Commanding Officer, NAVFACCO, Bldg 41 Code 27, NAVFACENGCOMDET-SLC, 4111 San Pedro Street, Port Hueneme, CA 93043-4410

A -- SMALL UNIT LOGISTICS COMMAND AND COORDINATION SYSTEMS SOL N47408-99-R-3916 DUE 032299 POC Contract Specialist, Carol Contreras, 805-982-5195 A -- BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SMALL UNIT LOGISTICS COMMAND AND COORDINATION SYSTEM SOL N47408-99-R-3916 DUE 032299 POC Contract Specialist, Carol Contreras, (805) 982-5195. This announcement constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) under FAR 6.102 (d)(2) to solicit proposals for basic and applied research for new and innovative technological solutions to problems in the areas of SMALL UNIT LOGISTICS COMMAND AND COORDINATION SYSTEMS, BAA TOPIC NO. 99-002. Part of the proposed areas listed in these BAAs are being considered 100% set-aside for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or Minority Institutions (MIs) as defined by the clause at 252.226-7000 of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. Interested HBCUs and MIs should provide the contracting office as early as possible, but not later than 15 days after this notice, evidence of their capability to perform the contract, and a positive statement oftheir eligibility as an HBCU or MI. If adequate response is not received from HBCUs and MIs, then institutions, non-profit organizations, and private industry proposal abstracts will be evaluated. Background: NFESC is pursuing 6.3 exploratory development in the area of asset tracking and identification under the Navy Asset Visibility (NAV) project. This effort is exploring the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology in a deployed operational environment. Presently, the Navy has no deployable automated systems for management of logistics assets in real time. Lack of state of the art automation results in a time consuming and labor intensive process to locate and identify commodities. RFID technology will autonomously identify and locate specific items, allowing them to be expeditiously distributed to requesting units. The active omni-directional RFID tag systems of today will locate and discriminate among multiple vehicles, containers, crates, and pallets to which they are attached. NFESC willhost vendors that wish to demonstrate their systems at the Navy SeaBee Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme, California. For the demonstration, the system must include, as a minimum, 50 RFID tags, tag readers (both fixed and portal or gate) and data collection software with a data export feature. 40 of the tags must have a minimum of 0.5 Kb of programmable memory and a form factor of less than 12 cubic inches in volume. These tags will be used to track mobile equipment and carry the equipment specifications in the memory. The remaining 10 tags shall have sufficient programmable memory to hold a 40 foot ISO containers manifest. The form factor on these shall be compatible with installation on an ISO container such that no part of the tag penetrates the planes that define the largest physical dimensions of the container. The "container" tags will be loaded with a typical container manifest. The system must be expeditious in nature. The demonstration site will consist of two subsites located approximately 2 miles apart each containing a portal and fixed RFID tag reader system. A third subsite will be located approximately 1 to 2 miles from each of the reader sites. This third subsite will be the location of the data computer. The tag readers must be capable of capturing the entire 0.5 Kb memory on the "mobile" tags and a 0.5 Kb section of the "container" tag's memory each time a tag is read. At each reader site, tags will be both stationary and mobile. The mobile tags will move between the two reader sites. The objectives of the demonstration will be to: 1) establish an RF data communication link between the two reader sites and then back to the data collection site, 2) establish an RF data communication link between the collection site and the two reader sites independently, 3) perform RFID tag gate and fixed reader operations at the reader and 4) perform an ODBC export of the collection data. NFESC will evaluate each system to determine which one system has the best performance characteristics. The evaluation criteria to determine which system has the best performance characteristics will be the one system which has the highest percentage of tags read during the Port Hueneme demonstration. This system will be demonstrated in a Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) ship offload exercise tentatively scheduled for August-September 1999 in Australia. 200 mobile tags and 50 container tags may be required to support the exercise. NFESC will fund the provider of the system chosen for the MPF exercise to cover travel (flight, lodging, perdiem and rental vehicle at U.S. Government JTR rates for two people for 20 days) and shipping expenses to and from the exercise. The Port Hueneme demonstration will not be funded. The Port Hueneme demonstration will be held in the month of May 1999 (times and dates TBD). Proposals for the Port Hueneme demonstration and cost estimates for the MPF exercise are due no later than 22 March 1999, 1600 hrs (PST). Proposals should include the following sections as a minimum: 1) a hardware/software specification section that lists the specifications of each component and a diagram showing the proposed setup for the demonstration and 2) a cost section, which provides a detailed breakdown of the proposed travel and shipping costs required for the Australia exercise. Proposal evaluation will be based on a competitive selection of proposals from peer/scientific review considering technical merit, importance to agency programs, availability of funds, cost realism and reasonableness. All options and assumptions shall be clearly identified and defined. Evaluations will be conducted using the following evaluation criteria: (1) The relevance of the proposal to the stated technology areas of interest. (2) The anticipated warfighting operational utility of the proposed capability. (3) The ability of the proposed system/study to be ready for field-testing or to be complete within one year of contract award. (4) The suitability of the proposed capability for inclusion in a demonstration. (5) Projected affordability of transitioning the technology to the fleet, to include compliance with the Marine Corps software and hardware standards; (6) Past performance, experience and qualification of the principal project personnel and/or Institution Corporation submitting the proposal, (7) Realism of proposed cost and availability of funding. The effective period of this BAA is through September 17, 1999. There will be two cut off dates for submission of proposals: 22 March 1999 and 17 September 1999. Proposals received by the first cutoff date will be considered for the Port Hueneme demonstration. Proposals received by the second cutoff date will be considered for possible demonstration in the U.S. Government's FY00. As of the publishing of this BAA, it cannot be determined if proposals received by the second cutoff date will be funded for or demonstrated in a Marine Corps exercise. Proposals that do not address identified technology areas will not be reviewed. All related correspondence should reference this BAA number. Submittals to this BAA shall be made in printed form on paper. Electronic copies of submittals are encouraged and should be submitted in addition to the printed copies. The electronic copy should be formatted in either Microsoft Word 97 or a text file readable in Microsoft Word 97. Proposals shall be submitted in original form and three (3) copies to the following address: COMMANDER, NAVAL CONSTRUCTION BATTALION CENTER, ATTN: Gary Thomas, 4111 San Pedro Street, Building 41 CODE 80, PORT HUENEME CA 93043-4410. Technical questions may be addressed to the following NFESC technical points of contact: Mr. Ramon Flores, (805) 982-6500 or e-mail at floresr@nfesc.navy.mil; Mr. Robert Paguio, (805) 982-1149 or email at paguiorf@nfesc.navy.mil; Mr. Daniel McCambridge, (805) 982-1296 or email at mccambridgedj@nfesc.navy.mil. The proposal identified to be funded for the MPF exercise may result in a contract. However, there is no commitment by the Navy to make any awards, make a specific number of awards or be responsible for any money expended by the offeror before award of a contract. : A contract may be awarded with a funding range of $25,000 to $35,000. Posted 02/17/99 (W-SN299424). (0048)

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