SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB): Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) Project - Risk Reduction and Feasibility Study
- Notice Date
- 6/29/2020 2:27:35 PM
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- BUREAU OF INDUSTRY AND SECURITY
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- IFB-AFSC-RRFS
- Response Due
- 7/29/2020 8:59:00 PM
- Archive Date
- 08/05/2020
- Point of Contact
- Lee Ann Carpenter
- E-Mail Address
-
LeeAnn.Carpenter@bis.doc.gov
(LeeAnn.Carpenter@bis.doc.gov)
- Description
- The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) intends to issue an Invitation for Bids (IFB) in regards to a Risk Reduction and Feasibility Study (RRFS) for the Concept Stage of the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) Project. In order to bid, a U.S. prime contractor must� 1. � maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, etc.) in the United States 2. �� be pre-approved for participation in NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB) 3. �� hold a current Facility Security Clearance at the level of SECRET or higher� 4. �� be issued a Declaration of Eligibility by the U.S. Government 5. � � be registered in the NSPA Source File (see the following for registration): https://eportal.nspa.nato.int/Registration/OnlineRegistration.aspx?lng=en �� The Department of Commerce will be using IFB-AFSC-RRFS as its reference for this solicitation. The RRFS contractor and its subsidiaries, any entities under the contractor�s common control, affiliates and sub-contractors shall have no involvement whatsoever in NSPA�s AFSC Contracted Engineering Support contract. NSPA will issue a Request for Bidders Views (RFBV) prior to IFB release.� NSPA will distribute the final IFB to all firms that have been issued a Declaration of Eligibility (see BIDDING PROCEDURE) whether or not they have responded to the RFBV. SUMMARY DESCRIPTION 1. � � RRFS Capability Requirement and Context The future AFSC capability will have to provide Surveillance and Control over the full spectrum of benign, permissive, contested and denied operational environments, which may be austere, cluttered or congested, while conducting missions tailored to the requirements of the particular operation. Whilst these capabilities are diverse and complex, they can be grouped and summarized in three categories as follows: 1.1.����� to collect and disseminate information on objects of interest in all domains in order to identify and track those objects 1.2.����� to establish real-time situational awareness and generate common operational pictures of areas of interest 1.3.����� to control and coordinate forces to deliver effects in areas of responsibility 2. � � � � The Capability required from an AFSC solution has additionally been categorized as follows: 2.1.����� Core: Those elements that provide evolutionary progress from the ability to fill the capability gap that the NATO E-3 leaves to a future NATO Surveillance and Control capability able to connect, integrate and function with currently planned and existing capabilities in 2035. 2.2.����� Tier 1 and Tier 2: Elements in Tier 1 and 2 will ensure that the forces in the timeframe beyond 2035 are able to operate as a fully integrated network force in a domain-agnostic manner and take full advantage of technological progress in distributed networking, data and information usage and storage, and decision making developments. The distinction between Tier 1 and 2 is in technological maturity and in the requirement to conduct missions in all domains. It is anticipated that this construct will allow a spiral development of capabilities and introduction of systems, processes and tools in a step-wise acquisition and procurement processs. 3. �� An initial set of high-level requirements is already defined and will be shared with RRFS bidders.� It should be understood, however, that those requirements are expected to evolve both in advance of and during the execution of RRFS contracts.� 4. � � RRFS Overview: The RRFS activities of the Concept Stage will bring forward a small number of High Level Technical Concepts and develop them at lower levels (by way of separate contracts with different Contractors).� Development will include refinement of the high level concepts, followed by the elaboration and specification of lower-level concepts, architectures, systems, sub-systems and services in sufficient detail to allow meaningful assessment of the feasibility of implementing a solution on that basis � together with meaningful assessment of the associated risks and costs. 5. � � �� The RRFS will culminate in the selection of a single Concept for subsequent work, and the outputs from the RRFS contracts will be the primary sources of information supporting the decision to select that Concept.� Those outputs should therefore, be evidence-based and objective to the maximum extent possible within the constraints of the AFSC context.� 6. � � � � It is expected that approximately 1 year (from Contract award) will be available to complete RRFS studies. 7. � �� RRFS Scope:� It is expected that the scope of RRFS contracts will include: 7.1.����� refinement of the high level concepts 7.2.����� elaboration of the high level concepts to generate lower-level concepts and architectures (compliant with the NATO Architecture Framework (NAF) at version 4) 7.3.����� specification of systems, sub-systems and services 7.4.