SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Directed Energy Technology Applications and Research (DETAR)
- Notice Date
- 3/24/2004
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541710
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - PL
- ZIP Code
- 87117
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-BAA-04-DE-03
- Point of Contact
- Sandra Maes, Contract Specialist, Phone 505 846 4635, Fax 505 853 3398, - Steve Young, Contracting Officer, Phone 505 846 4624, Fax 505 853 3398,
- E-Mail Address
-
Sandra.Maes@kirtland.af.mil, Steven.Young@kirtland.af.mil
- Description
- A. INTRODUCTION. THIS IS AN ADVANCE NOTICE. DO NOT SUBMIT PROPOSALS FOR THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS PROVIDED TO GIVE INDUSTRY ADVANCE NOTICE OF AN ANTICIPATED BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT. The High Power Microwaves High Power Systems Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, is seeking innovative techniques and approaches for the development of technologies, components, and systems for the High Power Microwave Technical Area and other directed energy systems via this Directed Energy Technology Applications and Research (DETAR) program. The DETAR program intends to develop and enhance present capabilities as well as expand the horizons and search for new opportunities in all aspects of high power microwave (HPM) system and technology development. The program will provide technology and applications research and development (R&D) for pulsed power (PP) and HPMs, making optimum use of AFRL/DEH capital resources, facilities, and experience. This should include, but is not necessarily limited to, R&D on narrow band and wide band HPM loads; associated compact, portable pulsed power supplies suitable to drive such loads, including repetitive pulsed power supplies; alternative uses of such technology such as high energy particle beams; higher current and energy pulsed power and its applications, such as intense ionizing radiation sources, hypervelocity projectiles, material jets, and particulate beams; and other innovative developments of and use of pulsed power. In making full use of capital assets located on Kirtland AFB, NM, the contractor is expected to provide R&D maintenance and management of several Kirtland AFB, NM facilities. Sites and buildings housing these assets include the High Energy Plasma Laboratory (Building 322), The High Energy Microwave Laboratory (HEML, Building 323), the High Energy Research and Technology Facility (HERTF, Building 66071), portions of Sandia Area 4 used by AFRL/DE (Building 963), portions of buildings in the Building 900 complex, and a new facility located on KAFB housing operations presently conducted at Sandia Area IV. The pulse power systems contained in these facilities include modular capacitor systems capable of storing several mega joules, and delivering up to 20 megamps with flexible timing, and triggering of separate modules (e.g., SHIVA-STAR). As part of this program, contractors will be expected to offer a significant and comprehensive facilities maintenance and operations program encompassing all operational, safety, and health aspects. The estimated total program budget for these efforts is approximately $25-49.9M over five years (FY05: $5-9.5M; FY06: $5-10M; FY07: $5-9.5M; FY08: $5-10M; FY09: $5-10.9M), and the resulting contract will be awarded with a ceiling of $49.9M. This amount is subject to adjustments that may be appropriate for the government to take full advantage of the contract ordering period. AFRL reserves the right to make no award, a single award, or multiple awards. This includes the possibility of making more than one award within a given topic area. If multiple awards within a topic area do occur, contractors may have to compete with each other for a given task order. If competed, AFRL will evaluate task order proposals on the following criteria, listed in descending order of importance: technical merit, affordability, and previous performance on the contract. AFRL then will evaluate, for realism and reasonableness, the cost proposal of the contractor selected for negotiation. Technical Task Areas are described below. 1. High Power Microwave Development: Preliminary results of the probability and effects testing and scenario modeling has indicated that HPM source power levels greater than 1 GW are of interest for the DETARDEHPM program, consistent with antenna gain and distance from target. The thrust of this activity is to identify and explore new or novel sources and reassess existing sources capable of generating greater that 1 GW peak power and repetition rates in the 10s of hertz; execute an experimental research program that will fully test sources including fabrication and modification of test equipment and diagnostic equipment, and the evaluation and analysis of test results; downselect, design, fabricate and test the most likely candidate technologies based on modeling and experimental results; coordinate source development with pulse power and antenna development after the downselection process has occurred. Heavy reliance on and coordination between this technical task area and the Theoretical and Computation R&D Technical Task Area 32 is expected. A further aspect of this technical task area is to investigate, test, and fabricate antenna and antenna array concepts capable of adhering to volumetric requirements stemming from potential air vehicle concepts while obtaining sufficient gain to reach RF intensity goals on target at specified distances based on scenario development. Consistent with reaching intensity goals is to explore the phenomenon of air breakdown at various altitudes and conditions, and to explore the physics associated with radiating multi-GW RF pulses in space including partially ionized sources in a vacuum and diffraction of antenna patterns by the upper atmosphere. Work in this area may provide distinct, specialized products and fabrication techniques, unique diagnostics, and innovative methods to overcome air breakdown limits. 