SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Technologies for Complex, Multifaceted, Multi-Domain Environments
- Notice Date
- 7/12/2017
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command, ACC - APG (W909MY) Belvoir, 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia, 22331, United States
- ZIP Code
- 22331
- Solicitation Number
- W909MY-17-CMMDE
- Archive Date
- 9/12/2017
- Point of Contact
- Richard Nabors, Phone: 703-704-1768, Arlene Wadkins, Phone: 703-704-4888
- E-Mail Address
-
richard.a.nabors.civ@mail.mil, mildred.a.wadkins.civ@mail.mil
(richard.a.nabors.civ@mail.mil, mildred.a.wadkins.civ@mail.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. No award will be made as a result of this request. This Request for Information (RFI) is for informational purposes only; this is not a Request for Proposals (RFP), or Request for Quotations (RFQ). No solicitation document exists and formal solicitation may or may not be issued by the Government as a result of the responses to this RFI. The Government will not be liable for payment of any response preparation expenses and is in no way obligated by the information received. The information provided may be used by the Army in developing a future contracting strategy, Performance Work Statement, and/or Performance Based Specification(s). Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. This Request for Information (RFI) seeks to identify current and emerging technologies and/or projections of technology-enabled concepts that could provide significant military advantage to the United States (US) Army during operations in complex, contested/congested environments between now and 2028. The Government anticipates using this information to aid in the internal analysis and prioritization of US Army Science & Technology (S&T) research and development investments. The desire and capacity to achieve overmatch objectives are already present and ongoing at various levels across the entire Army S&T enterprise as well as across industry. Optimizing these existing investments through increased participation of technologies in experimentation and demonstration events will enable the necessary capabilities needed to support future conflicts. As part of ongoing Army initiatives to deliver technologies which provide our Soldiers with offsets, this RFI seeks to glean information that will shed light on new technologies and approaches to warfighting, balancing Army's investment between platforms, payloads, and networks. Technologies and weapons that were once the exclusive province of advanced nations have become available to a broad range of militaries and non-state actors. The current effort seeks to leverage the information collected in response to this RFI to draw on the lessons of previous offset strategies and ensure that the US sustains its advantage over potential adversaries in the coming decades. Many, if not most, of the technologies that the US Army seeks to take advantage of today are no longer only the domain of Army development pipelines or traditional defense contractors. The Army no longer has exclusive access to the most cutting-edge technology. This RFI actively seeks input from the private sector, including those firms and academic institutions outside that do not traditionally do work with the US Army. Submissions should describe the operational opportunity; discuss the enabling technologies, and discuss the proposed methods for employing the technology. Submissions to this RFI should be focused on technology-enabled capabilities that could be matured and would be available for demonstration in the next 5-10 years, so as to provide an opportunity to offer significant military advantage in 2028. This focus restricts consideration to 1) relatively mature technologies that may be applied in novel or unique ways to field a fundamentally different type of system capability, 2) emerging technologies that can be matured to offer new military capability or 3) technologies under development for, or being applied in, non-defense applications which can be repurposed to offer a new military capability. Background Future combat environments in urban areas will be extremely complex, have multiple domains, short lines of sight, multifaceted electromagnetic environments and many non-combatants. Thus, traditional approaches, such as siege and mass destruction via artillery, are not acceptable to the US. Due to their size and connectedness to the world through the internet and international transportation, cities can no longer be physically or virtually isolated. Complex terrain can be used by an adversary to negate standoff advantage, reducing the likelihood of a favorable and decisive resolution of the conflict. Securing key military objectives in a complex area against enemy forces would be costly and potentially could be too costly for military and strategic planners based on today's US military capabilities. Technology can provide an offset to restore tactical overmatch by providing small, disaggregated US teams with the ability to act autonomously and outmaneuver and out-think the enemy in close combat. The creation of a strategy for operations in complex, congested environments is critical to identify and strengthen the developed of those technology areas that will deny an adversary the advantage of terrain for cover and concealment by providing the US military with new capabilities for local intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) through autonomous networked sensor platforms, small unit heads up situation awareness, enhanced fusion and targeting, and understanding. To combat these challenges, the US Army S&T community is developing technology architectures to find the optimal S&T combinations for offset. Ideas for various situation awareness/understanding technologies thus far have showed potential to differentiate US urban combat operations in cost and lethality. These architectures would enable US forces to operate in the most effective, distributed, and disaggregated manner by using technology to provide a local ISR capability enabling users to develop and sustain a high degree of situational understanding while operating in complex urban environments against a determined, adaptive enemy. These technology concepts incorporate technologies that sense enemy combatants across modalities, masks their presence, and allows freedom of maneuver. This concept buys back the field of view lost due to the physical, human, electromagnetic, and cyber clutter presented by complex environments. These concepts fuse intuitive information onto the operator's displays and into autonomous systems to facilitate actions at an OPTEMPO well inside the adversary command and control (C2) cycle, ultimately presenting dilemmas to the adversary and maximizing both lethal/nonlethal force and protection options for the ground commander. The Army envisions tools for Commanders to leverage enriched intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality (training, rehearsals, and continuous maneuver). This diverse selection of effects ultimately produces cognitive paralysis of the adversary. Submissions Submissions shall not exceed ten-pages in length. Respondents are encouraged to provide multiple submissions if covering multiple technology concepts. Submissions should include: A one-page cover sheet that identifies the contact information including the title, organization, responder's points of contact (names, addresses, phone number, and e-mail addresses). This cover sheet does not count against the ten-page limit. A one-page executive summary, summarizing key aspects of the response. This executive summary does not count against the ten-page limit. Figures, tables and drawings should be included within the ten-page limit. Figures, tables and drawings, if included, do not count against the ten-page limit. Submissions are requested in electronic format as PDF (Portable Document Format) files (or equivalent). NO TELEPHONIC INQUIRIES WILL BE HONORED. Unclassified responses to this RFI should be submitted to the Point of Contacts listed below. The Government reserves the right to extend acceptance of RFI responses beyond this initial 45-day response period. All technical questions regarding this announcement should also be submitted to the Point of Contacts listed below. To submit a classified response to this RFI, please contact richard.a.nabors.civ@mail.mil for further instructions to ensure the information is safeguarded at the appropriate level. Point of Contact Responses shall be submitted via email to Richard Nabors, US Army CERDEC Associate for Strategic Planning and Deputy Director, Operations Division, richard.a.nabors.civ@mail.mil and Arlene Wadkins, NVESD Acquisition Advisor/Program Analyst, mildred.a.wadkins.civ@mail.mil. Include RFI number W909MY-17-CMMDE in the subject line. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. All requests for additional information must be made in writing via e-mail to Richard Nabors, US Army CERDEC Associate for Strategic Planning and Deputy Director, Operations Division, richard.a.nabors.civ@mail.mil and Arlene Wadkins, NVESD Acquisition Advisor/Program Analyst, mildred.a.wadkins.civ@mail.mil. Include RFI number W909MY-17-CMMDE in the subject line.
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