SOURCES SOUGHT
58 -- Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) Electro-Optic/Infrared/Laser Designator (EO/IR/LD) Payload - Request for Information
- Notice Date
- 2/21/2017
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334511
— Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command, ACC - APG (W909MY) Belvoir, 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia, 22331, United States
- ZIP Code
- 22331
- Solicitation Number
- W909MY-17-R-TUAS
- Archive Date
- 4/5/2017
- Point of Contact
- Shahaadah C. Nalls, Phone: 7037040833
- E-Mail Address
-
shahaadah.c.nalls.civ@mail.mil
(shahaadah.c.nalls.civ@mail.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Source Sought Notice for Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) Electro-Optic/Infrared/Laser Designator (EO/IR/LD) Payload Request for Information (RFI) This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes of the Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) RQ-7B variant in FY18-FY28 only and shall not be considered as an Invitation for Bid, Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. The response to this RFI will be treated as information only. Responses to the RFI may be used to develop Government documentation. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement or the Government use of such information. Business types that may respond to this request include large business, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a)-certified small disadvantaged business, HUBZone small business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business. This RFI is supported by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.200 and 15.201. A RFI may be used when the Government does not presently intend to award a contract, but wants to obtain price, delivery, other market information, or capabilities for planning purposes. Responses to these notices are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or part, any contractor input resulting from this request. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The Army, in developing its acquisition strategy, performance work statement, statement of objectives and/or performance based specification(s), may use the information provided. Parties responding to this RFI are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. Acknowledgement of receipt of submitted items will not be made nor will respondents be notified of the outcome of the information received. PROGRAM OBJECTIVE: The United States Army Contracting Command- Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) Belvoir is conducting market research on behalf of Product Manager Electro-Optic/Infrared (PdM EO/IR) Payloads to determine potential vendors in the market place with capabilities to deliver a production-ready Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or Non-Developmental Item (NDI) Electro-Optic/Infrared/Laser Designator (EO/IR/LD) Payload for the TUAV RQ-7B variant. The Government is interested in the procurement of an EO/IR/LD payload, sustainment support, and future upgrades/modification support to deliver an enhanced capability to the TUAV. The Army is currently pursuing approval of an acquisition strategy for a best value source selection, resulting in a single award ID/IQ contract. The contract ordering period would be five (5) years, with an option for an additional five (5)year ordering period. The current notional plan is for the initial delivery order to include the delivery of up to eight (8) production ready COTS or NDI EO/IR/LD Payloads to be integrated on the TUAV and used for initial qualification testing. In addition, these units would be used for First Article Testing. It is anticipated that delivery of these eight (8) units would be required within 8 months of order award. It is anticipated that the Government would procure up to 460 Payloads over the life of the contract. The Army is considering a Firm-Fixed-Price/Fixed-Price-Incentive type orders. The results of this Market Research will be used to inform the final acquisition strategy which will then be provided to the Milestone Decision Authority for approval. All information in this announcement is preliminary and subject to change. The Government is interested in including provisions for upgrades or modifications to the Payload that capitalize on commercial technology improvements to address obsolescence over the life of the contract.. Sustainment and fielding support to include repair parts, maintenance, special test equipment, Field Service Representatives (FSRs) both Contiguous United States (CONUS) and Outside the Contiguous United States (OCONUS) locations, and training support will also be needed. The Government is also interested in any standard commercial or manufacturer warranties associated with the Payload, detail technical description/approaches, vendor facilities, manufacturing resources, contractual relationships, and other capabilities that may contribute to improved value to the Government (cost, schedule, and performance) in the production and sustainment of these payloads. Additionally, the Government is interested in obtaining Government Purpose License Rights to allow for sustainment support. Vendors that respond to this RFI shall provide evidence that they can meet the following performance criteria related to procurement, sustainment support, upgrade/modification, and future capabilities for the payloads. A. PROCUREMENT OF EO/IR/LD PAYLOADS PERFORMANCE CRITERIA: The EO/IR/LD payload shall be capable of detection and recognition of an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) sized target day and night from operational altitudes and survivable standoff ranges. The payload shall have the following characteristics: 1. Precision stabilized gimbal with integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU) 2. Integrated electronics unit, high-definition (HD) digital and analog video output 3. Thermal imager, medium-wave infrared (MWIR), step or continuous zoom, minimum of 720p format, multiple fields of view (FOV) 4. HD color (EO) imager, continuous zoom, minimum of 720p format, multiple FOV 5. Laser Rangefinder/Designator (LRD) 6. Infrared Laser Target Marker 7. Target Location Error (TLE) <=30 meters to a 90% confidence 8. The LRD shall be capable of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standard Pulse Rate Frequency (PRF) laser codes. 9. Automatic Video Tracker (AVT) 10. Weight ≤ 50 pounds (lbs.) (T), weight ≤ 35 lbs. (O) 11. Power ≤ 28 volts direct current (VDC), 4 amps (A) (average), power ≤ 22A @ 2 milliseconds (mS) at peak, power ≤ 300 Watts (T) 12. Payload physical dimensions shall not exceed the volume described in APPENDIX A of this RFI. 13. Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) ≤ 110 hours (T), MTBF ≤ 160 hours (O) 14. Aided Target Cueing, Recognition, and/or Identification (O) B. SUSTAINMENT SUPPORT FOR EO/IR/LD PAYLOADS: The Contractor shall have the ability to provide sustainment support, payload repairs, payload maintenance, and payload upgrade support, in both CONUS and OCONUS locations. Sustainment support capabilities must include the Payload assemblies, modules, major components, circuit card assemblies, Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) assemblies, Shop Replaceable Unit (SRU) assemblies, diagnosis, and repair at the field or depot Level. Functional and conformance testing will need to address part failures during normal utilization of the payloads as well as non-standard repairs such as damage during shipment, crashes, aircraft hard landings or battle damage. Support capabilities must be tailorable to provide sustainment support to achieve required Operational Availability (Ao). C. FUTURE UPGRADES/MODIFICATIONS TO EO/IR/LD PAYLOADS: The Contractor shall have the ability to implement modifications (i.e., technology insertions and system retrofits) in accordance with AR 750-10 as a guide. Modification is any alteration, conversion, or modernization of an end item or component of an end item, which in any way changes or improves the original purpose or operational capacity in relation to effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, or safety of that item. This includes, but is not limited to, conversions, field fixes, retrofits, remanufactures, redesigns, upgrades, extended service programs, engineering changes, software revisions, system enhancement programs, service life extension programs, system improvement programs, product improvement programs, and preplanned product improvements. The contractor shall have the ability to modify payloads to address capability improvements agreed upon by the Government. These upgrades/modifications can be made via software and hardware. RESPONSE SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS: All material submitted in response to this RFI must be unclassified. Responses are due 30 calendar days from date of posting of this RFI. The Government requests that interested sources submit an electronic response (Microsoft Office 2007 or higher or PDF format) of not more than 30 pages, 8.5" x 11" paper, 12-point, Times New Roman font, with a minimum of one (1) inch margins all around, describing the approach to meet the performance criteria's established above and submit answers to questions located in VENDOR RESPONSES SECTION A & B. Only SECTION A questions will counted against your 30 pages limit. Files greater than 20 megabytes (MB) cannot be transmitted through the network firewall and must therefore be submitted via ARMDEC (https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/). If ARMDEC is used the Contractor must submit an email directly to the Government POC stating information is available via ARMDEC. The Government will accept responses from companies that can partially meet the performance capabilities. Interested parties should differentiate between which capabilities they can and cannot meet. Responses and information received in response to a RFI, shall be marked with the date and time of receipt and shall be transmitted to the designated officials. Also, responses shall be safeguarded from unauthorized disclosure throughout the market research process. CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS: ACC-APG Belvoir Division, 10205 Burbeck Road, Bldg 362, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060-5863 RESPONSE DUE DATE: The response date for this market research is 2PM (EST) on 21 March 2017. No calls will be accepted, only email inquiries will be entertained. All responses to this RFI may be submitted via e-mail to Ms. Shahaadah Nalls, Contracting Officer, at Email: shahaadah.c.nails.civ@mail.mil and to Ms. Tamara Jenkins, Contract Specialist, at tamara.n.jenkins.civ@mail.mil. CLASSIFICATION: No classified, confidential, or sensitive information shall be included in your response. Interested parties are responsible for appropriately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. VENDOR RESPONSES SECTION A: (Counted against page count) 1. Company Name, Company Contact Name, Company Mailing Address, Position, Telephone number, E-mail Address, Cage Code, and Company Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Note that RFI respondents shall designate a single point of contact for receipt of all information pursuant to this RFI. 2. Provide a brief overview of company history, limited to three (3) paragraphs. 3. Explain your technical management approach including product and component designs, configuration management, and platform integration support provided, engineering change proposals, test data and integration between payloads and platforms. 4. Provide a list of your typical customers from the EO/IR/LD Payload you presented to meet the requirement (not a variant item). Also indicate if these customers are Government entities, commercial entities, and/or the general public. If the EO/IR/LD Payload is presented as commercial, identify, if possible, up to three commercial users of your product and indicate the volume sold. 5. If the EO/IR/LD Payload represented to meet the requirement is presented as a Military-purpose NonDevelopmental Item (NDI), provide the program funding profile to support the assertion of development exclusively at private expense IAW DFARS 212.7101. Please include funding profile and sources for the system and all product improvements. 6. Provide a technical description of how your EO/IR/LD Payload will meet the requirements in sections A through C of this RFI. Provide documentation supporting any claims to meet the Government requirements in sections A through C of this RFI. Discuss the maturity of your proposed EO/IR/LD Payload design. In addition, provide your criteria for measuring the degree of maturity. If the available EO/IR/LD payload (COTS or NDI) does not meet the requirements in sections A through C, please discuss what requirements need modification for the available COTS or NDI EO/IR/LD payload to meet all of the requirements listed in sections A through C. 7. Provide information related to the EO/IR/LD payload's platform interface details (e.g., Mechanical, Electrical, and Communications drawings and or data to include electrical and physical connectors and the standards). 