2. Theoretical and Computational R&D: The objectives of this technical task area are to advance existing magneto-hydrodynamic codes and plasma modeling codes to verify HPM source concepts and various plasma application experiments. Numerical analysis of such devices typically employs multidimensional (two and three dimensional) computational physics software of various types. Examples include magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) software, such as Mach2 and Mach3, for dense plasma phenomena; particle-in-cell (PIC) software, such as ICEPIC, MAGIC and SOS, for collisionless charged particle phenomena; computational electromagnetics (CEM) software, such as PARANA and HFSS, for particle-free electromagnetic phenomena; and other software. Research conducted by this modeling and simulation technical task area should explore the use of new materials, processes, and methods for improving the HPM source and subsystem performance characteristics, and efficiencies. The task area also encompasses the theoretical and numerical analysis of systems from the prime mover to the radiating structures to demonstrate scientific and engineering feasibility and assess mission effectiveness. A significant part of the research conducted in this technical task area is to gain further understanding of microwave effects on various electronic systems. The objectives are to develop improved modeling and simulation capabilities for microwave effects on electronic systems, and evaluate various scenarios to predict microwave effectiveness in engagements. The development of simulation tools capable of describing the microwave power pattern, electric field, and magnetic field powered by a pulse waveform is highly desired as well as improving codes used in modeling the interaction between an HPM signal and a "target." These interactions include properly handling ground reflections, multi-path interference, side-lobe suppression techniques, scattering and standing waves, to ultimately determine field quantities at various points in the problem. The DETAR program is interested in determining scaling laws for frequency, growth rate, and studies of competing instabilities. 3. Pulsed Power (PP) R&D: The goal of this technical task area is to research and investigate new, innovative, or promising pulse power technologies, devices, and subsystems. This will involve all aspects of pulse power R&D relevant to HPM and other AFRL/DE applications. The work under this Technical Task Area includes hardware design, fabrication, assembly and test of components associated with multi- megajoule, greater than ten megamp, terawatt, ten microsecond systems. Examples of pulse power devices and components include capacitors, inductors, fixed and dynamic (Electrically Exploded Fuse (EEF) and Explosively Formed Fuse (EFF)) resistors, transformers (air-core, ferrite-core, and partial-ferrite-core), over-volt and triggered switches (gas, vacuum, liquid metal, solid-state, and mechanical), insulators (gaseous, liquid, and solid-state), and diodes (vacuum and solid-state). Examples of pulse power subsystems include capacitor banks, explosive magnetic flux compression generators (FCGs), Marx generators, pulse forming networks (PFNs), pulse forming lines (PFLs), and pulsed power loads. Pulse power loads of interest include vacuum and solid-state HPM sources, implosion devices for intense radiation production, magnetic field compression devices to accelerate charged particles, plasma and hypervelocity projectile accelerators, etc. Particular emphasis will be given to reducing system, subsystem, or component size, weight, efficiency, lifetime and cost, increasing performance, or improving reliability and robustness. 4. Pulsed Power Systems (PPS) R&D: The goal of this technical task area is to explore the development of pulse power systems that drive HPM systems, charged particle beam systems, and other pulsed systems at required repetition rates and power levels, and ultimately to reach required volume and mass limits to achieve system requirements that may stem from the various technical task areas. The scope of this effort includes designing, fabricating, testing, and integrating various pulse power technologies and prime power systems utilizing a systems engineering approach into a compact PPS driver(s) integrated to HPM source(s). Examples of integrated PPS include single-shot flux compression generator-based inductive storage-pulse conditioning systems for narrow-band HPM tube loads, compact, rep-rated Marx-generator based systems for driving narrow-band or ultra-wide-band HPM sources, and conventional capacitor-bank systems with dynamic vacuum implosion loads. Some research efforts are expected to be directed at continuous wave converters, oscillators, amplifiers, phased arrays, and wide-band generators. Further efforts will be devoted towards modifying existing pulse power systems to accommodate new HPM or charged particle beam loads of various impedances. Particle beam load drivers will be used to reliably achieve full current delivery to drive solid armature or solid liner implosion loads. Some of these systems include the use of a main pulse driver with two or more auxiliary pulsed power discharges fired with controlled timing relative to the main discharge, with timing jitters as small as 20 nanoseconds. Additional pulse power system work will include development of explosive magnetic flux compression generators that produce megamps to tens of megamps of current, and megajoules to tens of megajoules of magnetic energy, and the development of high current opening switches in the 10-20 megamp, 5 megajoule range with opening times less than 300 nanoseconds. Pulse power systems work may include fielding remote experiment operations including the pulsed power system and load, fast photography, and radiation diagnostics. This