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

A -- ADVANCED SIMULATION TECHNOLOGY THRUST (ASTT) SOL BAA 96-39 DUE 112996 POC Mr. W.H. (Dell) Lunceford, DARPA/ISO, Fax: (703) 696-2203, Email: luncefod@msis.dmso.mil; Alan Frederick, DARPA/CMO, Fax: (703) 696- 2208, Email: afrederick@darpa.mil. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Systems Office is soliciting proposals for research and new technology development related to the development of the techniques necessary to construct next generation distributed simulations. Information in this announcement is not complete. Prospective offerors must also refer to the associated Proposer Information Packet (PIP) before submitting a Pre-Proposal or Proposal. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES: The ASTT Program will develop, test, and demonstrate technologies which enable revolutionary advances in computer based simulation technology across the full spectrum of military conflict. The ASTT Program seeks to provide the technological foundation for major DoD simulation development programs, such as the Joint Simulation System (JSIMS) and its family of programs. Information related to the JSIMS program can be found at http://www.jsims.mil. DARPA seeks innovative technical solutions in four technology areas (1) Automated Scenario Generation: Scenario generation can be thought of as the process of converting a set of exercise objectives into a set of applications and data bases, used as the starting point of an exercise as well as throughout the run-time portion of the simulation. JSIMS has a requirement to reduce both the time and staff hours necessary to construct a 100K object implying the need to automate much of the process currently used to build new exercises today. In FY97, The ASTT program is interested in exploring techniques to implement the initial phase of exercise construction - converting exercise objectives into a detailed specification of each exercise component. The specification must be detailed enough to allow for the searching of re-use repositories for existing components or the construction of new components. This phase should be executed by a Subject Matter Expert using terminology with which they are familiar. (2) Representations of Synthetic Natural Environments (SNE): SNE provide the context in which Synthetic Forces will operate by locating those forces with respect to each other (geopositioning) as well as mediating their interactions (e.g., terrain and atmospheric influences on intervisibility). SNE data bases are very large and very dynamic in nature, usually resident on a single server, with portions cached locally within each distributed simulation. The primary goal of the Advanced Synthetic Natural Environments section is to explore innovative and creative technologies that support the techniques necessary to tailor SNEs for particular exercises/simulations and to explore methods of improving their distributed network efficiency (Note: The ASTT program is not planning any work in the area of rapid terrain generation other than the tailoring task identified). Of primary interest are the: techniques to allow man-made objects to be properly inserted into an existing SNE data base by a scenario builder without the use of computer programming, techniques to maintain data base correlation across the different SNE data caches that exist within a complex distributed simulation, and next generation improvements in efficient handling of large SNE data bases in a distributed computing environment, and techniques to develop multi-resolution environment models (3) Synthetic Forces Representation of Human Behavior. The primary goal of the Advanced Synthetic Force Representation section is to explore innovative techniques necessary to build the next generation of military force representation computer based simulations The challenge is to develop techniques to allow Synthetic Force representations to exhibit the types of behavior anomalies one would expect from `real' humans placed in military environments. The technical innovations sought in Advanced Synthetic Forces Representation are: developing techniques to allow two or more simulation objects to collaborate to develop a plan of action to reach a common goal, Decision problems loosely constrained by doctrine, and techniques to improve the variability and realism in the quality and nature of computer generated force responses, (4) Scaleable Executing Systems. The primary objective of this area is focused on exploring the techniques that effectively manage the large range of scale that next generation simulation systems will be required to support. Of primary interest are the following: techniques to estimate computer system (processor, network, etc) peak loading and make system configuration recommendations, techniques to monitor, project and control system loads during run-time, techniques to reduce the amount of processing necessary to update and maintain local (ground truth) data caches in a distributed simulation environment. DARPA anticipates that initial contractor selections will be made during the Second quarter of fiscal year 1997. Offerors may submit multiple year proposals spanning a period of up to three years, with initial effort covering a period of not greater than 12 to 15 months. Effort beyond this initial period should be costed on an annual basis to coincide with the Government's fiscal year. All data an offeror deems pertinent to a Proposal shall be submitted with the proposal. If an offeror summits Proposals in more than one area, and if there are strong synergistic relationships between the Proposals, each Proposal must specifically delineate what benefits would accrue to the Government if both Proposals were funded. Pending approval of funding, a total of approximately $7M may be available in FY97. Size of awards and duration of efforts will vary according to the type of effort undertaken. Bidders please note: this program element has been marked for potential reduction. This mark should be resolved through Congressional conferences. PRE-PROPOSALS: Contractors having the technical