A -- K/KA/Q MULTI-BEAM APERTURES FOR NAVAL COMMUNICATIONS (MBA)

Notice Date

June 22, 2001

Contracting Office

Office of Naval Research, 800 North Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22217-5660

ZIP Code

22217-5660

Solicitation Number

01-021

Response Due

August 10, 2001

Point of Contact

Mr. Mark Powell ONR Code 313, (202) 767-5678; E-mail: powellm@onr.navy.mil; Office of Naval Research Ballston Centre Tower One, Room 619-1 800 Quincy Street Arlington, VA 22217-5660

Description

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) seeks proposals for research and development that will lead to the demonstration of pre-production prototype phased array antennas operating in the K, Ka, and Q frequency bands. Areas of specific interest include the following: (1) Apertures: Offerors should propose to design, fabricate, and test high-performance electronically-steered antennas supporting K/Ka/Q-band satellite communications. The designs should be adaptable for installation on all DoD platforms, including surface ships, submarines, aircraft, and ground mobile vehicles. Design approaches must support aperture size scalability. Offerors must state the maximum scan loss their array approach(es) will exhibit at a scan angle of 60 degrees from boresight as the main beam pointing direction is rotated through 360 degrees with respect to a reference plane containing the boresight vector. (1.1) K-Band: Apertures in this band will receive multiple signals simultaneously from multiple directions with an arbitrary mix of polarizations in the band 19.2-21.2 GHz (threshold), with wider coverage (17.7-21.2 GHz) as an objective. The maximum required instantaneous bandwidth is 1 GHz. (1.2) Ka-Band: Apertures in this band will transmit multiple signals simultaneously in multiple directions with an arbitrary mix of polarizations, in the band 29.0-31.0 GHz (threshold), with wider coverage (27.5-31.0 GHz) as an objective. The maximum required instantaneous bandwidth is 1 GHz. (1.3) Q-Band: Apertures in this band will transmit arbitrarily polarized signals simultaneously in multiple directions, in the band 43.5-45.5 GHz (threshold). The maximum required instantaneous bandwidth is 2 GHz. (1.4) Aperture Technical Requirements: (a) Aperture design approaches that support multiple simultaneous beams. Discuss the engineering trades made in arriving at the proposed number of simultaneous beams in each transmit and receive aperture (e.g., physical thickness, electric power efficiency, etc.). (b) Aperture approaches that are scalable in size (i.e., in the number of elements) to achieve various receiver gain to noise temperature ratio (G/T) and transmitter effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) requirements. Provide an estimate of the equivalent G/T and EIRP per 100 square inches of aperture surface area for each proposed receive and transmit approach, respectively. Discuss the engineering trades involved with determining the maximum number of elements each proposed aperture approach could support. Include discussion of requested aperture area efficiency data and engineering trades analyses. (c) Aperture approaches must address affordability and life-cycle cost of the aperture approaches, which include the cost projections for finished, ready to field arrays on a per-element basis for hypothetical orders of 10, 100, and 500 systems. (2) Supporting Electronic Subsystems: Offerors should propose to design, fabricate, and test electronic subsystems for supporting this program's aperture demonstrations and future aperture-related DoD acquisition programs. Examples of this include, but are not limited to (i) intermediate frequency (IF) to radio frequency (RF) converters, (ii) RF-to-IF converters, (iii) beam steering controllers (BSCs), and (iv) power amplifiers. (3) Vehicle-Specific Aperture Packaging: Offerors should propose to design, fabricate, and test aperture packaging techniques that address the rigors of shipboard, submarine, aircraft and ground mobile vehicle environments for supporting this program's aperture demonstrations and future aperture-related DoD acquisition programs. The Government will favorably view aperture-packaging approaches that are applicable for multiple vehicle classes for their potential to achieve economies of scale. (4) General Technical Requirements: (4.1) Capability for proposed technologies to be massed produced. (4.2) Identification of all portions of the approach for which reliable parts and materials suppliers have or have not yet been determined. The KSA FNC Program will be funded with a combination of Exploratory Development and Advanced Development funds (Budget Categories 6.2 and 6.3), subject to official fiscal appropriation. Awards will typically be in the range from $500,000 to $5,000,000, although lower and higher cost proposals will be considered. Awards will primarily be in the form of contracts. However, the Government reserves the right to award grants, cooperative agreements, or other transaction agreements to appropriate parties, should the situation warrant use of a non-contractual instrument. Proposed work should be structured to have a base period of performance of 24-months or less, but may include multiple-year, phased options that extend beyond the initial period, but not to exceed 60-months. This BAA provides no funds for proposal development. Bidders Briefing: A Bidders Briefing for the Multi-Beam Apertures Program (MBA) will be held on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 on the Second Floor of Assurance Technology Corporation, 6304 Potomac Ave, Alexandria, VA 22307. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide potential bidders with a better understanding of the MBA program. The briefing is unclassified and will be held 9:00 -11:30 A.M. EST, with registration beginning at 8:00 A.M EST. Please provide notification of planned attendance to the MBA Bidders Briefing via e-mail message to Mr. Mark Powell at powellm@onr.navy.mil by July 5, 2001. The message must include the following information: name of attendee(s), title, organization, department or company division, phone, fax, and e-mail address. If desired participation exceeds capacity, it may be necessary to limit attendance, and organizations will be so notified. Those not able to attend this briefing should consult https//:onr3.nrl.navy.mil/mba to see the material presented at the briefing. All interested parties should examine this web site regularly for updates to the MBA BAA and to review written questions and answers. Security Classification of Proposals: Most proposals submitted for the MBA program are expected to be unclassified. However, confidential/classified proposals are permitted. If a confidential/classified proposal is submitted, it must also include an unclassified Statement of Work. Notice to Foreign Owned Firms: Foreign entities may submit proposals that describe unclassified/publicly releasable work if the proposed technology can be developed and demonstrated within that classification level. Proposals by foreign entities for confidential or classified work are subject to country-to-country agreements for the given technology. Proposal Submission: Before submitting a Proposal, proposers must review the detailed information on the MBA program that can be found in the Proposal Information Package (PIP) on the MBA program web page at https//:onr3.nrl.navy.mil/mba. Offerors may submit multiple proposals for the MBA program and/or proposals that address any combination of the technical areas. Offerors must state in their proposal that it is submitted in response to this BAA 01-021. Eight hard copies of each proposal must be provided along with an electronic copy of the complete proposal in either RTF (Rich Text Format) or PDF (Portable Document Format) on a Zip disk or CD-ROM. Proposals shall not exceed 40 pages in length excluding resumes and attachments. Offerors' proposals will be due on Tuesday, 10 August 2001 at 1700 EST. Proposals should be submitted before the deadline to: Office of Naval Research, Ballston Centre Tower One, Attn: Mr. Mark Powell, Room 619-1, ONR 313, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22217-5660. Proposals submitted by facsimile or email are not acceptable and will not be considered. Proposal submissions will be protected from unauthorized disclosure in accordance with FAR 15.207, applicable law, and DoD/DoN regulations. Offerors are expected to appropriately mark each page of their submission that contains proprietary information. Teaming between Industry and Government laboratories to produce unique or novel solutions is permitted. Costs where a Government laboratory is included, as part of a team should be predicated on separate awards to the Government laboratory and the team partners. Government agencies will not be in direct competition with industry. This BAA provides no funding for proposal development. It is expected that the Navy will award several contracts, (grants, cooperative agreements, or other transactions) in any or all of the task areas described above; the number of selections depending, in part on the cost of individual proposed efforts and available funding. The evaluation criteria are contained in Section 3.0 of the PIP. Anticipated Significant Dates: 11 Jul 01 Bidders Briefing 10 Aug 01 Proposals Due; 1700 EST 28 Aug 01 Notification to Unsuccessful Offerors 31 Aug 01 Notification of Award Decisions 30 Oct 01 Contract Awards The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the submissions received in response to this announcement. Unsuccessful offerors will be acknowledged by letter. Proposals will not be returned after evaluation. For awards made as contracts, the socio-economic merits of each proposal will be evaluated based on the extent of commitment in providing meaningful subcontracting opportunities for small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, woman-owned small business concerns, veteran-owned small business concerns, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's), and minority institutions (MI's). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this solicitation is 54171 (which corresponds with the standard industrial classification code of 8731) with the small business size standard of 500 employees. In addition, a Small Business Subcontracting Plan in accordance with FAR 52.219-9, must accompany contract proposals that exceed $500,000 submitted by all but small businesses. Entities that must submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan for contract proposals that exceed $500,000 include universities/colleges, nonprofits, and large businesses. HBCU's and MI's are encouraged to submit proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set-aside for HBCU and MI participation, due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of decision support system technology for exclusive competition among these entities. Questions of a Business nature should be directed to: Office of Naval Research, Ballston Centre Tower One, Attn: Ms. Margo Graves, ONR 251, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22217-5660, (703) 696-2602 or margaret_graves@onr.navy.mil.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010626/ASOL008.HTM (W-173 SN50P7J7)