8. Provide any available reliability data for your product. Additionally, specify the environments reflected in this data. What is the reliability history of the product? (E.g. Mean Time Between Failure, etc.) 9. Provide information about the current level of environmental qualification and electromagnetic interference testing of the EO/IR/LD Payload being described. 10. Explain any special tools or test, measurement and diagnostic equipment required at the operational/user level to ensure that the EO/IR/LD payload operates as advertised. Would a non-EO/IR/LD company's employee be able to utilize this equipment and what level of training/expertise would the operational/user level person need to utilize this equipment? 11. Explain the maintenance and logistics support concepts for your system. 12. Explain your Field and Depot level repairs, repair facility capacity and locations, Repair Turn-Around Times (RTAT) for standard, non-standard, and planned maintenance and MTBF, the strategy for transportation, bench-stock, special tools and test equipment. RTAT for a basic field repair will average 14 days or less. RTAT for a standard depot level repair will average 30 days or less. 13. Provide details on the standard commercial or manufacturer warranties that come with your product to include the warranty period, when the period begins, warranty cost, and the included item failures covered by the warranty. 14. What are the maintainability features of your EO/IR/LD Payload design? (e.g., self-test features, accessibility, need for separate support equipment to verify failures, preventive maintenance needs, mean time to repair, etc.) 15. Explain if there is any software embedded in your EO/IR/LD Payload and specify the level of data rights you are willing to provide in the sale of the item. a. Will the Government be allowed to acquire licensing and subscription services to enable competition for maintenance? b. If it later became necessary to replace a subsystem because the original became unsupportable, could this be done without driving a major modification or replacement of the entire system? 16. Explain how comprehensive and user friendly your training materials are. a. Are your training materials and or services sufficient to teach a user how to install and trouble shoot your item? b. Is it sufficient to enable an operator to train other users? c. Are any certifications required to perform any required training? 17. Describe your willingness to provide Data Rights required to support the Government Organic Sustainment for your EO/IR/LD Payload. What data rights are available for your TDP? Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM). (MIL-STD-31000A dated 26 February 2013 can be used for reference.) 18. Explain the typical procurement lead time (time from receipt of an order to delivery of the first system). Include maximum production rate per month. 19. Explain your supply chain considerations with emphasis on any known long lead items that may adversely impact payload repairs in a deployed environment and strategies to overcome potential parts obsolescence problems. Also include transportation options for shipping CONUS to CONUS and CONUS to OCONUS. OCONUS includes Southwest Asia (SWA), Europe and Africa. 20. Provide ROM price estimates, including assumptions and cost drivers, for each system that meets the performance objectives listed in sections A through C, repair services (at each level), and spare components. Spare part components will be for a quantity of 460 payloads. It is understood by the United States Government that the cost estimates provided as a result of this request are "best" estimates only. VENDOR RESPONSES SECTION B: (Not Counted Against Page Count) 1. Do you have and approved export license for the laser designator/ rangefinder (LDRF)? If yes, provide a copy showing license number and date approved. If not, would you intend to seek approval prior to delivering the item under a potential contract? 2. Has your Company performed this type of effort or similar type efforts (to include size and complexity) in the past? Was the contract a commercial or non-commercial contract? If so, please provide Contract Number, Point of Contact (POC), email address, phone number, and a brief description of your direct support of the effort. 3. Indicate your willingness to price (on a fixed price basis) and support a 10 year IDIQ contract (5yr base ordering period with 5yr optional ordering period) for your EO/IR/LD Payload. Indicate any special provisions or concerns you have with a contract of this length. 4. Provide your EO/IR/LD Payload Detection/Recognition/Identification (D/R/I) performance ranges and probabilities for a tracked vehicle sized target based on your company's modeling and/or test data. Provide input decks and/or data to support modeling using the U.S. Army NV-IPM, NVTHERM and/or SSCAM modeling software. EXAMPLE provided in APPENDIX B 5. Please identify your company's business size standard based on the primary North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code of 334511, and its socioeconomic category. For more information, refer to http://www.sba.gov/content/tablesmall-business-size-standards: - Large Business Concern - Small Business (SB) Concern - 8(a) - Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) - Woman-Owned Small Business - Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) - Veteran-Owned Small Business - Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business In addition, anyone representing their company as other than a Large Business Concern under this effort must answer the following questions. 6. If you identify your company as a SB or any of the SB subcategories above, then is your company interested in a prime contract? If so, does your company possess the capabilities to provide the entire range of these requirements? If not, please list which requirements your company can provide. 7. Under the current SB size standard, do you anticipate your company remaining a small business under the stated NAICS code 334511? 8. If you identify your company as a Small Business or any of the Small Business subcategories above, is your company interested in being a prime on any potential future efforts? 9. If you are a small business and plan to be a prime for any future requirements, please provide information to show how you will meet the Limitations on Subcontracting clause FAR 52.219-14. 10. If you are a small business, can your company sustain operations if not paid for 90 calendar days? 11. Provide details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances, or other business arrangements to satisfy the Government requirements. Vendors are encouraged to identify teams, indicating each team member's size based upon the NAICS code of the work that the team member may be doing?
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