the execution of the mission. The BAO kit II will address all command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) requirements and other standardization considerations. C4I systems acquired will comply with all applicable Global Information Grid (GIG), Mission Area (MA)-Interface Control Document (ICD) and Net Ready (NR) Key Performance Parameter (KPP) requirements. All electromagnetic effects on BAO kit II equipment, supporting systems, and operations environment will be mitigated, minimized, or countered, to avoid mission degradation. In addition, the BAO kit II system of systems (SoS) aids the operator by reducing the risk of fratricide, substantially reducing weight carried, and significantly reducing the time required to find, fix, track, target, and engage the enemy. The BAO kit II SoS will maximize the use of scarce resources, and increase combat power on the battlefield for the Combatant Commander. The current, increment I BAO kit Family of Systems (FoS) consists of the three programs: Battlefield Air Operations Human Machine Interface (BAO HMI), Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle (BATMAV) and Integrated Targeting Device (ITD). Each of these programs will be combined into a single BAO kit II requirement. Additionally, BAO kit II will have additional interface requirements with the Guardian Angel Operations kit, to include interoperability with certain sensors. B. The systems integrator would simultaneously design, incorporate, and/or develop systems products and processes to satisfy the needs of the BAO kit II Capability Description Document (CDD). Working from the BAO kit Increment I baseline, the systems integrator will engineer the enhanced operational capabilities into an integrated system design through concurrent consideration of all lifecycle needs. As the BAO kit II system becomes more complex, the design, development, and production of a system or system-of-systems require the integration of numerous activities and processes. The systems integrator will coordinate and integrate all acquisition lifecycle activities. Systems engineering integrates diverse technical management processes to achieve an integrated systems design that satisfy customer needs and enhance human systems engineering. The systems integrator would be the integrating mechanism across the technical efforts related to the development, manufacturing, verification, deployment, operations, support, disposal of, and user training for systems and their life cycle processes. System integrators develop technical information to support the program management decision-making process. Systems integrators would ensure systematic set of processes to help coordinate and integrate activities throughout the life cycle of the system are accomplished. They offer a technical framework to enable sound decision making relative to trade studies among system performance, risk, cost, and schedule. The systems integrator must be agile enough to field early some components as they mature. Additionally, the systems integrator must be flexible enough to incorporate additional funding on short notice (such as end of year "fall-out" funds). Factors indicating a good systems integrator would be: * Robust to changing technical, production, and operating environments; * Adaptive to the needs of the user; and * Balanced the multiple requirements dealing with design and budgets. This RFI initiates a concept call for leveraging a proven and experienced systems integrator for emerging technologies in fielding the BAO kit II capability by Sept 2012. Of interest are systems integrators who are experienced in working with commercial contractors, vague interfaces and specifications, subcontracts, working with AFSOC and ASC, systems or family of systems concepts achieving significant capability enhancements over existing systems with measurable life cycle cost improvements. 2. This notice is part of Government Market Research, a continuous process for obtaining the latest information on the "art of the possible" from industry with respect to their current and near-term abilities. The information collected may be used by the Government to explore future strategies and implementation for the BAO kit. Information received as a result of this request will be considered as sensitive and will be protected as such. Any company proprietary information contained in the response should be clearly marked as such, by paragraph, such that ‘publicly-releasable' and ‘proprietary' information are clearly distinguished. Any material that is not marked proprietary will be considered publicly-releasable. Any proprietary information received in response to this request will be properly protected from any unauthorized disclosure. The Government will not use proprietary information submitted from any one firm to establish the capability and requirements for any future systems acquisition, so as to not inadvertently restrict competition. 3. The submitted documentation becomes the property of the U.S. Government and will not be returned. No solicitation documents exist at this time. This is NOT an Invitation for Bid (IFB) or Request for Proposal (RFP). The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this announcement. This is a request for information/market research announcement for planning purposes. The Government will not reimburse any costs associated with the documentation submitted under this request. Although the word "proposed" may be used in this inquiry, your response will be treated as information only and will not be used as a proposal. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this inquiry. This announcement is not to be construed as a formal solicitation. It does not commit the government to reply to information received, or to later publish a solicitation, or to award a contract based on this information. 