MODIFICATION
99 -- Market Survey Request for InformationMeteorological and Aeronautical Planning System (MAPS)
- Notice Date
- 9/27/2010
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AJA-462 HQ - FAA Headquarters (Washington, DC)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 10096
- Response Due
- 10/30/2010
- Archive Date
- 11/14/2010
- Point of Contact
- Jayanthi Rangan, 202-385-6185
- E-Mail Address
-
jaya.rangan@faa.gov
(jaya.rangan@faa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- All inquiries concerning this announcement must be directed to Glenn Wilson, Contracting Officer, via email at glenn.a.wilson@faa.gov or at (202) 385-7730. This announcement is a Market Survey/Request for Information (RFI) regarding the Meteorological and Aeronautical Planning System (MAPS) program. The responses to this market survey will be used for information purposes only. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP). THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR OFFER. THIS IS NOT A SCREENING INFORMATION REQUEST (SIR). The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. INTRODUCTIONThis RFI is an announcement regarding the Meteorological and Aeronautical Planning System (MAPS) Program. The purpose of this RFI is to post a summary table of the MAPS' Preliminary Shortfall Analysis Report and elicit specific information regarding potential solutions that will address the required MAPS enhancements.Flight Services are currently provided by four separate contract vehicles. Preflight assistance and Inflight Advisory services in Alaska are provided by government employees using a leased automation system called the Operational and Supportability Implementation System (OASIS). Preflight and Inflight support for the Continental United States (CONUS), Hawaii and Puerto Rico are currently provided by contract labor using a vendor-owned automation system called Flight Services through the 21st Century (FS21). Additionally, there are two internet pilot web portals which enable pilots to self-brief and file/amend flight plans. These systems are known as Direct User Access Terminal Services (DUAT/S. The term DUAT-Replacement (DUAT-R) is used to refer to the current contracts. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that the best interest of the government and the aviation community would be served by integrating Alaska and CONUS requirements into a single platform to be deployed NAS-wide and the acquisition of this new platform will be best served by conducting a full and open competition. This RFI addresses the Flight Service automation requirements, along with the internet capabilities. The first contract delivery release would be deployed in the 2014-2015 timeframe. The FAA is especially interested in increased communications capabilities, internet and SWIM compliant systems with shared database technology based on industry experience with previously developed air traffic and flight service automation and voice systems. The FAA seeks to understand current and proposed industry capabilities to meet the requirements, the ability to meet the proposed deployment schedule including the acquisition strategy, and any suggestions that would further enhance safety and service delivery. The FAA also solicits recommendations or opinions as to the CONUS operational labor component and how best to structure the contract or contracts to meet the need for contract operational support in the CONUS. At this time, the FAA is not prepared to address service delivery locations. This information will be provided in later Market Surveys or Screening Information Requests (SIRs). Based upon the findings of this RFI, the FAA plans to release either a draft SIR for Industry comment or a formal SIR for Industry response or conduct an Industry Day. Proposed MAPS ENHANCEMENTS The impact of the service enhancements envisioned for MAPS will be a decrease in the number of general aviation (GA) aircraft accidents. There is a direct correlation between a general aviation pilot not receiving a preflight weather briefing and/or en route updates and the occurrence of a weather-related aircraft accident. In addition, this system will enhance post accident survivability by reducing search area and promoting a faster response by emergency services personnel. Currently both initial contact and subsequent contact depend on the pilot initiating the call to the FSS. If the pilot does not call, important information pertinent to flight safety may not reach them. This antiquated, customer contact-dependent "pull" model continues today. As a result, pilots often do not receive safety-related information because they either do not or can not call Flight Service, or they call too late for the information to be of benefit. The MAPS solution is to augment the "pull" model by adding a "push" component, i.e., automatic update capability, to the system. While pilots would continue to initiate services, automation would "push" critical updates to the pilot in time for them to make rational, safety-related decisions about their flight. These automatic updates would be provided at no-cost to the pilot. The system would only send advisory information pertinent to the route of flight, before or during its operation, and would eliminate redundant information. This system would be built around an integrated global database network to provide NAS-consistent information, relative to current aircraft position, and accessible through Internet connectivity. Direct contact with Flight Service Specialists will be provided when the system will not accept a specific flight plan or when the pilot requires clarification or technical assistance in preflight planning and filing. Preflight support will remain available via