SPECIAL NOTICE
A -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR SPACE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING (SBEM) TERRESTRIAL WEATHER AND SPACE ENVIRONMENT DATA COMMERCIALIZATION - RFI
- Notice Date
- 12/23/2015
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Space Command, SMC - Space and Missile Systems Center, 483 North Aviation Blvd, El Segundo, California, 90245-2808
- ZIP Code
- 90245-2808
- Solicitation Number
- 16-021
- Archive Date
- 2/13/2016
- Point of Contact
- Kirsten W. Perry, Phone: (310) 653-2540, Kevin Scro, Phone: (719) 556-2792
- E-Mail Address
-
kirsten.perry@us.af.mil, kevin.scro@us.af.mil
(kirsten.perry@us.af.mil, kevin.scro@us.af.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 16-021 Special Notice Weather Data Commercialization RFI This is a Request for Information (RFI) for planning purposes only. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Remote Sensing Systems Directorate (SMC/RS) located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is seeking information in the form of a White Paper from interested parties in support of Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) Terrestrial Weather and Space Environment Data Commercialization. Please see the attached RFI for details. Contracting Office Address: 483 North Aviation Blvd, El Segundo, California 90245-2808 A. PURPOSE AND DESCRIPTION This is a Request for Information (RFI) for planning purposes only. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Remote Sensing Systems Directorate (SMC/RS) at Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA is seeking information in the form of a White Paper from interested parties in support of a commercial service to provide weather data to satisfy Department of Defense's (DoD's) Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) terrestrial weather and space environment requirements. Specifically, SMC/RS is seeking information on currently available industry capabilities, as well as emerging future capabilities to provide the environmental data that could address the Department's weather requirements, or augment DoD's plan to address those requirements. Additionally, SMC/RS is seeking business case information from the industry in procuring such data, as well as addressing the long-term market viability for this effort. B. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Responses to this RFI are due by 2:00 PM Pacific Time on 29 January 16 via email to the contracting point of contact identified in paragraph D. R e sponses received after this date may not be considered. The White Paper should be submitted using Microsoft W o rd (12-point font only) or PDF formats. The White Paper cannot exceed 5 pages written (with 1 - inch margins). All material provided in response to this notice should be unclassified, non-confidential, and non-proprietary to the maximum extent practicable. Firms providing confidential/proprietary information should separately and clearly identify and mark all confidential/proprietary information. The Government will take all necessary steps to protect/safeguard any confidential/proprietary information provided. The Government will NOT be held responsible for any proprietary information not clearly marked. Res p onses should include the following: Submitter's Name Street Address, City, State, NINE-Digit zip code Point of Contact (POC) POC Telephone and facsimile numbers and Email Address SMC/RS program office has entered into support contracts with The Aerospace Corporation, Tecolote Research, Scitor Corp., Quantech Services Inc., Figueroa & Associates, and TASC, Inc. These companies will support the program office by performing technical reviews, systems engineering and integration analyses, cost estimation, and other assessment services. Respondents are hereby notified that all responses will be provided to our support contractors for their services to the Air Force. If respondent disagrees or requires a non-disclosure agreement with the release of its RFI response to any of the companies listed above, respondent must clearly state this restriction in the cover letter accompanying the RFI response. C. C A P A B I L I TY I N F O RM A TI O N S O U G HT Background: As part of its market research, the Air Force is surveying industry in order to identify established and emerging markets for commercial weather monitoring services and determining whether such services meet the SBEM weather requirements. In order to meet this Air Force goal, SMC/RS is seeking industries' long-term interest in providing weather data as a commercial service, utilizing currently available or projected on-orbit weather capabilities that can help the Air Force fulfill the weather requirements that have been identified in the SBEM AoA. The AoA results identified 11 of 12 weather requirements (eliminating Auroral Characterization (Gap 10) from SBEM considerations), in both terrestrial and space weather, which the Air Force is required to meet over the next decade. Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Requirements Oversight Council Memo (JROCM) 092-14 describes the minimum acceptable values for each of these requirements (see below). Pri Requirement Minimum Acceptable Value (MAV) 1 Cloud Characterization Coverage: Arctic, Asia-Pacific Resolution: 1 km Timeliness: 10 min Refresh: 4 hours 2 Theater Weather Imagery Coverage: Arctic, Asia-Pacific Resolution: visually identify clouds, fog, thunderstorms, sandstorms, & dust storms Timeliness: 15 min Refresh: 4 hours 3 Ocean Surface Vector Wind Coverage: 30°E to 80°W longitude Resolution: 25 km Timeliness: 3 hours Accuracy: +/- 2 m/s speed +/- 15° direction Refresh: 22 hours (6 hours from Family of Systems (FOS)) 4 Ionospheric Density Coverage: Global Resolution: 10 km Timeliness: 10 min Accuracy: 10% or 1 TEC unit Refresh: 30 min 5 Snow Depth Coverage: Global Resolution: 25 km Timeliness: 2 hours Accuracy: 10% error Refresh: 24 hours 6 Soil Moisture Coverage: Global Resolution: 50 km Timeliness: 2 hours Accuracy: 6% error Sensing Depth: 5 cm Refresh: 24 hours 