PRESOL | A | Using the BAA process, AATD is soliciting technical and cost proposals to conduct the 6.3 R&D effort in support of the Rotor Durability Army Technology Objective (ATO) and the High Performance Rotary Wing Vehicle (RWV) Designs program.

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 15, 2007 FBO #2180
SOLICITATION NOTICE

A -- Using the BAA process, AATD is soliciting technical and cost proposals to conduct the 6.3 R&D effort in support of the Rotor Durability Army Technology Objective (ATO) and the High Performance Rotary Wing Vehicle (RWV) Designs program.

Notice Date: 11/13/2007
Notice Type: Solicitation Notice
NAICS: 541712 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
Contracting Office: Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, ATTN: AMSRD-AMR-AA-C, Building 401, Lee Boulevard, Fort Eustis, VA 23604-5577
ZIP Code: 23604-5577
Solicitation Number: W911W6-08-R-0002
Response Due: 1/4/2008
Archive Date: 3/4/2008
Point of Contact: Velvet Taylor, 757-878-2306
E-Mail Address: Email your questions to Aviation Applied Technology Directorate
(velvet.taylor@us.army.mil)
Small Business Set-Aside: N/A
Description: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. DESCRIPTION: Using the BAA process, AATD is soliciting technical and cost proposals to conduct the 6.3 R&D effort in support of the Rotor Durability Army Technology Objective (ATO) and the High Performance Rotary Wing Vehicle (RWV) Designs program. The Proposals are required to be submitted in accordance with the guidelines set forth herein. This BAA constitutes the total solicitation. There will be no other solicitation issued in regard to this requirement. Offerors should be alert for any BAA amendm ents. INTRODUCTION The objective of the Rotor Durability and Performance BAA is to support the Rotor Durability ATO and the High Performance RWV Designs program by demonstrating technologies in the areas of rotor durability, high performance rotary wing vehicle designs, and power and data transfer interfaces to support current and future Army Aviation platforms. This Rotor Durability ATO is a four year effort with multiple milestones. This ATO will demonstrate improved main/tail rotor environmental durab ility, repairability, and performace resulting in significantly increased aircraft availability, increased OPTEMPO and reduced life-cycle costs through an improvement-by-spares upgrade concept for the Current Force. In addition, this BAA will also solicit enabling technologies to support the 6.3 High Performance RWV Designs program. SOLICITATION TOPICS There are three topics under this announcement. TOPIC 01-2008 Rotor Durability recent combat experience has emphasized the need for durable helicopter r otor blades for Current Force helicopters that provide permanent erosion protection, reliable and maintainable icing protection, improved repairability, and improved rotor performance. AATD seeks to develop and demonstrate an integrated durable rotor blade resulting in significantly increased aircraft availability, increased OPTEMPO, and reduced life-cycle costs through an improvement-by-spares upgrade concept for the Current Force. When compared to an Offeror-selected baseline Army helicopter, the improv ements to existing main and tail rotor systems will: Increase blade life in erosive environments (both sand and rain) to at least 1000 flight hours; Provide de-ice/anti-ice solution that meets or exceeds the life requirement of the baseline blade; Increa se allowable battle damage assessment and repair (BDAR) limits by at least 100% for the baseline rotor blades, thus doubling the effective allowable damage and keeping previously unserviceable blades in operation longer; and Improve rotor performance (at l east 7% improvement in hover out of ground effect performance) with minimal required changes to other existing systems. Rotor blade erosion occurs as rotorcraft fly through various debris fields, usually sand and/or rain. Continual bombardment quickly erod es the protective material and damages the structure of the rotor blade. If too much damage is imparted to the blade, it must be scrapped and replaced with a new blade. There have been many efforts to mitigate this phenomenon with various incarnations of t apes, boots, and sprays. A long term material solution is required to increase aircraft availability and to offset the high costs of supporting these intermediate solutions. Icing conditions limit the environment in which rotorcraft can operate. The curre nt electrothermal de-icing systems on Army aircraft are unreliable and hard to maintain with blades heated by wires embedded in the leading edge. Wires burn out, and if controllers fail, leading edges can overheat, causing damage to composites and blade de lamination. A reliable, maintainable de-ice/anti-ice solution is desired. Numerous blade s are retired in theater after receiving only minor damage, because the current published allowable damage criteria (aircraft maintenance manuals) for main rotor blades are stringent. Improved Durability and Damage Tolerance methodology and lightweight b allistic tolerance technology development is required to establish expanded rotor damage and repair criteria that can be implemented in the field for continued flight. Rotor blade technologies that, when implemented on a field vehicle, improve system lev el performance but require minimal changes to other existing system s and do not adversely affect rotor durability are of interest. Potential technologies include, but are not limited to, tailored rotor blades to exploit couplings available