phone, radio or by the new 'Internet text chat' function. Flight planning issues will be resolved quickly because the same source information will be seen by both pilot and Specialist, i.e, an integrated, interactive pilot web portal. As currently envisioned by the FAA, MAPS services will be net-centric, and therefore widely available and with more current data. Not all enhancements are addressed in this document but several significant capabilities should illustrate the anticipated safety benefits of the new system. For example, a pilot could receive a text and/or graphics-based weather brief in the cockpit while warming up their engine on the ramp rather than relying on an hours-old brief obtained before departure. Also many pilots are reluctant to file Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight plans out of concern that they may forget to close a flight plan and trigger a SAR false alarm. Since MAPS will include an automatic reminder to close fight plans in addition to other enhancements, it is anticipated that a substantial increase in the number of pilots who file flight plans, receive weather briefings and fly will benefit from the increased situational awareness afforded by MAPS. The web-based flight planning system, including an identical interface for pilot and Specialist, will ensure a shared situational awareness of the flight and the conditions expected to be encountered for the planned route. MAPS will also provide applicable airspace restrictions and traffic management information. Pilots will be able to enter their personal level of risk tolerance for a specific flight, e.g., highest acceptable intensity of turbulence, lowest layer of cloud cover and/or lowest visibility desired, probability of encounter, etc. This decision support tool will enable general aviation pilots and Flight Service Specialists to more accurately determine the impact of weather hazards upon their flight. Shared situational awareness and the integration of weather into decision support tools are key capabilities in the NextGen Concept of Operations. Frequently-used flight plans, pilot contact information, pilot preferences and aircraft capabilities will be stored in the MAPS system and may be used to auto populate flight plans. After specifying the route of flight, aviation weather and aeronautical information will be accessed and provided in a standardized format from the FAA's authoritative sources. Pilots will also be able to self-brief and/or download meteorological information as part of the flight plan briefing function. Graphical, textual, and grid formats will be available. Once the preflight briefing is complete, the pilot can subscribe to receive automatic information updates that occur after flight plan filing or post briefing, including items such as destination airport and alternate airport closures, new advisories for icing, turbulence, thunderstorms, etc.Once the flight plan has been filed in the system, critical changes to current or forecast meteorological and aeronautical information, e.g., urgent PIREPs, a new Significant Meteorological Information (SIGMET), destination and alternate airport changes to/from IFR, TFRs, etc., will be sent automatically to pilots who subscribe to this free service and the condition impacts their planned flight. These weather deltas will be provided as alerts to the pilot in a format chosen by the end-user. PIREP entry will be simplified, standardized in form, and easily accessed through voice-to-text capability. Likewise, any critical aeronautical advisory changes in the NAS impacting the route of flight will also be generated automatically and forwarded to the pilot. These deltas would include new or updated NOTAMs, destination and alternate airport closure, and TFRs that are applicable to the route of flight. Voice-to-text and text-to-voice capability will be available to minimize head down time for the pilot and increase situational awareness. Limiting Inflight communications to critical changes in aeronautical and meteorological information will reduce frequency congestion and alleviate the potential repetition of information that a pilot has previously received. The automation system will also alert the Specialist if an automatic update cannot be sent or if it is rejected as undeliverable. Details of the active or passive acknowledgement processes will be determined after market survey during final requirements development. Pilots will be alerted to deviations from the filed flight plan and prompted to either return to the filed route of flight or amend the plan remotely. This will reduce the number of deviation alerts sent to the Specialist and greatly reduce search and rescue response times. The system will create a repository of information on VFR flight operations and track the flight planning services provided to those flights. This transaction tracking capability will also automate the current En Route Flight Advisory Service (EFAS), enhance situational awareness for the support of SAR, and alleviate the necessity of re-transmitting information that has already been received by the pilot. The system will maintain an accessible log all transactions. Pilots may request flight plan monitoring. The system would then perform conformance monitoring and generate an alert to the pilot and the Specialist when an aircraft is out of conformance with its flight plan, allowing the pilot to amend the flight plan or return to the original route of flight. The intent is not to develop a separate flight plan tracker, but rather to request Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) information on VFR flights relative to their intended route of flight, using existing interfaces with En Route and Terminal automation. When the