4. Submissions should include: A. A system integrator concept overview with descriptions of roles, responsibilities, challenges, risks of dealing with a diverse system such as the BAO kit. B. Attributes of the concept to include assumptions, rough order magnitude of cost (to include annual costs), and any other significant attributes the RFI submitter deems appropriate to differentiate military utility of the submitter's concept. C. A discussion on the concept's architecture approach. It should be noted whether an open systems approach is utilized. D. A discussion of the concept's scalable approach. The concept should recognize that the 670 AESS works with limited, and sometimes fluctuating, funding resources which may constrain or expand the scope of this effort. E. Any additional information or recommendations helpful to understanding the capabilities of the submitted concept. 5. When determining your response to this RFI, please be aware of the government's constraints: A. BAO Kit Increment II Initial Operating Capability (IOC) of the second quarter of FY13. B. It is the government's intention to acquire BAO Kit systems complete with sufficient design, technical data, and other intellectual property rights sufficient to allow for subsequent full rate production of the system(s) selected to be competed among multiple sources as well as to sustain the systems for the full projected designed life span of the systems and to pursue spiral development of important capabilities. Respondents are requested to describe what package(s) of data rights could be sufficient to accomplish this purpose and the relative effect(s) on total ROM price. C. The program office will likely utilize an evolutionary acquisition strategy. "Evolutionary acquisition is the preferred DoD strategy for rapid acquisition of mature technology for the user. An evolutionary approach delivers capability in increments, recognizing, up front, the need for future capability improvements. The objective is to balance needs and available capability with resources, and to put capability into the hands of the user quickly. The success of the strategy depends on consistent and continuous definition of requirements, and the maturation of technologies that lead to disciplined development and production of systems that provide increasing capability towards a materiel concept." DODI 5000.2, 12 May 2003. D. The Air Force workforce is supplemented by contracted support personnel and any proprietary data submitted may be handled by contract support services personnel who have signed the same Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) as organic AF personnel. 6. Broad industry participation in this BAO kit II RFI is encouraged. Companies / teams planning to provide a capability response should identify, to the Air Force point of contact (POC) named below, the name of their company, address, telephone number, and name and position of the individual to contact for future dialogue. Responses should include: (1) a cover page containing identification of the company CAGE code, street address, and the names and telephone numbers of the technical point of contact (POC) and the overall company POC above (in the case of a partnership, please provide appropriate CAGE codes and POC information for the lead company), (2) a thorough BAO Kit II system description, including technical and descriptive text to provide additional detail; and (3) a description for the challenges, risks, and anticipated for carrying out the system integrator job and estimates of the costs, schedules, and risks to perform this job. Responses are limited to 30 pages (includes appendixes, tables, graphs and any other supporting material). 7. Request that the narrative summaries discuss specific BAO kit information delineated above. Submissions are requested within 21 days of this announcement and may be made by e-mail or mailing your response on a compact disk to: Ms. Nancy Leggett, Contracting Officer 670 AESS/PK 1895 Fifth Street, Bldg 46 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7233 Telephone: 927-255-1696 E-mail: nancy.leggett@wpafb.af.mil With a notice of delivery to: Capt Joshua McAllister, BAO Kit Program Manager 670 AESS/PM 1895 Fifth Street, Bldg 46 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7233. Telephone: 937-255-3832 E-mail: Joshua.mcallister@wpafb.af.mil Personnel hand-carrying responses should contact the Contracting Officer to arrange a mutually acceptable arrival time. Please note that email submissions should be less than 10MB in size to ensure receipt. If necessary, larger submissions should be divided into multiple emails, though this approach is not encouraged. 8. U.S. and non-U.S. firms are permitted to respond to this BAO kit II RFI. Responses to questions from interested parties will be promptly answered and posted on PIXS/FBO, unless some release of proprietary information is involved or the answer addresses a question peculiar to a Company or that Company's response. Post submittal one-on-one information sessions with respondents are not contemplated. They may be offered to responders to clarify understanding of their submittal, the capability ramifications, or to discuss their business approach. Information feedback sessions may be offered to respondents after the RFI assessments are completed. 9. This notice may be updated as additional information becomes available. Please check the FBO site for updates to this announcement under BAO Kit II RFI and register to receive e-mail notices of any updates to the FBO announcement.
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