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COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 26,1996 PSA#1688CECOM Acquisition Center, Ground Support Branch, AMSEL-AC-CC, 10109
Gridley Road, Suite 200, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5843 A -- BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA-97-01) FOR HUMANITARIAN DEMINING
TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE DETECTION AND CLEARANCE OF LAND MINES SOL
DAAB12-96-BAA1 DUE 112696 POC Peggy A. Melanson, Contracting Officer,,
703-704-2168 Beverly Briggs, Project Engineer, 703-704-1073. BROAD
AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA-97-01) FOR HUMANITARIAN DEMINING TECHNOLOGIES
FOR THE DETECTION AND CLEARANCE OF LAND MINES Solicitation No.
DAAB12-97-BAA1 Contracting Officer: Peggy A. Melanson Technical Point
of Contact: Beverly Briggs (703-704-1073) The US Army CECOM Night
Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) is soliciting
proposals for the development of technologies to detect and clear land
mines and shallow buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) specifically for
use in humanitarian demining environments, with particular emphasis on
technologies that can be shared internationally. The goal for this
program is demonstration of technologies for the detection and
clearance of land mines and shallow buried UXO, under field conditions,
with sufficient sensitivity to permit high detection rates and
localization of the threat, and with sufficient confirmation to
distinguish detected anomalies as mines/UXO from clutter. Preference
will be given to detection and clearance systems that are lightweight,
low power, and low cost. The detection or clearance test platform is
important only for the purpose of demonstrating operational capability.
Proposals should not include research and development of such
platforms, purchase or lease of an appropriate platform for
demonstration is acceptable if required for an adequate technology
demonstration. Excluded for the purposes of this solicitation are
proposals for paper studies and/or evaluations. Such proposals will be
judged to be non-responsive. Additionally, proposals for development,
integration, and demonstration of multi media training technologies to
educate and train indigenous deminer cadres in mine awareness and
demining skills are sought. A formal RFP or other solicitation
regarding this announcement will not be issued. Selection of
proposal(s) for award will be made to those offerors whose proposals
are considered most advantageous to the Government. The Government
reserves the right to fund selected tasks from proposals, and to select
for award any, all, or none of the proposals received in response to
this announcement. Proposals identified for funding may result in a
contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or '''other transaction'''
agreement, depending on the nature of the work proposed, the required
degree of interaction among parties, and other factors. Priority will
be given to those technologies which can be developed, demonstrated and
delivered within 10 - 14 months after contract award. More information
about the focus in each of six categories is provided below. Questions
regarding this announcement may be submitted in writing, via FAX to
Beverly D. Briggs, Jason Regnier, and/or Sean Burke FAX: (703)
704-3001. A full copy of this Broad Agency Announcement can be found on
the World Wide Web at http://www.demining.brtrc.com listed as BAA97-01.
Proposals are sought in six areas: (1) Detection of Individual Mines
and Trip Wires: New technologies for handheld mine detection portend
significant potential to increase mine detection utility in
humanitarian demining scenarios. Such technologies should be capable of
rapidly and accurately detecting antipersonnel and antitank mines in
various environments while minimizing the false alarm rate. Ease of
operation and training should be emphasized. Areas that could be
considered include but are not limited to: multi-sensor capability to
include integration of two or more of the following technologies (metal
detection, ground penetrating radar, infrared, ultraviolet, automatic
target recognition software and sensor fusion if applicable), upgraded
power management techniques and/or an upgraded power source for the
PSS-12 detector (solar, rechargeable, generator) to provide extended
use during daylight operation, and integrated validation technologies
such as chemical sensing that would verify the presence of mine-like
objects or explosive compounds associated with mines. Technologies for
detecting trip wires should reliably indicate the presence of trip
wires in real-world demining scenarios (grass, thick vegetation, etc.)
and may utilize but not be limited to any of the latest generation
optical sensor technologies (infrared, ultraviolet, visual) and
automatic target recognition (ATR), (2) Vehicle/Ground Based Detection,
Marking, and Mapping of Mines: A vehicular mounted/ground based mine
detection, marking, and mapping test bed to detect both antipersonnel
and antitank mines in on-road and off-road (high clutter, rough
terrain) areas offers significant potential to increase the efficiency
and safety of personnel performing demining operations. Ease of
operation and training should be emphasized. The detection, marking,
and mapping test bed may be on a remote controlled vehicular/ground
based platform that can operate in moderately rough terrain or on roads
and trails, and should be flexible to allow for detection in and around
obstacles and structures. Physical marking and electronic storage of
the mines detected is requisite. All available sensor technologies
should be considered, (3) Wide Area Mine Detection: An airborne/ground
based wide area detection test platform that determines the presence
or absence of mined areas offers significant potential to increase the
safety of individual deminers at substantially reduced costs. The wide
area mine detection test bed must be capable of accurately detecting
and delineating the boundaries of mined areas containing antipersonnel
and antitank mines as well as locating and plotting individual mine or
mine cluster locations using Differential Global Positioning System
(DGPS) or similar technology. Additionally, this test bed should
provide a discrimination capability that includes the fusion of
multi-sensor information and inclusion of advanced signal processing
techniques. Wide area mine detection technologies that could be
considered include but are not limited to active/passive
electro-optical (IR, UV, visible), electromagnetic/RADAR (MMW, UWB,
passive), and chemical/explosive detecting, (4) Land Mine Clearance
Technologies: Technologies for land mine clearance must destroy mines
in place and/or provide for their removal for subsequent destruction,
both individually and over wide areas. The threat is comprehensive and
includes all mines from simple pressure fused blast mines, to trip
wire and anti-handling, to bounding fragmentation mines, to influence
