Military Sealift Command, Ship Introduction, Washington Navy Yard, Bldg. 157, Code PM41P, Washington, DC 20398- 5541

V -- STATEGIC SEALIFT NATIONAL DEFENSE FEATURES (NDF) SOL N62387-96-R-3027 POC Point of Contact: Al Skudlarek (202) 685-5989 The purpose of this Pre-solicitation Announcement is to allow the Military Sealift Command (MSC) to gauge commercial industry interest in a National Defense Features (NDF) program. Funding for the NDF is provided in the FY 96 Defense Authorization Act and falls under the authority of the National Defense Sealift Fund, Section 2218 of title 10, United States Code. The NDF program would provide funding for the installation and maintenance of critical defense features on privately owned and operated, U.S. built, U.S.- flagged merchant vessels. NDF are features built into or added to commercial vessels to make them more capable of supporting the military in a contingency, such as enhancing the vessel's ability to carry military equipment or ammunition, or enhancing the vessel's characteristics such as speed or range. Depending on the type of ship, NDF could include, but not necessarily be limited to, strengthened decks, hoistable decks, or cranes for self sustainablity. The NDF Program can not be construed as a shipbulding subsidy in accordance with the restrictions of the OECD Agreement concerning shipbuilding and repair, nor can it pay for the difference in operating costs between a U.S. and a foreign flagged vessel. Therefore, NDF must either be separate and distinct from features of normal commercial utility, or be upgrades of features beyond their normal commercial utility with controls in place that preclude use of the feature for commercial advantage. The feature must be readily available for use when the vessel is employed during a national contingency. As an example, increasing the size or power of the propulsion plant for higher speed would require some means of limiting the speed during commercial operation, unless a prorated cost of the NDF were refunded. A current requirement is for surge sealift assets to move rolling stock, available at load berth within ten days of call up. Roll- On\Roll-Off (RO\RO) vessels incorporating the COM-20 vessel characteristics, prepared with industry, can be used as guidance for surge sealift need, but smaller RO\RO vessels, with at least 100,000 square feet of military utility will also be considered. An additional sustainment requirement is to transport containerized ammunition to the theater of operations. Self sustaining container vessels in the 1500 TEU range, capable of loading at ports like Concord, CA, and discharging at shallow draft ports in theater will fill this ammunition transport need. Although proposals need not be limited to these ship types, these are the principal requirements for an NDF Program identified by the U.S. Transportation Comand. Other proposed features that enhance the military utility of a commercial ship may be considered, as long as they meet a military requirement. In all cases, ship construction costs, except for the costs of NDF, would be borne by commercial interests who would contract directly with a U.S. shipyard for construction/conversion of the ship. Government funding of NDF would be contingent upon the operator and the shipyard first reaching an agreement in principle. NDF vessels would be operated in commercial trade under the U.S.-flag and would be crewed by U.S. merchant mariners. The vessels would be availabe for immediate recall, through a binding agreement between the owner/operator and the U.S. Navy, in time to support a national contingency. Further information on the proposed NDF Program can be found in the Department of Defense (DOD) study of the costs and benefits of NDF in an active Ready Reserve Force (RRF), forwarded to Congress 8 March, 1995. The DOD Study, which includes COM-20 Requirements, can be provided upon request. The current plan is for a ''best value'' two-phased acquisition consisting of a broad agency announcement calling for concept papers (Phase I) followed by a request for cost and technical proposals from the offerors whose concept papers are selected by MSC (Phase II). When requested, the NDF concept papers, submitted by teams representing a U.S.-flag operator(s) and a U.S. shipyard(s) or individual offerors, should identify team members and their qualifications and provide a description of the ship's intended commercial employment, types of NDF suggested and estimated costs, ship characteristics, milestone schedule, and proposed partnership and financing plans. Major components of NDF must be U.S. manufactured, but offerors will be permitted to include in the team effort foreign firms involved in the international shipbuilding or equipage industries to facilitate technology transfer or if domestic sources are unavailable. Please send notification of interest and any comments to Military Sealift Command (Code PM-41P) on or before 10 May 1996. MSC is particularly interested in comments on suggested NDF, defining full costs of the NDF, (i.e. procurement, installation, maintenance, operating expenses), and contingency use compensation. Information received as a result of this Presolicitation Announcement may be used in the further development of the NDF program. Material which is considered proprietary in nature should not be submitted at this time. (0110)

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