with composite materials, advanced blade planforms and/or tip shapes, and advanced airfoils. A cost/benefit tradeoff for the integration and implementation of durability and performance technologies to the current fleet, including the establishment of key metrics, shall be conducted. The approach must yield a single integrated blade durability upgrade solution, not merely a collection of component technologies. Component level testing, using facilities such as erosion test rigs, icing tunnels, and ballistic test ranges, shall be utilized as a method of screening and validating candidate solutions. Upon completion of component level testing, the top performers will be evaluated for candidate technology interoperability. For example, erosion and icing protection solutions are often used independently, however the icing system must be able to work with the installed erosion system (i.e. the erosion system must not cause damage to or inhibit the functionality of the icing system, and vice versa). BDAR solutions in the form o f increased allowables or repair solutions that lead to increased op erational flight hours will be tested and validated at the component level, such that BDAR methodology can be implemented in advance of the other integrated durability solutions and can h ave an immediate impact on the soldier in the field. The most promising durability improvements yielding the highest return on investment for the Army and the greatest probability of successful transition through spare replacement will be selected for rot or integration and demonstration. A suitable test plan (to include facilities required) to conduct full-scale testing of the integrated system in order to demonstrate and evaluate durability, performance, compatibility/interoperability with other integrat ed durability upgrades, and sustainment of overall aircraft performance will be developed. Testing will be conducted and the results will be documented. TOPIC 02-2008 High Performance, Low Vibration, and Low Noise Enabling Technologies Current rotary wi ng vehicle configurations do not meet the Army's Future Force requirements to be adaptable, tailorable, enduring, precise, fast, resilient, and agile. AATD seeks to develop and demonstrate high performance enabling technologies that when compared to an Of feror-selected baseline Army helicopter will: Reduce vibrations in the fuselage by at least 20%; Reduce acoustic signature by at least 6 db; and Increase maximum blade loading by at least 16%. The enabling technologies shall be compatible with the operat ional environment (sand and rain erosion, icing, wide operating temp erature range, and BDAR) with minimal impact to the baseline vulnerability, susceptibility, reliability, and maintainability. If on-blade controls and/or sensors are required, the unique challenges in reliably transferring the required data and power across the rotating frame (rotating component to static airframe) shall also be addressed. A suitable test plan (to include facilities required) to conduct large scale testing of the integrat ed system in order to demonstrate and evaluate performance improvement, vibration and noise reduction will be developed. Testing will be conducted and the resu lts will be documented. Topic 02-2008 is the initial effort of the 6.3 High Performance RWV Designs program. The objective of the 6.3 High Performance RWV Designs program is to develop enabling technologies and to develop and evaluate alternative RWV Desi gns that support requirements of the Army's Future Force to be more adaptable, tailorable, enduring, precise, fast, resilient, and agile. The High Performance RWV Designs program will commence by developing and demonstrating high performance enabling techn ologies (the effort described in this Topic 02-2008). Subsequent efforts will apply the enabling technologies to develop and demonstrate full scale component technologies, and finally demonstrate significant performance improvements at the advanced config uration level. TOPIC 03-2008 Rotating / Non Rotating Interface for Power and Data Transfer Current research in advanced rotor and control systems is developing effective active on-blade control implementation. In order to make such a system viable and pra ctical, there must be an affordable and reliable method to transfer data and power across the rotating/nonrotating interface of the rotor and fuselage. De-icing/anti-icing systems and health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) also require more reliable a nd durable transfer technology. AATD seeks to develop and demonst rate a system for bidirectional transfer of data and power across the rotating/nonrotating interface which supports on-blade controls, de-icing and health monitoring of future high performa nce rotor designs. For design and demonstration purposes, the Offe ror must select a current Army baseline rotor system. Transfer requirements for on-blade actuators requires at least 8 to 40 kilowatts of power with capability of transferring 1 Mbps for c ontrol commands and 32 to 64 Mbps of data for control feedback for u p to 100 channels of data. Operating characteristics for the rotating/nonrotating interface must accommodate rotational speeds from 200 RPM (Main Rotor) to greater than 2000 RPM (Tail Ro tor). Consideration must be given to environmental sealing, EMI shielding, wide range of operating temperatures, high shock and vibration environments and fail-safe design. The resulting design must be optimized to minimize any weight and volume impact an d be physically compatible with the baseline rotor system. MTBF