Specialist has a Radio Contact, he/she will enter the aircraft's Call Sign into MAPS and the system will identify any missing information required for a given flight. MAPS will allow any Specialist to see all information relevant to the flight and the information already provided to the pilot in a distinct format. A logical outgrowth of the flight plan monitoring capability would be to expedite SAR operations using ADS-B location information. Initiating a SAR operation based on improved location data from aircraft (that are equipped with ADS-B and monitored by MAPS automation) will enable SAR operations to target search areas quickly and efficiently and thus greatly increase the probability of detection. The search area will be greatly reduced which in turn will allow the search to be concentrated over a smaller area increasing the chances of finding a downed aircraft and improve post-accident survival rates. INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDENTSThis announcement is a Request for Information only. Interested vendors are invited to respond in accordance with the guidelines in the following sections. All responses become the property of the US Government, and will be kept in Government confidence. This IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) of any kind. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR OFFER. THIS IS NOT A SCREENING INFORMATION REQUEST (SIR). The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. This IS NOT A TENDER DOCUMENT of any kind. The government assumes no obligation to purchase any goods or services described in responses to this RFI.This is NOT A DOWNSELECT of any kind, and none of the information submitted will disqualify vendors from subsequent consideration. Responses to this RFI will be used to validate marketplace capabilities and FAA flight service concepts. TIMING AND FORM OF RESPONSESResponses must be in common electronic readable format (e.g., Microsoft Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint, etc.) and e-mailed (with confirmation receipt requested) to the Contracting Officer, Dave Keehan at dave.keehan@faa.gov. All responses must be received no later than October 11, 2010. All responses received by the FAA will be treated as Proprietary Information, unless otherwise requested by the individual submitter. Proprietary information must be marked accordingly. All costs incurred by a vendor in response to this Market Survey will be the sole responsibility of the vendor. The FAA is not liable for any costs associated with responses to this announcement or Industry Day. Interested vendors are invited to respond describing their respective capability to deliver a solution which supports the MAPS Enhancements indicated above and further described in the attached Summary Shortfall Analysis Report. Responses to this market survey should identify which enhancement in the Summary Shortfall Analysis Report can be met and which enhancements will require further development. The responses should also provide a target delivery date for those enhancements which cannot be met upon contract award. Other information could include the identification of transition, interface, integration, interoperability issues. Responses should be limited to 25 pages. For the system(s) proposed, please provide the following information: Name of the system/applicationFeature summarySpecial requirementsNumber of commercial holders/users, referencesTime in serviceMajor problemsActivity ratesSupport infrastructure, lifecycle plansCatalog pricing If your proposed solution is comprised of multiple applications, please indicate which application or combination of applications satisfies the enhancement. As noted above, for enhancements not satisfied at the present time, please indicate when (or if) your solution might comply with that enhancement requirement. Please challenge or question any enhancement requirements that seem impractical or propose alternate solutions. VENDOR PROCESSESPlease describe your capabilities to support multiple (customer-specific) variations of your product offering. Describe your processes for assuring that the system is appropriately managed, controlled, tested and supportable.COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONSPlease provide comments or recommendations on the following:-Capabilities requested in the Enhancement Requirements of the Summary Shortfall Analysis Report (how appropriate/feasible)-Describe your proposed system and list current capabilities that exist to comply with the Enhancement Requirements of the Summary Shortfall Analysis Report-Timeframe to have the remaining enhancement requirements ready for operational use-Proposed Maintenance Strategy-Performance Metrics relevant to the MAPS program-Data Rights-Telecommunications needed to achieve business continuity, service availability, failover and foldback-Functional limitations imposed by the satellite-based backbone of point-to-point circuits in Alaska and/or integration with CONUS communication systems-Potential for optimizing the service architecture while limiting the cost of additional bandwidth-Needed Government Furnished Equipment or Government Furnished Property-Special interfaces needed-Unique challenges or opportunities-Risk mitigation strategies-Number of contracts-Implementation & transition strategies and -Industry view of benefits, cost savings, cost avoidance - proposed procurement strategies, particularly contract type, structure, method, etc. to help define how to procure the delivery of system/CONUS flight service specialists. and -Any other important considerations not described in the market survey See MAPS Shortfall Analysis Report Summary Table attached.
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