7 Equatorial Ionospheric Scintillation Coverage: < 30° latitude Resolution: 10 km Timeliness: 10 min Accuracy: 0.1 radians (amplitude & phase) Refresh: 30 min 8 Tropical Cyclone Intensity Coverage: 30°E to 80°W longitude Resolution: 20 km Timeliness: 3 hours Refresh: 22 hours (6 hours from FoS) 9 Sea Ice Characterization Coverage: Arctic Ocean Resolution: 20 km Accuracy: distinguish first-year of age from multi-year Refresh: 22 hours (6 hours from FoS) 10 Auroral Characterization AoA eliminated this gap from SBEM considerations due to lack of operational application. The government is not seeking responses for this capability gap. 11 Low Earth Orbit Energetic Charged Particle Characterization Coverage: Global low Earth orbit Sample rate: 10 sec Type: > 1 KeV Timeliness: 2 hours 12 Electric Field Coverage: Global Resolution: 10 km Timeliness: 10 min Accuracy: 3 mV per meter Refresh: 30 min The Air Force seeks to continue to provide these SBEM terrestrial weather and space environmental data in the most cost effective way possible and would like to understand how a commercial service arrangement can potentially reduce the total cost of ownership. The Air Force is particularly interested in the industry's total cost and methods for offering the data, plus the costs (external interface & cybersecurity) to modify the AF's infrastructure to receive such data. The Air Force also desires to assess industries' long-term viability to establish commercial weather monitoring capabilities and its ability to address the SBEM AoA weather requirements. In order to address the Air Force's needs, the Government requests your response to address the following: 1. Explain current commercially available capabilities, as well as future emerging methods to address aforementioned SBEM terrestrial weather and space environment data capabilities 2. Respondents should address: a) The utility of the current or projected proposed capabilities to meet DoD weather requirements: i) Data type ii) Data Reliability iii) Frequency band used/Data downlink method - strategic and tactical broadcasts iv) Data latency v) Data spatial resolution vi) Data Quality b) Cost/price of data offered for such existing/projected commercial capabilities c) Viability of commercial market for the proposed capabilities. Explain other customers interested or currently using such capabilities/data d) Business/Procurement model. Explain how the data will be offered (contract with certain Period of Performance or via monthly/annual subscription etc.) e) Proposed schedule for any near-term projected commercial capabilities f) Any data usage restrictions/data rights g) Data integrity/security protocols, if any h) Potential Ground infrastructure changes required to accommodate data Cost/price is a major consideration. Therefore, SMC/RS is interested in the cost/price information for individual items defined in above paragraph. Explain the pricing for SBEM terrestrial weather and space environment data services under existing and projected commercial capabilities. 3. General Program Assumptions: a. Cost/schedule estimate will be at 60% confidence level and respondents may also include figures from various confidence levels if desired. The Government requests each respondent to provide a list of assumptions that relate to your business model for strategic and emerging paths. b. Each solution's detailed cost estimate/price list should be accompanied by a matrix-style summary spreadsheet showing how each option satisfies the SBEM weather requirements and their respective costs/prices. Again, these assumptions are given for cost estimation and planning purposes only and the Government is only seeking information for market research purposes. D. POINTS OF CONTACT Direct all inquiries to the below points of contact and the following e-mail: smc.rsrw.wsforg@us.af.mil Contracting POC: Kirsten Perry, Procuring Contracting Officer Phone: 310-653-2540 kirsten.perry@us.af.mil Direct technical inquiries to the below point of contact: Mr. Kevin Scro, Chief Scientist Phone: 719-556-2792 kevin.scro@us.af.mil E. SMALL BUSINESS CONSIDERATION The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this effort is 541712 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology). The small business size standard is 1,000 employees. Participation from small and small disadvantaged businesses is highly encouraged. SMC's Small Business points of contact are Mr. Willard Strozier and Ms. Audrey Campbell. They can be reached at smallbus@us.af.mil. F. DISCLAIMERS AND NOTES THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a solicitation (Request for Proposal or Request for Quotations) or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This RFI does not commit the USAF to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Furthermore, the USAF is not, at this time, seeking proposals. Respondents are advised that the USAF will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party's expense. The Air Force will not be obligated to pursue any particular acquisition alternative as a result of this RFI. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if one is issued. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked PROPRIETARY will be handled accordingly. The USAF shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable USAF regulations. Appendix I: Acronyms AF - Air Force AFSPC - Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) AoA - Analysis of Alternatives DAF - Department of the Air Force DoD - Department of Defense DoD's - Department of Defense's FoS - Family of Systems JROCM - Joint Requirements Oversight Council Memo km - kilometer LAAFB - Los Angeles Air Force Base LEO - Low Earth Orbit MAV - Minimum Accepted Value NAICS - North American Industry Classification System POC - Point of Contact RFI - Request For Information RS - Remote Sensing SB - Small Business SBEM - Space-Based Environmental Monitoring SMC - Space and Missile Systems Center TEC - Total Electron Count USAF - United States Air Force
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