SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Small Arms Center of Excellence
- Notice Date
- 12/20/2002
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- US Army ARDEC, AMSTA-AR-PC, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey 07806-5000
- ZIP Code
- 07806-5000
- Solicitation Number
- DAAE30-03-Q0409
- Point of Contact
- Cynthia Eng, Contract Specialist, (973) 724-5969
- E-Mail Address
-
Email your questions to Cynthia Eng
(ceng@pica.army.mil)
- Description
- CBD ANNOUNCEMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL SOURCES SOUGHT Purpose: To assess interest of industry and academia in becoming members of an industry/academia consortium to form a National Small Arms Center with the U.S. Army. A major goal of this consortium will be to improve U.S. industry, university and Government capabilities as required to sustain U.S. military supremacy in research, development, engineering and production of hand guns, shoulder fired weapons, grenade launchers, machine guns, grenade machine guns, automatic cannons and other ground weapons/devices such as lightweight acoustic and directed energy weapons. Also included are small arms ammunition; hand, gun launched and rocket grenades; fire control; embedded computers; power supplies; fuzing and the soldier/gun/vehicle interface. Background: Small arms weapons and ammunition technology and facilities are in serious jeopardy due to a long period of reduced Defense spending and the restructuring and downsizing of Government, industrial and university capabilities. Conventional small arms weapons and ammunition technology is a core capability that must be sustained to meet our military needs around the world. The Center of Excellence will be under the management of the Program Manager for the Joint Services Small Arms Program and is cosponsored by the PEO Soldier; PEO Ammunition; U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command - Rock Island (TACOM-RI), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and TACOM-Armaments, Research and Development Engineering Center (TACOM-ARDEC). The other Services and other Government agencies will be invited to join the Center in the coming months. The Center will be located at TACOM-ARDEC although in operation it is a virtual center that will leverage the assets and capabilities of its Government sponsors and industry and academia partners. TACOM-ARDEC serves as the Army's focal point and authority for research development, test and evaluation of small arms weapons system designs, optimization of lethality, durability, reliability and ease of use; and development and application of computer models and simulations to all aspects of weapons system design. TACOM-ARDEC is also the Department of the Army and the Army Materiel command's lead laboratory for energetic materials and for transitioning small arms weapons and ammunition to production. The sponsors have partnered and continue to partner with a number of universities and industries on many diverse activities in the areas of Small Arms Weapons Systems. The Army would like to build upon this partnering activity with academia, industry and other profit and non-profit organizations to address the Army's long-range goals in the area of small arms weapons systems. Description. The partnership/consortium will perform research, development and engineering activities, which address the Army's long-range goals in the areas indicated above. The purpose of this consortium is to define collaborative efforts that advance the technology and scientific and engineering skills in the areas that are required to develop, upgrade and produce weapons and ammunition which support the Army's current and future requirements. The role of the Government will be to directly participate in these collaborative efforts, to provide partial or full funding, and share expertise and facilities. It is expected that the non-Government collaborators will share in the funding of the National Small Arms Center of Excellence, contribute their own financial and personnel resources and under special instances, materials, facilities, equipment or instrumentation. It is envisioned that these objectives will be accomplished through the use of an ?Other Transaction Agreement (OTA)? (Section 845 of the 1994 Defense Appropriations Act and amendments) between the Army and the consortium, where each consortium member participates in accordance with a Consortium Management Agreement (CMA). The CMA will define the purpose, goals and responsibilities of the members including how the members will address intellectual property. The consortium may consist of industry (large and small businesses), universities, and non-profit organizations working with PM JSSAP personnel and other Government sponsors utilizing their own facilities or TACOM-ARDEC laboratories and facilities. The level of funding from the Government is estimated to be $1.5M - $3.0M the first year. The term of the agreement is expected to be for at least 5 years with provisions for renewal. A major goal of this consortium is to improve U.S. industry, Government and university capabilities to sustain U.S. military supremacy in the research, development, engineering and production of small arms weapons and ammunition. Consequently, the consortium will be open to qualified U.S. and foreign-owned organizations to foster the largest technical impact; however, the preference will be for the work to be performed in the U.S. The members must have a Secret clearance and comply with U.S. Army Security, Safety and Environmental requirements and export laws. The Center will engage in broad areas of research and development leading to prototypes to include weapon systems, subassemblies such as fire control, fuzing and power supplies, materials and material behavior, coatings, manufacturing science and technology, modeling and simulation and failure analyses. The Center will also foster specialized education and training as necessary consistent with the goals of the Center. PM JSSAP would like to receive feedback and an expression of interest to include your reasons in the form of a White Paper. The White Paper should outline your proposed approach and scope of effort in the partnership / consortium with the Army. In addition it should address the following areas: 1. An expression of interest to include your specific area of interest. 2. Approach to managing, safeguarding and sharing intellectual property. 3. Liability considerations and proposed approach or limitations. 4. Technology transfer benefits you visualize for yourself and the Government. 5. Special facilities, scientific and engineering knowledge and expertise you could bring to the partnership/consortium. 6. Proposed membership and operating structure of the Consortium to include legal preferences regarding the structure. 7. Questions you may have or additional information that should be presented at the Industry Day briefing prior to releasing a Request for Proposal. Administration: Please respond to this announcement with an expression of interest by January 10, 2003 and a White Paper by Jan 10, 2003. White Papers are to be no more than 8 pages long, should be in Microsoft Word and shall be submitted via e-mail to the Contract Specialist, Ms. Cindy Eng, ceng@pica.army.mil, (973) 724-5969. Industry Day is scheduled for January 22, 2003 at The Garden Inn Hilton, 375 Mount Hope Avenue, Rockaway, New Jersey 07866 ((20 rooms have been blocked for this event?call for reservations: (973) 328-0600)) commencing at 0830 hours. Please advise Barbara J. Byrnes, eme1bmt@aol.com, (703) 212-8030, Joe Taglairino (973) 724-3417 or Dr. Stephen C. Small, ssmall@pica.army.mil (973) 724-7043 of your intent to attend Industry Day NLT January 15, 2002. Security: IMPORTANT: All foreign nationals must submit an embassy request no later than 10 January 2003. Canadians may apply by way of the Joint Certification Program. In either case the security POC is Kevin Perry (973) 724-2933. The Government will not pay for this information nor award a contract based on your submission. The Market Survey will be used by the Army to assess interest in becoming a member of an industry/academia consortium to form a National Small Arms Center.
- Web Link
-
US ARMY TACOM-ARDEC Procurement Network
(http://procnet.pica.army.mil/cbd/SRCSgt/122020020/122020020.htm)
- Record
- SN00228263-W 20021222/021220213848 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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