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

A -- LOW COST CRUISE MISSILE DEFENSE SOL BAA 96-34 DUE 091396 POC Mr. Jim Carlini, DARPA/STO, phone: 703-516-7412, fax: 703-522-6108. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Sensor Technology Office, is soliciting proposals to develop a cost effective approach to defeating a proliferated cruise missile threat. The low cost and high accuracy of cruise missiles may make them the enemy weapon of choice in future conflicts. Worldwide total of fieldable systems is in the tens of thousands, with rapid proliferation of technologically modest cruise missiles and associated technologies continuing. This proliferated threat has a moderately small RCS, no electronic countermeasures, no reactive maneuvers, and can fly as low as 100 meters over land and 30 meters over water. When deployed in large raids, these weapons can provide an effective means of delivering a warhead by overwhelming current or planned air defense architectures. Defending against raids of 25 or more cruise missiles by simply proliferating air defense systems would not be a cost effective solution. Maintaining large numbers of fighters on Combat Air Patrol or populating large areas with relatively expensive surface to air missiles (SAMs) would make for a very large cost-per-kill against this class of threat. DARPA is embarking on the Low Cost Cruise Missile Defense (LCCMD) program to investigate approaches for low cost weapon systems that can substantially improve the cost-per-kill against the proliferated cruise missile threat. In this context, weapon system refers to surveillance, fire control, and interceptor assets. The primary emphasis in this program is on the interceptor, however the entire weapon system concept must be considered to ensure a viable architecture and a reduced composite cost-per-kill. A wide range of weapon system architectures and scenarios are of interest, including entirely airborne architectures, entirely sea and ground based architectures, and mixed architectures with airborne assets coupled with surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Offerors must consider two cases with regard to platform options: (1) platform options restricted to existing or planned assets (AWACS, E2-C, F-15, TIER II+, C-130, F/A-18, AEGIS, U2-R, etc.), and, (2) platform options restricted to existing or planned assets plus a hypothetical centralized airborne fire control platform with performance to be outlined in the offerors briefing. Offerors are encouraged to look for new ways to employ these platforms and are also free to propose new or upgraded sensors, but are cautioned that low cost potential is a primary source selection criterion. Offerors are expected to take advantage of recent advances in interceptor (propulsion, guidance, seekers, lethality, etc.) and sensor technologies to develop cost effective interceptors and architectures. Offerors are expected to provide evidence that the proposed architectures/technologies will be both effective and provide a reduced cost-per-kill over simply proliferating current air defense assets. Offerors should also consider threat and scenario excursions to assess the robustness of the proposed architecture. Threat elaboration, scenario constraints, and hypothesized sensor capabilities will be provided at the offerors briefing. An offerors briefing will be held at DARPA in Room 510 of 3803 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, on July 30, from 8:30 AM until noon. Attendance is limited to two representatives from each company. The meeting will be classified SECRET. Clearances should be sent by mail to DARPA Visitor Control Center, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Va or by FAX at 703/528-3655. Threat elaboration, scenario constraints, and hypothesized sensor capabilities will be provided at this briefing. This will also be the only opportunity to submit questions. Only written questions will be answered. The briefing charts and answers to all questions will be provided to all interested parties via the Internet. Current planning is to award firm fixed-price contracts for amounts not exceeding $100,000 and Cost-Plus (fee or no-fee) for higher contract amounts. Program plans call for evaluation and funding, to the extent funding is adequate, of multiple approaches during the concept development phase of approximately one year and competing the subsequent design, fabrication and demonstration phase, which may include all, none, or parts of each of the proposed approaches. The award(s) for this BAA will cover only the concept development phase anticipated to run through FY97. Offerors are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract of their proposed concept to preclude unwarranted effort, on the part of an offeror, in preparing a full proposal, and on the part of the government, in reviewing one. An abstract is not a requirement for submission or selection of a proposal. Any offeror whose abstract is found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA will be invited to submit a full technical and cost proposal. Such an invitation does not assure subsequent contract award. Regardless of the recommendation, the decision to submit or not submit a proposal is the responsibility of the offeror. Abstracts shall be submitted in the following format: (A) 8.5 x 11 inches, single or double spaced, margins not less than one inch, one sided printing, pages numbered, in at least 10 point type, (B) Title page - clearly labeled PROPOSAL ABSTRACT including this BAA number, proposal title, offerors administrative and technical points of contact along with telephone and facsimile numbers, and an authorized officers signature, (C) Summary (three pages maximum) to