SOURCES SOUGHT
58 -- Blue Force Tracking - 3 (BFT-3) Improved Satellite Network Requirements
- Notice Date
- 7/20/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 517410
— Satellite Telecommunications
- Contracting Office
- ACC-APG (C4ISR), HQ CECOM CONTRACTING CENTER, 6001 COMBAT DRIVE, ABERDEEN PROVING GROU, MD 21005-1846
- ZIP Code
- 21005-1846
- Solicitation Number
- W15P7T-11-R-C207
- Response Due
- 8/22/2011
- Archive Date
- 10/21/2011
- Point of Contact
- Nicholas A. Bartolomei, 443-861-4924
- E-Mail Address
-
ACC-APG (C4ISR)
(nick.bartolomei@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 20 July 2011 Blue Force Tracking - 3 (BFT-3) Improved Satellite Network Requirements Market Survey for The Project Manager (PM) Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Blue Force Tracking (BFT) Product Office The Project Manager (PM) Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Blue Force Tracking (BFT) Product Office is seeking sources for engineering design and development services and the procurement and test of prototype BFT-3 satellite transceivers and associated equipment. FBCB2 BFT is a networked command and control system installed in Army and US Marine Corps (USMC) tactical vehicles. Currently, FBCB2 BFT platforms use commercial L-band satellite communications as the transport mechanism for messaging and sharing Situation Awareness (SA) data across the battlefield. Leasing of commercial L-band satellite bandwidth is costly and the DoD wants to focus the next generation system on use of military satellite communications. Accordingly, the X-band capability of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite has been targeted for this purpose and the improved system that operates over the military satellite has been termed BFT-3. The incumbent suppliers for the L-band BFT versions are Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation (CMDC), Germantown, MD, and ViaSat, Carlsbad, CA. To date the DoD has procured over 150,000 L-band terminals and the plan forward is to eventually replace all this equipment with BFT-3. Blue Force Tracking - 1 (BFT-1): BFT-1 is the initial FBCB2 BFT transceiver/network. The quantity of platforms fielded with the FBCB2 BFT MT-2011 transceiver world-wide is now over 100,000, and is supported by 3 Network Operation Centers. Blue Force Tracking - 2 (BFT-2): BFT -2 is the current generation of the FBCB2 BFT transceiver/network being procured. It has the capability to update position reports in seconds rather than minutes. Thousands of platforms will share a single satellite channel, which results in reduced recurring cost, and icons on a computer screen that will more accurately represent a vehicle's location. Blue Force Tracking - 3 (BFT-3): BFT -3 is the next generation of the FBCB2 BFT transceiver/network that will operate over the WGS or other military satellite. It will provide more data capacity than BFT-2 and avoid the cost associated with operation over commercial satellites. The PM seeks to procure prototype hardware and associated services, using multiple Firm Fixed Price or Cost Plus Fixed Fee contracts. The period of performance of these contracts would be no greater than two years and include the following scope: oEngineering design and development services. oManufacture and Delivery of twenty-five each prototype Ground and Airborne BFT-3 Transceivers, oManufacture and Delivery of Prototype Hub / Satellite Ground Station (SGS), and Network Operations Centers (NOC) equipment oEnvironmental and Field Testing services oNetwork management services in support of Army Prototype testing The total dollar value of each contract is estimated to be less than $15M. The BFT-3 Transceivers must be mountable on Army and USMC tactical vehicles and provide data transport services on the move. When operated over a WGS X-band forward and reverse link channel, the system objectively must be able to: 1)Support delivery of one 90-byte message/minute from each of as many as 20,000 tactical platforms operating on a common reverse link channel without requiring any synchronization among the vehicles at an 85% or better message completion rate. 2)Support delivery of up to 30,000 90-byte messages/minute on the forward link of each channel 3)Platform-to-platform message delivery latency cannot exceed two seconds. 4)BFT-3 Transceivers and hub equipment must operate full duplex at 100 percent transmit duty cycle. 5)BFT-3 Transceivers must be reliable and provide a mean time between failure of at least 3,000 hours. 6)BFT-3 Ground and Airborne Transceivers must be able to operate when the relative direction to the WGS satellite is zero to 360 degrees azimuth and down to five degrees elevation from the horizon. 7)BFT-3 Ground and Airborne Transceivers must be designed to support the applicable environmental requirements cited in the MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-461 8)BFT-3 Ground transceivers must be no larger in physical size than the current BFT-1 and BFT-2 Transceivers 9)Airborne transceivers must consist of a modem subassembly mounted inside the aircraft and an external antenna subassembly. Each subassembly must be no larger or heavier than the BFT-1 or BFT-2 equivalent subassemblies. 10)The BFT-3 waveform needs to be designed to be able to penetrate the rotors of all known operational DoD rotary wing aircraft The BFT-3 Transceivers must also be able to operate on commercial X-band satellite constellations with data rates that scale with spectrum bandwidth and power level. The interface between the transceiver and the vehicle computer must support standard IPv4 datagrams. The IPv4 datagrams can each be as large as 1500 bytes each (the 90 bytes value above is used to establish latency and throughput requirements). The over-the-air interface between the transceiver and the ground station may be non-standard, but its specification must be presented with Government-Purpose Rights. It is desired that the Ground BFT-3 Transceivers cost no more than $3,500 each when procured in lots of 10,000 units or more. At the successful completion of the prototype contracts, it is anticipated that a full and open competition will be conducted for full scale production of BFT-3. Starting in 2015, the Army wants to replace the current BFT equipment with improved and affordable BFT-3 equipment that provides improvement in data throughput. It should be noted that this procurement is seeking a much needed capability for ongoing military activity worldwide. The PM desires to field the BFT-3 system to military ground combat and airborne rotary wing vehicles as quickly as possible after contract award. To this end, the Government needs to better understand what is available in industry and to what degree objective requirements can be met. Sources that are interested in providing the Army with the resources identified above are requested to provide a detailed white paper describing their (1) BFT-3 hardware products (ground transceiver, airborne configuration, Satellite Ground Station equipment, and Network Management equipment), (2) waveforms, (3) satellite forward and reverse link resource requirements, (4) network performance and capability, (5) hardware, software, and waveform maturity, (6) timelines to production, and (7) projected development, prototype, and production cost estimates. Responders may be provided a follow up questionnaire tailored to their response. This market survey is for information and planning purposes only, and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP). It is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government implies no intention or opportunity to acquire funding to support current or future production efforts. If a formal solicitation is generated at a later date, a solicitation notice will be published. No award will be made as a result of this market survey. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any private sector input as a result of the market survey. The U.S. Government is not obligated to notify respondents of the results of this survey. Any documentation provided will not be returned. Interested sources should submit their qualification data and requested information no later than 1500 hrs EST on 22 August 2011 by email to nick.bartolomei@us.army.mil. Telephone responses will not be accepted. Point of Contact: Nicholas A. Bartolomei, Contract Specialist, ACC-APG, Phone: 443-861-4924
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/e24d79c5e3d58ecf6226e7bccb001add)
- Place of Performance
- Address: ACC-APG (C4ISR) HQ CECOM CONTRACTING CENTER, 6001 COMBAT DRIVE ABERDEEN PROVING GROU MD
- Zip Code: 21005-1846
- Zip Code: 21005-1846
- Record
- SN02505096-W 20110722/110721003635-e24d79c5e3d58ecf6226e7bccb001add (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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