Rome Laboratory/PKPX, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514

A -- INFORMATION WARFARE SOL BAA 96-10-PKRZ POC Duane Allain,Program Manager, 315-330-7990; Joe Giordano, Technical Advisor, 351-330-7990; Joetta A. Bernhard, Contracting Officer, 315- 330-2308. Rome Laboratory (RL)is soliciting White Papers for various studies, capabilities and experiments to increase the Air Force's understanding and capabilities in the area of INFORMATION WARFARE within the context of Global Reach/Global Power. US Forces require rapid access to a wide variety of information to perform their missions. The information required must be reliable and specific information tied to planned operations must be protected. We must preserve and ensure the integrity of our information from exploitation and corruption while denying, delaying, or confusing our potential adversary's ability to act in battle. Innovative basic research approaches are being sought in the INFORMATION WARFARE areas of, (1) Information Warfare planning functions, (2) improved concepts to deny the adversary's ability to decide and act in battle, (3) maintaining the integrity and confidence level of our information elements, (4) the ability to recover from information attacks, (5) automated methodologies to determine susceptibilities and vulnerabilities of information systems, (6) methods to secure Commercial-off-the-shelf applications, (7) capabilities to determine what information systems will be attacked. Concepts and capabilities are needed to support a wide variety of missions including worldwide joint missions. Priority will be given to those ideas which most significantly increase the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our information systems and which have the widest global applicability. In addition, consideration will be given to those concepts with an understanding of adversarial command and control structures as well as the variations in threat systems. The new concepts and capabilities should address the Counter Information needs of US and allied systems for information warfare. The full spectrum of military operations should be considered. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. Offers are required to submit three (3) copies of a 3 - 5 page white paper with a cover letter indicating whether the offeror is a large, small, women-owned small, or small disadvantaged business, or Historically Black College, University, or Minority Institution. The white paper will be formatted as follows: Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Cost of Task, Name of Company, Section B: Task Objective, and Section C: Technical Summary. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: Dwayne Allain, Reference BAA-96-10-PKPX, Rome Laboratory/IWT, 525 Brooks Road, Rome NY 13441-4114. Also send one (1) copy of the cover letter only, by FIRST CLASS MAIL (DO NOT SEND CLASSIFIED), to ATTN.: Janis Norelli, Director of Small Business, Rome Laboratory/BC, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Complete instructions for proposal preparation will be forwarded with the invitation for proposal submission. Evaluation of proposals will be performed using the following criteria: (1) The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal, (2) innovativeness of proposed approach and/or techniques, (3) assessed improvement to Information Warfare capabilities, and (4) the reasonableness and realism of the proposed cost and fees. Also the offer's capability and capacity to achieve the objectives of this BAA will be used. No other evaluation criteria will be used in selecting proposals. The technical criteria will also be used to determine whether the White Papers submitted are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government. Proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received. Individual proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or unacceptability without regard to other proposals submitted under this BAA. Options are discouraged and unpriced options will not be considered for award. Principle funding of this BAA and the anticipated award of contracts will start approximately FY97. Individual awards will not normally exceed 12 to 24 months in duration, with dollar amounts normally ranging from $200K to $750K. Total funding for this BAA is $12M. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors are advised that their participation is subject to a foreign disclosure review. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors should immediately contact the contracting focal point, Rome Laboratory/PKPX, ATTN: Joetta A Bernhard, 26 Electronic Pky, Rome, NY 13441-4514, or phone at (315)330-2308, for information if they contemplate responding. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this announcement is not considered allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost specified in FAR 31.205-18. The work to be performed may require a SECRET/NOFORN facility clearance and safeguarding capability, therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET/NOFORN information at time of award. Foreign participation at the prime contractor level is excluded. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms on the Certified Contractor Access List (CCAL) will be allowed access to such data. An ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors during the proposal development phase of this acquisition. Routine questions, such as clarifications, are not considered to be ''significant concerns'' and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer, Joetta A. Bernhard, (315) 330-2308. The purpose of the ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the Contracting Officer or Program Manager, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements, and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Vincent Palmiero, Chief, Policy and Management Division, at (315) 330-7746. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals or in the source selection process. To receive a copy of the Rome Laboratory ''PRDA and BAA: A Guide for Industry,'' March 1994 (Rev), write to Rome Laboratory/PKR, ATTN: Lucille Argenzia, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY 13441-4514 or the guide may be accessed electronically at http://www.rl.af.mil:8001/Lab/PK/pk-main.html. All responsible organizations may submit a white paper which shall be considered. This BAA is open and effective until canceled. White papers for FY97 should be submitted by 1 Oct 96, for FY98, 1 Jul 97, and for FY99, 1 Jul 98. White papers submitted after those dates will also be considered but funding may be limited. Proposers are warned that only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. ROME LABORATORY, 26 ELECTRONIC Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514. (0241)

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