is targeted to be greater than 4500 hours. Slip-ring devices are commonly used to transfer electrical signals through a rotating joint. However, traditional slip rings are not adequate if t hey are placed in a flight-critical path, since they suffer from data dropouts and noise contamination with high maintenance requiring frequent cleaning and brush replacements. Innovative methods of data/power transfer, emphasizing reliability and fail-s afety have been recently investigated and tested for the Army (Reference: F. K. Straub, et al, Rotating/Nonrotating Interface for Data and Power, American Helicopter Society 62nd Annual Forum, Phoenix, AZ, May 9-11, 2006). However, the resulting hardware is not adequate in performance, weight and volume for practical application to helicopter rotor systems. ANTICIPATED FUNDING LEVEL AND PERFORMANCE PERIOD: Anticipated funding ($M) for all awards by each topic is as follows: TOPIC 01-2008: FY08 (2.52), FY0 9 (3.65), FY10 (3.33), FY11 (2.2); TOPIC 02-2008: FY08 (1.41), FY09 (2 .4), FY10 (4.27); TOPIC 03-2008: FY08 (0.64), FY09 (0.34), FY10 (0.22). Period of Performance for Topic 01-2008: is not to exceed 42 mths, with 39 mths of technical work and 3 mths for the final report; Topic 02-2008: not to exceed 30 mths, with 27 mths of technical work and 3 mths for the final report; Topic 03-2008: not to exceed 21 mths, with 18 mths of technical work and 3 mths for the final report. Offerors should clearly depict t heir proposed schedule. Topics have the potential for multiple awards, which may address only part of the topic's objectives. Any government award is subject to the availability of funds. TYPE OF FUNDING INSTRUMENT: A variety of funding instruments are available pursuant to this announcement depending upon the proposed eff ort, the entity submitting the successful proposal(s), and statutory and regulatory req uirements the Government must satisfy. Such instruments include conventional contracts subject to the FAR, as supplemented, and Technology Investment Agreements (TIA) (Cooperative Agreement under 10 U.S.C 2358) or Other Transaction (OT) for Research (10 U .S.C. 2371), which are more flexible than traditional Government funding instruments. Under TIA's or OT(s) it is DoD policy to obtain, to the maximum extent practical, cost sharing of half of the cost of the project to ensure the recipient has a vested in terest in the project's success. Cost participation may be in the form of cash or in-kind contributions, where cash is considered of significantly higher quality in demonstrating commitment to the project. Cost participation will be considered in accorda nce with the DoD Grant and Agreement Regulations, DoD 3210.6-R paragraph 34.13 (Cooperative Agreement) (but also see paragraph 37.530 pertaining to OT(s) for Research) accessible at the following link: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/321006r34p.pdf. Contract type is a subject for negotiation, but the offeror's de sire should be clearly stated in the cost proposal. DATA ITEMS / DELIVERABLES: All awards under this announcement will require a kickoff meeting following award. All awards under this Announcement will require delivery of the following data items: (1) Program Management Plan, (2) Test Plan (if applicable), (3) Bi-Monthly Performance and Cost Reports (4) Final Report, and (5) Executable software (if applicable). All awards will include a requirement to present the results of the work in a final briefin g at Ft. Eustis, Virginia upon completion of all technical effort. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS Performance will require access to and/or generation of technical data the export of which is restricted by the Arms Export Control Act (Title 22, U.S.C., Sec. 2751 e t. seq.) or the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended, Title 50, U.S.C. App. 2401 et. seq. Prior to award, the successful offeror(s) will be required to (if applicable) provide an Export-Controlled DoD Data Agreement certification number issued in accordance with DoD Directive 5230.25. This certification may be requested from the Defense Logistics Services Center, ATTN: DLSC-FBA Federal Center, Battle Creek, MI 49017-3084, Telephone 1-800-352-3572. Topic 2-2008 may result in the generation of classified data as a result of the effort. Pre-award access to or submission of a classified proposal is not authorized. This Announcement is available only to U.S.firms. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED EQUIPMENT(GFE) It is the offeror's responsibility to identify , coordinate, and furnish supporting documentation for use of any GFE. DATA RIGHTS The Government desires, at a minimum, Government Purpose Rights'as defined by the DFARS 252.227-7013, to all technical data, deliverables, and computer software to be deli vered. It is the offeror's responsibility to clearly acknowledge or take exception to the Government's desire for at least Government Purpose Rights. Preparation and Submission Instructions can be found in Amendment to this combined synopsis/solictation n otice.
Place of Performance: Address: Aviation Applied Technology Directorate ATTN: AMSRD-AMR-AA-C, Building 401, Lee Boulevard Fort Eustis VA; Zip Code: 23604-5577; Country: US
Record: SN01451178-W 20071115/071113223757 (fbodaily.com)
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A -- Using the BAA process, AATD is soliciting technical and cost proposals to conduct the 6.3 R&D effort in support of the Rotor Durability Army Technology Objective (ATO) and the High Performance Rotary Wing Vehicle (RWV) Designs program.