Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington VA 22203-1714

A -- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AND PROTOTYPE SYSTEMS FOR SURVEILLANCE IMAGERY EXPLOITATION AND TARGETING SOL BAA96-22 DUE 082196 POC John Gilmore,DARPA Program Manager, FAX (703) 696-2201. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AND PROTOTYPE SYSTEMS FOR SURVEILLANCE IMAGERY EXPLOITATION AND TARGETING SOL BAA #96-22 OPEN THROUGH 21 August 1996 Technical POC: John Gilmore, Program Manager, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Information Systems Office, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714, Facsimile: (703) 696-2201, Electronic mail: jgilmore@darpa.mil (E-mail contact is preferred). Contractual point of contact: DARPA, Contracts Management Office (CMO), ATTN: Algeria Tate, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. DARPA is soliciting proposal abstracts and proposals (technical and cost) from research teams for the development of Advanced Technology and Prototype Systems for Surveillance Imagery Exploitation and Targeting. Full technical and cost proposals in response to this BAA shall be submitted to the Technical POC listed above by 21 August 1996, 1500 hours Eastern Daylight Savings Time. DARPA will review these and initiate awards for contracts starting on or about the 2nd Quarter of government Fiscal Year 1997. Offerors are required to submit proposal abstracts for a review process. Proposal abstracts submitted for this are due by 3 July 1996, 1500 hours Eastern Daylight Savings Time. DARPA will review the proposal abstracts and respond in writing to the abstract authors, including comments on the likelihood of the full proposal being selected. Exact formats and procedures for the proposal abstract and proposal submission are included in a proposers information package (PIP). On 7 June 1996 from 0900 to approximately 1530 an unclassified informational briefing to industry covering this BAA will be held at a location to be announced in the Arlington or McLean Area of Northern Virginia. Offerors should follow the procedure in the PIP to attend this briefing. GENERAL GOALS OF THIS BAA: The goal of the efforts at large is to design, develop and evaluate innovative technology and prototype systems for: Interactive Imagery Exploitation (INIMEX), Rapid Target Model Insertion (RTMI), On-the-fly Training of Automatic Target Recognition systems (OTFT-ATR), Automation, Exploitation, and Dissemination for Multispectral Imaging (AED-MSI), and other sensor, exploitation and automatic target cueing/recognition (OTHER-ATC/R) development. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the sections below, the primary focus of this BAA is the development of algorithm technology and prototype systems for application to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reconnaissance and surveillance systems. This focus does not preclude approaches which are also applicable to other surveillance sensor modes (electro- optical, infrared, etc.). All proposed development should have the potential to significantly decrease tactical imagery analysis and photo interpretation time lines, increase the quality of the exploitation product and aid in the timely processing of very large amounts of surveillance and reconnaissance imagery in military theaters of operations. All proposed developments must include experiments and metric evaluations to measure system and subsystem performance against explicitly stated goals. INIMEX is the combination of advanced automatic and semi-automatic imagery exploitation techniques, automatic and semi-automatic target cueing and recognition (ATC/R) systems, and advanced human-computer interface (HCI) systems into tools, systems and environments that aid tactical photo interpreters and imagery analysts in performing common tactical missions using huge volumes of surveillance imagery. Proposed approaches should design, develop and evaluate prototype INIMEX systems that improve the quality and timeliness of the exploitation process while exploring new human-computer environments and interface paradigms for imagery analysis. RTMI is the rapid construction and validation of models of target vehicles for use in ATC/R systems. Proposed approaches should study and document concepts of operations and requirements for RTMI in future operational systems, then design, build and evaluate prototype systems for RTMI. Proposed approaches should address time- and cost- reducing alternative methods to current SAR-specific target model building and validation processing, then develop and evaluate prototypes of such model building and validation techniques in order to produce a small quantity (minimum: 5) of SAR-specific target models. OTFT-ATR is the capability to automatically or semi-automatically update existing (ATC/R) system and clutter model parameters or create new ones using sensed imagery and other observations, in order to adapt ATC/R systems to new target sets and mission conditions. Proposed approaches should study and document concepts of operations and requirements for OTFT-ATR in future operational systems, then build and evaluate proof of concept systems for advanced, innovative approaches to OTFT-ATR. Under AED-MSI (which is not focused on SAR), technology is sought for electro-optical, spectral-based (multispectral and hyperspectral) automated target cueing development and system performance analysis as well as spectral-based target detection and material identification algorithm development. Under OTHER-ATC/R, offerors are encouraged to respond with any innovative sensor, imagery exploitation technique and ATC/R technique