include the technical ideas proposed. Abstracts may be classified SECRET. Abstracts in excess of 3 pages will not be reviewed. Abstracts less than the maximum number of pages will not be penalized. A maximum of two abstracts will be accepted from each offeror. The original and one copy of each abstract referencing BAA 96-34 shall be submitted to: Jim Carlini, DARPA, Suite 500, 4001 North Fairfax, Arlington, Virginia, 22203. Abstracts will be accepted until 4:00 PM local time on 16 August 1996. Proposals will be evaluated through a scientific review using the following criteria: (1) Low cost potential of approach, (2) Technical feasibility, (3) System performance, (4) System robustness to threat excursions, and (5) Capabilities, experience, and qualifications of the key personnel. These criteria are weighted as follows: (1), highest rated, (2), of lower weight than (1) but of greater weight than criteria (3),(4), and (5), these latter criteria are equal in weight to each other. Individual proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or unacceptability without regard to other proposals submitted under the announcement. However, due to budgetary constraints, all acceptable proposals may not be funded. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. Proposals shall be submitted in two volumes. PROPOSALS SENT BY FAX OR E-MAIL WILL BE DISREGARDED. Volume I shall provide the technical proposal and management approach, and Volume II shall address cost. A maximum of two proposals will be accepted from each offeror. The proposals shall be prepared in the following format: 8.5 x 11 inches, one and one-half line spacing or double spaced, in at least 10 point type, one sided printing, with pages numbered. Volume I may be classified SECRET and shall be no longer than 15 pages to include figures, tables, enclosures and attachments. Foldouts shall be counted as a single page. Proposals with Volume I in excess of 15 pages will not be reviewed. Proposals less than the maximum number of pages will not be penalized. Offerors are encouraged to submit concise, but descriptive proposals. Volume I of the proposal shall include as a minimum: a cover page including BAA number, proposal title, offerors technical and administrative points of contact, address, phone, fax number, and email address, a summary of the offerors approach to the problem statement, appropriately detailed substantiation of technical and cost claims, a statement of work to include descriptions of anticipated tasks, a description of potential risk reduction activities, if appropriate, a description of the anticipated results and deliverables from the program, a milestones and schedule summary, a description of any potential proprietary issues or an explicit statement denying any proprietary claims, and a section describing the offerors capabilities and accomplishments relevant to this task. In addition, Volume I shall contain a management plan which describes the overall management approach, the planned project organization, the identification of any government facilities or equipment to be used, and general planning and control practices. Volume II of the proposal shall be no longer than 10 pages. The costs shall be summarized on a single page and then detailed in the remaining pages. Costs, labor hours, and rationale for direct labor by task, travel, material, computer usage and other direct and indirect costs shall be provided. Any offers of cost sharing shall be explicitly detailed. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by DARPA. Historical Black Colleges And Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals,however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of the requisite technology for exclusive competition among these entities. DARPA will treat all information submitted in support of this BAA as competition-sensitive and proprietary. The Government will employ support contractors to assist in the administration of the evaluation of the proposals. These support contractors are restricted by their contracts from disclosing any proposal information or using it for other than the assigned administrative tasks, and are required to sign non-disclosure statements. The submission of a proposal constitutes authorization for the Government to disclose the contents of these documents to the support contractors for the limited purposes described above. The original proposal and four copies, referencing BAA 96- 34 should be mailed to Jim Carlini, DARPA, Suite 500, 4001 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia, 22203. Proposals will be accepted until 4:00 PM local time on 13 September 1996. Points of Contact - Technical: Mr. Jim Carlini, Program Manager, DARPA, jcarlini@darpa.mil, voice - (703) 516-7412, fax - (703) 522-6108. Business: Mr. Grant Mayberry, CMO, DARPA, gmayberry@darpa.mil, voice - (703) 696-2438. SPECIAL NOTICE: Awards made under the BAA are subject to the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 9.5, Organizational Conflict of Interest. All offerors and proposed subcontractors must affirmatively state whether they are supporting any DARPA technical office(s) through an active contract or subcontract. All affirmations must state which office(s) the offeror supports and provide the prime contract number. Affirmations shall be furnished at the time of proposal submission. All facts relevant to the existence or potential existence of organizational conflicts of interest, as that term is defined in FAR 9.501, must be disclosed. This disclosure shall include a description of the action the Contractor has taken, or proposes to take, to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate such conflict. (0198)

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