COMMANDING OFFICER, ATTN NAVFAC CONTRACTS OFFICE CODE 27, NCBC 1000 23RD AVE, PORT HUENEME CA 93043-4301

A -- BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT.COMBAT SERVICE SUPPORT AERIAL DELIVERY TECHNOLOGY, RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR URBAN WARRIOR AND EXPEDITIONARY CARGO PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY SOL N47408-97-R-1803 DUE 120296 POC Contract Specialist, CAROLYN M. CONTRERAS, 805-982-5195 This announcement constitutes the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) under FAR 6.102 (d)(2) to solicit proposals for basic and applied research for new and innovative technology solutions to problems in the areas of COMBAT SERVICE SUPPORT AERIAL DELIVERY TECHNOLOGIES, RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) TECHNOLOGIES FOR URBAN WARRIOR, AND EXPEDITIONARY CARGO PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY (ECPT). Part of the proposed areas listed in this BAA are being considered 100% set-aside for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or Minority Institutions (MIs) as defined by the clause at 252.226-7000 of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. Interested HBCUs and MIs should provide the contracting office as early as possible, but not later than 15 days after this notice, evidence of their capability to perform the contract, and a positive statement of their eligibility as an HBCU or MIs. If adequate response is not received from HBCUs/MIs then institutions, non-profit organizations, and private industry proposal abstracts will be evaluated. The effective period of BAA is one year from the publication date. Awards may be made at any time throughout the effective period of the BAA. Initial submittals to this BAA will be in abstract form describing the merits and objectives of what the contractor is offering and shall be no longer than five pages. The abstract should concisely describe what the contractor has to offer the Navy with sections discussing but not limited to: (1) Overall scientific or technical merits of the proposal; (2) The potential contribution of the effort to the mission of the requiring activity; (3) The offeror's capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or unique combination of these which are integral factors for achieving the proposal objectives; (4) The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed Principal Investigator, team leader, or key personnel who are critical in achieving the proposal objectives; Proposals when requested, shall will be evaluated using the four criteria listed above a well as the following: (5) The reasonableness and realism of proposed costs and availability of funds. Based on the abstract submittal, vendors with technology or methodology found to have merits will be requested to submit a full technical and cost proposal for contract award consideration. If requested, the cost portion of the proposal should contain a cost estimate sufficiently detailed by element of cost for meaningful evaluation. Persons wishing to submit the requirements in response to this BAA should submit an abstract to: Commanding Officer, Naval Facilities Contracting Office, Code 2722-4, Bldg.41, Naval Construction Battalion Center, 1000 23rd Avenue, Port Hueneme, CA 93043-4301, Attn: Carol Contreras, (805)982-5195. Questions regarding these BAAs may be faxed to (805)982-9054. All abstracts regarding these three BAA topics should be submitted in duplicate to the address noted above. Abstracts are to be submitted no later than 2 Dec 96. However, abstracts submitted after the cut off date will be considered throughout the effective period of the BAA. Abstracts may not be submitted by fax. Any abstract sent by fax will be disregarded. Contact with the NFESC Engineers identified for each of these topics in this announcement is encouraged to determine the extent of interest in a specific research project. Abstracts/Proposals will not be evaluated against each other since each is a unique technology with no common work statement. Proposals identified for funding may result in a contract, however, there is no commitment by the Navy to make any awards, to make a specific number of awards or to be responsible for any monies expended by the proposer before award of a contract. Any award will be subject to the availability of funds. The target date for submission of Phase II proposals is August 1997. Based on the evaluations, Phase II awards will be considered. The following is a description of the research required for these three BAAs. TOPIC NO. BAA 97-001 - COMBAT SERVICE SUPPORT AERIAL DELIVERY TECHNOLOGIES. The objective is for the development of a prototype aerial delivery system to deliver critical re- supply/support to widely dispursed units throughout the battlefield in a covert manner. The intent is to create a Combat Service Support (CSS) system that is flexible, responsive and requires no footprints ashore. Emphasis has been placed on using unmanned vehicles for logistic