technical task area will explore fundamental research into the areas of hardware systems, subsystems, and diagnostic tools/hardware, which in turn will be used to test physical and/or engineering principles. Diagnostics must be capable of measuring at least the current, voltage, and magnetic field in physical areas associated with experiments that produce hostile blast, debris, radiation fields and thermal environments. Unique diagnostics include the ability to radiograph the types of experiments included in Technical Task Areas 3 and 4, including solid, armature, and solid liner implosion loads, with multiple radiographs at different, controlled times. The timing jitters associated with radiography will of necessity be as small as 20 nanoseconds. Research and experiments will be conducted with the goal of enhancing energy coupling efficiencies, increasing power (trillion watt range) delivered from a PPS driver to an output (experimental) load, mating advanced weapons concept devices to HPM generators, and develop hardware/techniques to characterize system performance. 5. Prime Power: The goal of this technical task area is to explore new, efficient, compact, low-mass, prime sources of power for pulse power systems. This is an enabling technical task area and innovative solutions are sought to drive pulse power systems at desired repetition rates to achieve high average power levels over short pulse trains. Areas of research for this technical task area includecover the design, development, modification, testing, and use of compact high-peak power limited lifetime devices, high voltage power supplies, compact transformers, motors, generators, batteries, thermal batteries, fuel cells, power conditioning, rotating machines, inverters, energy storage components, and the like. A further area of investigation is expected to encompass the modification of existing equipment designed specifically for use in or with existing HPM, PP, PPS, and future compact PP system design. B. GENERAL INFORMATION. The government anticipates awarding an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee Task Order, completion contract(s) but reserves the right to award a procurement instrument best suited to the nature of the research proposal. The contract award is anticipated to be unclassified, and is expected to have a five-year ordering period. with an estimated start date of 5 March 2004. In the event the government is unable to conclude negotiations with the apparent successful offeror, the government reserves the right to conduct negotiations with another offeror. If the offeror is a large business, any resultant contract will include a subcontracting plan, which must be submitted prior to award. In addition, AFMC 5352.209-9002, Organizational Conflict of Interest Clause, will be applicable, with probable inclusion of Alternates III, IV, and VI. The successful awardee will be required to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with the AFRL/DEOS support contractor to permit administrative access to proposal and contract data. Foreign-owned firms are advised to contact the Contracting Officer or Project Manager before submitting a proposal to determine whether there are restrictions on receiving an award. It is expected that contractors may have access to, or generate, data that is unclassified with limited distribution and/or subject to U.S. Export Control laws. Therefore, offerors will need to be certified by the Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) prior to award. Contact the US/Canada Joint Certification Office, DLIS, Federal Center, 74 Washington Ave, North, Battle Creek, Michigan 49017-3084 (1-800-352-3572), or logon to http://www.dlis.dla.mil/jcpCCAL for further information on certification and the approval process. Also, DD Form 2345, Militarily Critical Technical Data Agreement, must be completed by the successful offeror and processed prior to award of a contract. All DOE Federally Funded Research & Development Centers (FFRDCs) and DOD FFRDCs C3I Lab, Lincoln Laboratory or Software Engineering Institute may submit proposals in response to this solicitation. Other FFRDCs or contractors that propose using FFRDCs not discussed herein shall provide rationale in the proposal that research is within the purpose, mission, general scope of effort or special competency of the FFRDC and that the research to be performed would not place the FFRDC in direct competition with the private sector. Offerors must mark their proposals with the restrictive language stated in FAR 52.215-1(e). For the purposes of this BAA, the business size standard is 1000 employees, NAICS 541710. The acquisition is unrestricted, full and open competition. All firms submitting responses must reference this announcement and indicate whether they are, or are not, a small business, a socially and economically disadvantaged business, an 8(a) firm, a woman-owned business, a hubzone certified small business, a historically black college or university, a minority institution, a veteran-owned small business or a service-disabled veteran owned small business. Technical POCs are Dr. Thomas Spencer, 505-853-3907 and Dr. James H. Degnan, 505-846-1235. NOTE: THIS NOTICE MAY HAVE POSTED ON WWW.FEDBIZOPPS.GOV ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (24-MAR-2004). IT ACTUALLY APPEARED OR REAPPEARED ON THE FEDBIZOPPS SYSTEM ON 07-DEC-2004, BUT REAPPEARED IN THE FTP FEED FOR THIS POSTING DATE. PLEASE CONTACT fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
- Web Link
-
Link to FedBizOpps document.
(http://www.eps.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLPLDED/Reference-Number-BAA-04-DE-03/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Kirtland AFB, NM
- Zip Code: 87117
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 87117
- Record
- SN00718276-F 20041209/041207213034 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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