CECOM 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)

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