support. Additionally, the logistics system should be deployable and returnable to a seabase platform. The following is a list of preliminary features/attributes which should be addressed in the proposals: (1) achievable flight speed; (2) payload capacity for the company level; (3)low signature; (4) point re-supply, multiple point re-supply, and programmed flight profiles; (5)preferably unmanned; (6) relatively low cost. The proposal should address subsystems such as propulsion, aerodynamics, avionics, and payload center of gravity issues. The contractor is encouraged to identify milestones such as wind tunnel testing, flight testing, and design. Multiple Phase I contracts may be awarded, at the $500K level. It is anticipated a single Phase II effort will be awarded at the $1M level. The NFESC technical points of contact are Mr. Jim Estes at (805)982-1309 and Mr. Buck Thomas at (805)982-5190. TOPIC NO. BAA 97-002 - RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) TECHNOLOGIES FOR URBAN WARRIOR. The objective of this BAA is integration and demonstration of current commerically available or emerging technologies that would allow significant advances in RFID technologies. Presently, the Marine Corps has no deployable automated systems for management of logistics assets in real time. Lack of state of the art automation results in a time consuming and labor intensive process to locate and identify commodities, as evidenced during Desert Storm and other recent exercises and operations. To facilitate this, RFID technology is needed to autonomously identify and locate specific items, allowing them to be expeditiously distributed to requesting units. The active omni-directional RFID tag systems will locate and discriminate among multiple vehicles, containers, crates, and pallets to which they are attached. The technical obstacles to overcome are; (1) the communication links between collection interrogator networks and an operations center; (2) range of these tags does not allow the captured data to be disseminated effectively over long ranges; (3) asset location via Global Position Systems; (4) communications link bewteen package tag and interrogator; and (5) command and control integration. The interrogation range of these tags does not allow the captured data to be disseminated effectively over long ranges. Emerging wireless modems technology will allow for data transfer in ranges of 5-15 miles while cellular modems incorporating satellite communications will increase this range by an order of magnitude. NFESC proposes to demonstrate and validate the concept of local-area, wide-area, and in-transit visibility utilizing various components previously developed in a United States Marine Corps 6.2 Exploratory Development program line, a long with existing and emerging RFID technologies. Multiple Phase I contracts may be awarded, at the $75,000- $125,000 level. The NFESC technical point of contact is Mr. Ramon Flores, (805)982-6500. TOPIC NO. BAA 97-003 EXPEDITIONARY CARGO PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY (ECPT) The objective is to develop, test and evaluate, cargo packaging materials and container configurations for the USMC. This effort will focus on improved Combat Services Support (CSS) logistics for (1) light comany size covert forces and (2) being modular by design to expand and support a Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) (MEF(F) deployment as part of Operational Maneuver from the Sea (OMFTS). In the OMFTS scenario, Marine Corps personnel and supplies will transition through a Seabase (ship) stationed up to 200 miles offshore to a primary objective area located up to 100 miles inland. Many traditional USMC amphibious support vessels will be replaced with airborne support methods during OMFTS. The selected technologies will be candidate for inclusion in advanced warfighting experiments initiating in late FY97, and continuing through experiments in FY98. Proposals may address troop-size packages (2000-3000 lbs) and also large load configurations. The main thrust of the ECPT task will involve investigations in the following technology areas: (1) application of new and existing materials for innovative packaging and containerization; (2) combat configured (multiproduct) packaging to facilitate efficient delivery of supplies; (3) one-way disposable packaging; (4) covert packaging to support insertion and ''cache'' supplies, (5) rapid blocking and bracing of packages with multi-product cargo for aerial insertion; and (6) light weight reusable container technology. Packaging technologies should address compatibilty and deployablity on a shipboard environment. The desired capability is for the configuration of multi-product packages, not rely on CONCUS support. Multiple Phase I contracts may be awarded, at the $20,000 -$60,000 level. The NFESC technical point of contact is Mr. Brian Cable at (805)982-1207 or Ms. Lynn Torres at (805)982-1388.(0305)

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