and management capabilities, facilities, and experience necessary are invited to submit a pre-proposal describing their technical approach (including supporting data), management concept, participants, relevant experience, and estimated cost and timing of the project. Teaming is encouraged, if appropriate (e.g., industry, universities, and Government laboratories). Submission of a pre-proposal before the proposal is strongly encouraged. DARPA will ask the bidders with the most promising pre-proposals to submit complete technical and cost proposals for full evaluation. The initial screening is intended to save bidders the time and expense of developing a detailed proposal that has little chance for award. DARPA intends to respond within approximately two to four weeks of receipt of pre-proposals with a recommendation to propose or not propose. It is impractical for DARPA to provide a debrief of the pre-proposal. Regardless of the recommendation, the decision to propose is the responsibility of the proposer. All full proposals will be fully reviewed regardless of the disposition of the pre-proposal. All pre-proposals are due no later then 4 PM EDT 25 October 1996. All full proposals are due by 02 December 1996. Offerors should submit one original and seven copies of the pre-proposal to: DARPA/ISO, Attn: BAA96-39/Lunceford, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. FORMAT AND INFORMATION: Pre-proposers must obtain the Proposer Information Package BAA96-39, ASTT Program, v.1.0 dated September 1996. This document provides details of the pre-proposal format. Unless the proposer objects in writing at the time of submitting, a pre-proposal and/or proposal, all pre-proposals and proposals will be opened and processed for administrative and logistic purposes by The Institute for Defense Analysis, Alexandria, Virginia. Relevant IDA personnel will have signed and will have on-file with DARPA appropriate non-disclosure and conflict of interest certifications before handling either pre-proposals or proposals. The Proposer Information Package BAA96-39 may be obtained by accessing the World Wide Web at URL address (http://www.darpa.mil/iso) and downloading the information for storage and/or printing. Those individuals without access to the Internet or who are unable to obtain the package in this manner should submit a request in writing via FAX (703-845-6810) or e-mail (jgardner@ida.org) to Mr. James Gardner, DARPA, 1801 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22311-1772. Within five business days of submission of either the pre-proposal or the full proposal, DARPA will assign a control number that should be used in all further correspondence. This CBD notice itself constitutes the Broad Agency Announcement as contemplated by FAR 6.102(d) (2). EVALUATION AND AWARD: Evaluation of pre-proposals and proposals will be accomplished through a peer review of each proposal using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: (1) Innovativeness of proposed technical approach (2) Soundness of the offeror's technical approach (3) Understanding of the Problem, including it's decomposition to identify high risk components and Proposal's focus on those components (4) Soundness of offeror's program plan as presented (6) Related experience (7) Offeror's management commitment and organization to support this effort. This information is further elaborated in the PIP. It is the policy of DARPA to treat all proposals as competitive information, and to disclose their contents only for the purpose of evaluation. The Government intends to use employees from two non-Government sources (Paradigm Technologies Inc. and FFRDCs) to assist as technical experts, and in administering the evaluation of the proposals (FFRDC only). Employees of these organizations engaged for these purposes are restricted by their contracts from disclosing the proposal information, and from usingproposal information for other than performing administrative and/or advisory tasks. Personnel are required to sign Organizational Conflict of Interest and Nondisclosure Agreements. By submission of your proposal, you agree that your proposal information may be disclosed to those employees of the organizations identified above for the limited purpose stated above. Any information submitted with your proposal that you do not consent to limited release to theses sources must be clearly marked and submitted segregated from other proposal material. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the pre-proposals for full proposal submission. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal, which will be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutes (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 ASTT research for exclusive competition among these entities. ADMINISTRATIVE: All administrative correspondence and questions on this solicitation must be directed to one of the administrative addresses below. Email or fax is preferred. DARPA intends to use electronic mail for most technical and administrative correspondence regarding this BAA. Technical and contractual questions should be directed to baa96-39@darpa.mil. These questions will be answered directly by Email. All questions must be submitted in writing. Administrative Addresses: The PIP and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) are available at http://www.darpa.mil/baa/. Written requests for these documents may be sent by facsimile to (703) 696-2208 addressed to ATTN: ASTT Program or by surface mail addressed to DARPA/ISO, ATTN: BAA-96-39 Information, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. These requests must include the name and phone number of a point of contact. SPECIAL NOTICE: Awards made under this 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 identify the prime contract number. Affirmations shall be attached to the Contract Pricing Proposal Cover Sheet (SF1411) and submitted with the cost proposal. 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. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. (0275)

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