which shows significant promise against the general goals of this solicitation. All proposed approaches should include a concept of operations for the proposed technique, an assessment of the current state of the art in the proposed area, and plans to design, build and evaluate the proposed approach. Proposed efforts may be specific algorithm development or prototype system developments. The anticipated period of performance for all areas is estimated at 39 months, starting on or about the 2nd Quarter of government Fiscal Year 1997, with a 9 month base period in FY 97 followed by option periods in FY 98, 99 and 00. Guidance on anticipated funding levels and periods of performance are included in the PIP. Multiple awards are anticipated as a result of this BAA. The selection of one or more sources for award will be based on an evaluation of an offeror's response (both technical and cost aspects) to determine the overall merit of the proposal in response to the announcement. The criteria are as follows: (A) The quality of offeror's technical solution, which is ranked as the first order of priority, shall be evaluated based on the following criteria which are listed in order of priority: (A1) The soundness of the proposed technical approach, including proposed evaluations of technology or systems, (A2) The quality of innovation of the proposed technical approach, and (A3) The offeror's understanding of scope of the problem and the technical effort needed to address it. (B) The qualifications of offeror to perform the work, which is ranked second in order of priority shall be evaluated based on the following criteria which are equal in priority: (B1) The quality and quantity of technical personnel proposed and their availability for the duration of the contract, and (B2) The offeror's experience in relevant efforts and resources committed to the proposed effort. (C) The quality and clarity of the offeror's Statement of Work (SOW) and program plan, including the realism of the proposed cost, which is ranked third in order of priority. No other evaluation criteria will be used. DARPA reserves the right to select for award of a contract or grant any, all, part, or none of the proposals received. Award of a grant, in lieu of a contract, to universities and nonprofit institutions will be considered and will be subject to the mutual agreement of all parties. A Proposers Information Package (PIP) has been prepared for this BAA. The PIP provides important information on the following areas: program technical rationale and program goals for each subject area, program schedule and estimated costs for each subject area, proposal abstract preparation and submission, proposal preparation and submission, award criteria, the submission of questions via electronic mail, and other important information. Technical and contractual questions should be directed to (baa96-22@darpa.mil) and may be answered directly or through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file. Offerors should request or obtain a PIP in one of the following ways (electronic retrieval is encouraged): (a) documents will be available at the DARPA World Wide Web Site: http://www.darpa.mil/baa/, in the Information Systems Office section, one working day after the CBD publication. (b) ELECTRONIC MAIL INSTRUCTIONS: THE ELECTRONIC MAIL AUTO-RESPONDER IS CAP SENSITIVE. Use lower case only. Send an electronic mail to baa-info@DARPA.mil WITH NO SUBJECT. Within the BODY of the electronic mail message, enter: info baa96-22(carriage return). Detailed instructions on obtaining the PIP and other files related to baa96-22 will be automatically mailed back to you. (c) OTHER INSTRUCTIONS: Request via U.S. Mail, e-mail, fax or phone from Ms. Pamela Chelchowski, 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203, phone: 703-696-7440, Facsimile: 703-696-2201, electronic mail: pchelchowski@darpa.mil. This BAA will be open through 21 August 1996. The provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) at 9.5 (Organizational Conflict of Interest) apply in an award under this BAA. Accordingly, a potential offeror is cautioned to review its contract and subcontract history, before incurring substantial proposal preparation expense, to determine whether or not in its judgment a real or potential conflict of interest does or might exist that will prevent the contracting officer from considering its proposal or making an award under this BAA. Questionable circumstances or situations should be addressed to the contracting officer for resolution and decision as soon as possible. Offerors are also cautioned that (1) the absence of any communication between offerors and the contracting officer on these matters (real or potential conflict of interest) shall not preclude the contracting officer from conducting his or her own research and analysis, arriving at his or her own determination relative to the existence of real or potential conflicts of interest, and (2) in the event of a determination of a conflict of interest, the government shall not be liable for the cost of proposal preparation and submission. This is an unrestricted announcement. Proposals submitted shall be in accordance with this announcement. There will be no other solicitation issued in regard to this requirement. Offerors should be alert for any BAA amendments that may be published. No portion of the BAA will be setaside for HBCU or MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of research for exclusive competition among the entities. HBCU's and MI's are encouraged to team with other proposers. (0137)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0001 19960517\A-0001.SOL)