fused mines, both anti-personnel and anti-tank, and mine case materials
such as wood, metal and plastic. The land mine clearance test bed
should be highly survivable against the blast and fragment effects of
mines, affordable and sustainable in humanitarian environments, and
capable of being shared in an international environment. Ease of
operation and training should be emphasized. Proposed clearance
technologies must represent improvements in safety and clearance rates
over the current demining baseline. Technology areas of interest
include but are not limited to chemical or mechanical means to crush,
grind, activate, disable, burn, excavate, sift, or chemically
neutralize the explosive. Chemical or mechanical technologies may
include but are not limited to explosives, energy pyrolysis, lasers,
thermite, neutralization and destruction chemicals, shaped charges,
electric arc technologies, thermal initiation techniques, air jet,
water jet, plasma jets or soil processors. The test platform may be
manned or remotely controlled - if remotely controlled, the test bed
must be capable of navigating to marked mined areas, (5) Mine Awareness
Training Media: Advanced technologies for integration of policy,
safety, mine types, technologies for detection and clearance of mines,
medical care, and tactics, techniques, and procedures for dealing with
equipment and personal casualties in demining operations is needed to
meet critical elements of the DoD requirements to support Humanitarian
Demining activities to educate and train indigenous deminer cadres in
mine awareness and demining skills. Such a test bed would include
advanced processors and technologies to gather record and report in
near real time comprehensive in-country training in logistics, medical,
maintenance, and safety disciplines that must accompany demining
mission skills training to establish and sustain an effective long term
program to train and assist other countries in developing effective
demining programs. The advanced mine awareness training media must have
a common forum that would allow for world-wide distribution of demining
related topics, (6) Individual Demining Tools: New individual demining
tools offer significant potential to increase the effectiveness and
safety of individual deminers. These new demining tools should provide
the deminer with better information, protection, and training to
perform demining operations. Special purpose hand and power tools,
upgraded sapper kits unique for demining operations, heavy and light
mechanical grapnels, improved mine probes, trip wire feelers, improved
blast and fragment containers, enhanced body armor (boots, vests,
helmets, goggles, shields, etc.), handheld GPS mine/minefield location
reporting schema, and mine simulators to train demining personnel are
representative items to be considered Proposers having the technical
and management capabilities, facilities, and experience necessary to
conduct all or portions of this program are invited to submit a
proposal describing their technical approach (including supporting
data), management concept, participants, relevant experience, and
estimated cost and timing of the project. Teaming is encouraged, as
appropriate (e.g., industry, universities, and Government
laboratories). Government laboratories may propose but are discouraged
from bidding as primes. The ultimate objective of a successful
proposal is a technology demonstration under actual field conditions.
Appropriate testing areas will be designated and prepared by the
government. Technology-limiting problems should be clearly identified
and the program designed to specifically address and demonstrate
solutions of these problems within the initial period of support. No
electronic media or facsimile transmissions of proposals will be
accepted. Furthermore, separate attachments, such as institutional
brochures, reprints, disks, or videotapes, will be ignored. Proposals
for this effort shall contain an executive summary, technical approach,
program plan, milestone schedule, relevant prior work, management plan,
experience and background of the principal team members, and a cost
breakdown of the effort being proposed. There are no page restrictions
or limitations. Specific deliverables, delivery schedule and contracts
will be negotiated with successful offerors. Proposals will be
evaluated by a peer review panel that may consist of both government
and non-government experts. Proposers who object to having their
submissions reviewed and evaluated by non-government personnel must so
state in writing at the time of proposal submission. Both government
and non-government personnel will have signed and will have on-file
with NVESD appropriate non-disclosure and conflict of interest
certifications before commencing any evaluation. Evaluation of the
proposals will be based on the following four criteria, in decreasing
order of importance: (1) the scientific and technical merits of the
proposed effort including the goals and the feasibility of the
approach, (2) the maturity of the technology proposed including a
realistic operational concept and the adequacy of the technical tasks
proposed to reach demonstration within the time frame of the program,
(3) the qualifications of the principal investigator and other key
research personnel, their record of past performance, and the adequacy
of current and planned equipment and facilities to accomplish the
proposed effort, and (4) cost realism. Note: Cost realism will only be
significant in proposals that have significantly under or over
estimated the cost to complete their effort. As soon as the proposal
evaluation is completed, the offeror will be notified of selection or
non-selection. Selected proposals will be considered for funding,
non-selected proposals will be destroyed (one copy of non-selected
proposals will be retained for file purposes). Decisions to fund
proposals will be based on the four criteria, funds available,
contribution to program goals, and overall program balance. Unless the
proposer objects in writing at the time of submitting a proposal, all
proposals will be opened and processed for administrative purposes by
E-OIR Measurements Inc of Spotsylvania, Virginia and/or by Fibertek
Inc of Herndon, Virginia. Relevant E-OIR and/or Fibertek personnel will
have signed and will have on-file with NVESD appropriate non-disclosure
and conflict of interest certifications before handling proposals. All
proposals are due no later than 4 PM EDT 60 days after publication of
the CBD notice. Proposers should submit one original and four copies
of the proposal to: NVESD, Countermine Division, ATTN:
AMSEL-RD-NV-CD-ES (Briggs), 10221 Burbeck Road, Suite 430, Fort
Belvoir, VA 22060 - 5806. Selections for awards may be made at any time
during the evaluation process. Proposals may be considered for funding
for a period of up to two years. **** (0268) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0001 19960925\A-0001.SOL)
A - Research and Development Index Page
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