����� an analysis of the �technology landscape� and potential existing/planned NATO owned/operated capabilities which could contribute to AFSC 7.5.����� generation of technology �roadmaps� to support assessments of feasibility and risk (such roadmaps to fully address the early life-cycle including, at least, research and development, manufacture, testing and evaluation, procurement, system integration) 7.6.����� modelling and simulation, where possible and appropriate, to support assessments of feasibility and risk (noting that NATO will provide operational scenarios and vignettes to support such activities) 7.7.����� assessment of the feasibility of deploying a solution based on the relevant Concepts (as refined and elaborated), together with the associated risks and costs and covering, at least, the following: 7.7.1.�� ability to meet capability requirements (including future growth) 7.7.2.�� maturity of technical solutions (e.g. Technology Readiness Levels) 7.7.3.�� risks associated with new technology or product development 7.7.4.�� technical integration and interoperability 7.7.5.�� architectures (including scalability and ability to upgrade) 7.7.6.�� information assurance 7.7.7.�� human factors and training 7.7.8.�� infrastructure 7.7.9.�� compliance with current and future safety and legal requirements 7.7.10. commercial aspects of the concept (such as availability of acceptable user rights and intellectual property rights and the ability to maintain effective competition beyond the Concept Stage) 7.7.11. operational feasibility (including vulnerability/survivability, deployability, sustainability, availability and life-cycle support) 7.7.12. financial feasibility (including life cycle stages: development, production, usage and support, and disposal) 7.8.����� proposed plans for the implementation of full Core capability by 2035 (including any opportunities for Tier 1&2) and any increments required to reach full Tier 1 and Tier 2 capabilities thereafter 7.9.����� identification of relevant �gaps� in current knowledge or of areas in which technological advances are necessary, together with recommendations for relevant research or development activity 7.10.��� identification of opportunities (if any) to influence the evolution of legacy NATO or National capabilities and systems in ways which would benefit AFSC 7.11.��� identification of opportunities (if any) to influence the evolution of NATO (or other) Standards in ways which would benefit AFSC 7.12.��� generation of concise reports of the work undertaken during RRFS and the results of assessments. 8. � �� Requirements of RRFS Contractors:� Successful participation in RRFS will require Contractors with the following attributes (amongst others): 8.1.����� advanced capabilities in the definition and development of complex systems of systems in the military domain (including advanced ability to exploit architecture-driven approaches) 8.2.����� broad and deep knowledge of emerging technologies (not limited to the military domain) 8.3.����� ability to innovate, where appropriate, balancing the maturity of emerging technology with its potential to deliver capability 8.4.����� relevant knowledge from both civilian and military domains, for example in the following areas: 8.4.1.�� persistent wide-area surveillance 8.4.2.�� intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) 8.4.3.�� command and control (C2) 8.4.4.�� communications 8.4.5.�� sustainment and availability 8.4.6.�� survivability 8.4.7.�� protection and vulnerability 8.4.8.�� information and data storage and processing 8.4.9.�� interoperability 8.4.10. configuration and modularity 8.4.11. upgradability and scalability 8.4.12. training 8.4.13. cost estimating 8.4.14. modelling and simulation BIDDING PROCEDURE NATO ICB requires that the U.S. Government issue a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) for potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this project. Before the U.S. Government can do so, however, the U.S. firm must be approved for participation in NATO ICB.� U.S. firms are approved for NATO ICB on a facility-by-facility basis. The U.S. NATO ICB application is a one-time application.� The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA. U.S. firms can download a copy of the U.S. NATO ICB application from the following website: http://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/other-areas/strategic-industries-and-economic-security-sies/nato-related-business-opportunities �� The application and supporting documentation may be submitted as e-mail attachments.� If, when submitting the application, your firm is interested in a specific NATO ICB project, please include the following in the text of your email: - the title and/or solicitation number of the project - the name/phone/FAX/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documents After approval of your one-time NATO ICB application, the Department of Commerce will then know to follow up by issuing a DOE for the project.� The Department of Commerce will transmit the DOE to the NATO contracting agency.� IMPORTANT DATES U.S. firms must request a DOE (and, for U.S. firms new to NATO ICB, submit the one-time NATO ICB application) by: 29 July 2019 IFB issued (target): �second quarter of 2021� Bid closing:� 84 days after release of the IFB
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