A -- DRIVER'S VISION ENHANCER

Notice Date

March 7, 2001

Contracting Office

U.S. Army CECOM, CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, NJ 07703-5008

ZIP Code

07703-5008

Solicitation Number

DAAB07-01-R-J456

Response Due

March 30, 2001

Point of Contact

Joseph Brooks, PM NV, 703-704-1251

E-Mail Address

Click here to e-mail the POC (joseph.brooks@nvl.army.mil)

Description

General: The US Army CECOM, Project Manager Night Vision/Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition, Fort Belvoir VA is issuing a Sources Sought for Drivers Vision Enhancers (DVE) as outlined below. The Government intends to award its choice of fixed price contract(s), cooperative agreement(s), or an other transaction(s) under Section 845 of the National Defense Authorization Act Fiscal Year 1994, Public Law 103-160 and as amended under Section 804 of the National Defense Authorization Act Fiscal Year 97, Public Law 104-201. More than one award may be made based on the availability of funds. Overview: The government is seeking proposals from industry in an attempt to qualify a second source or sources for the production of the Drivers Vision Enhancer (DVE). The intent of the government is to award up to two contracts/agreements that will focus on producing a limited number of DVE units for initial assessment during Phase I (estimated Government share is $700K), and a Phase II (estimated Government share is $1.3 million) effort to produce more units for qualification of the systems. The government is planning to solicit for production of the DVE in FY02. This BAA effort will focus on providing at least one additional qualified source in time for this solicitation. This will be a two-phased effort. Phase I will focus on the production of a minimum number of units, which will go through a user evaluation. Feedback from this user evaluation will be used in the Phase II effort, which will include the fabrication of a set of units to go through systems qualification. DVE Acquisition Strategy: The DVE is currently being procured under the Thermal Omnibus contract. In FY02 we are planning to solicit for production of the DVE in the Thermal Omnibus II contract. This BAA will serve to provide a contractor(s) with the ability to qualify a product in time for the Thermal Omnibus II solicitation. It should be noted that consideration was given in Thermal Omnibus I source selection for commonality between DVE and TWS (Thermal Weapons Sight). It is the Government's intent to continue to recognize this "value added" for commonality in future phases of development and production. System Description: DVE provides vehicle drivers with the ability to continue operations in darkness and limited visibility conditions. The system comes in two variants; Combat Vehicle (CV) DVE, and Tactical Wheeled Vehicle (TWV) DVE. The specifications for these systems can be found in Performance Specification MIL-PRF-49256. This Specification is available through the CECOM Acquisition Center Web page or through the Contracting Officer. Given the current status of the DVE system/program, and the movement of this technology toward uncooled thermal sensors for this class of system, it is the government's intent to pursue uncooled sensor technology for this effort. Scope of Effort: Given the limited resources for this effort, the offerors need only produce the Combat Vehicle variant of the DVE (CV DVE) for the Phase I and Phase II efforts. The offerors will propose the number of units for both Phase I and Phase II as well as the scope of the system qualification for Phase II. However, a minimum number of 4 units are required for the Phase I assessment. It is the intent of the government to establish an Integrated Product Team (IPT) for this effort. The IPT will be composed of government and contractor personnel who will work together to coordinate government and contractor activities to include program scheduling, reviews, user evaluation efforts, qualification, and logistical support considerations. Schedule: It is desired that the Phase I units be delivered in sufficient time to be assessed by Users in a U.S. Army field demonstration in late 2001 (OCT-DEC 01). The government will assess the units for their overall performance capabilities, ruggedness, MANPRINT, and other features. The contractor should be available to support the units as part of these operational evaluations. The Phase II Qualification Testing needs to be done in sufficient time to demonstrate the level of overall system maturity in the Thermal Omnibus II proposal. Logistical Considerations: Given that the current acquisition strategy allows more than one source, overall logistical concerns need to be addressed in this effort. The IPT will assess the impact of sustaining multiple variants of the same system in the field, which are produced by different vendors. The IPT will use the current Operations and Sustainment (O&S) benchmarks maintained by the PM NV/RSTA along with the current maintenance concept to determine the best and most cost effective overall approach to maintain these systems in the field. Areas to be considered during Phase I and Phase II are maintenance concept, the Regional Support Center (RSC) as a forward support area, Contractor Logistic Support (CLS), power management, Training, commonality, and other topics. A copy of the system O&S data and the current maintenance concept can be attained through the PM NV/RSTA via the Contracting Officer. Proposal Submittals: In responding to this BAA contractors should include a description of their CV DVE, along with a price and detailed schedule for both the Phase I and Phase II efforts. They should also include a description of the performance of their system and a description of their proposed qualification testing, and an estimate of the production unit cost of their system (use a quantity of 1000 systems per year as a reference). A Cost Target for the CV DVE is $10K in quantities of 850 units. Although we only require CV DVE hardware during Phase I and Phase II, the offerors should include a description of their CV and TWV DVE systems in their proposal and the level of commonality between the two configurations. Three (3) copies of the proposals shall be submitted by 30 March 2001, to: U.S. Army CECOM, Night Vision Team, ATTN: AMSEL-AC-CC-A-CD (Contracting Officer), Bldg. 1208 West, Fort Monmouth, NJ 07703-5008. Basis for Award: Any award(s) to be made will be based on the best overall proposal(s) that is (are) determined to be the most beneficial to the Government, with appropriate consideration given to technical approach and price. The Contractor shall demonstrate a thorough understanding of the technical requirements and shall meet key performance parameters, schedule requirements and system configurations in order to be considered for award. Evaluation of Proposals: The government shall assess the proposals in the areas of performance, maturity/ability to provide for an effective future competitor for the DVE, affordability of the system and price of Phase I and II. It is our desire to award up to two contract/agreements within funding limitations. The following is more detail on each area to be evaluated (they are in descending order of importance): Performance: The overall performance of the proposed system will be reviewed to see which requirements are met or exceeded. The DVE Specification cited above will be used as the benchmark for this part of the evaluation. The overall technical/performance risk will also be evaluated. Maturity: The overall maturity of the design will be evaluated. In particular the ability to provide a qualified solution by the FY02 timeframe for the Thermal Omnibus II source selection. Also, the level of qualification testing proposed will be evaluated to assess the overall value to the Government. Affordability of the System: The offerors proposal will be evaluated to determine the ultimate affordability of the system once in production. The offerors overall system price and backup data will be evaluated per the affordability benchmark defined above and for overall completeness. Offerors should provide discussion on the issues of added affordability due to commonality between the different configurations of DVE as well as with TWS. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) reduction for the DVE program will also be evaluated and should be addressed in the proposals. Price: The offerors proposed price for Phase I and Phase II of the effort will be part of the evaluation. Cost sharing is encouraged and if an offeror intends to fund part of the effort, they should clearly document their proposal. Funding Availability: Funding available for the Government's share for this effort is approximately $700K for Phase I and $1.3 million for Phase II. The contractor share shall be a third which a substantial portion must be cash.

Web Link

Interactive Interagency Business Opportunity Page (https://abop.monmouth.army.mil)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010309/ASOL013.HTM (W-066 SN50F512)