DISA/DITCO/PAD, 5111 Leesburg Pike, Room 9178, Falls Church, VA 22041- 3205

D -- DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS NETWORK COMMERCIAL SATELLITE SURGE COMMUNICATIONS (DCSSC) POC Contact LtCol James Lloyd, Contract Specialist at (703) 681-1234 or Mr. Peter G. Smingler, Contracting Officer at (703) 681-1235 The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) prepared this Request For Information (RFI) to identify sources with innovative and cost effective solutions to satisfy a need for a worldwide surge capability to supplement DOD satellite communications, using current and future commercial satellite communications systems. The surge capability must provide assured access to worldwide commercial satellite capacity no later than 30 days after notification and must be able to provide a continuation of the activated service for limited time periods of generally less than one year. The DOD must be provided with the degree of flexibility necessary to ensure rapid responses to the needs of Warfighters engaged in dynamic and often unpredictable missions. The surge capability will directly support the Defense Information Systems Agencys (DISA s) strategy for extending the Defense Information System Network (DISN) and for supplementing intra-theater communications in a global, seamless, interoperable network supporting the Warfighters end-to-end command and control information transport requirements worldwide. To satisfy this need, innovative approaches are encouraged, which includes new contractual relationships such as industry/government partnerships or other new ways of doing business. Available COTS/NDI in the next several years and evolving commercial technology and services for the future should be leveraged. Estimated surge support requirements are expressed in a near-term (2000) and far-term (2005) time frame. A near-term IOC can start as early as 1998 using C and Ku-band satellite transponder services. Near-term services may migrate to any future commercial space segment that can provide the connectivity required. This RFI is an extension to a previous announcement and provides additional information about the surge volume and when it is needed. RFI responses will be used by the Government to determine the feasibility of pursuing new contractual arrangements, in order to assure access to lower cost services than is currently available through existing contractual mechanisms. Responses will also be used as a basis for determining whether or not a full and open competitive procurement is feasible. The Government may acquire this service on an other than full and open competitive procurement basis if only a single vendor can meet the requirements set forth herein. Surge communications, supported by commercial satellites, is for non-protected (e.g., no antijam (AJ) or low probability of intercept requirements (LPI), as supported by military satellites) requirements. For a worst case example for RFI purposes, surge capacity will be capable of supporting deployed forces in at least two Major Regional Conflicts (MRCs) in two theaters (e.g. Korea and Southwest Asia). At the other end of the conflict spectrum, only one active regional operation in the world may require surge support (e.g., Desert Storm or Bosnia). These operations may be located anywhere on the globe. Example areas of coverage are: ocean coverage in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans; area coverage in Scandinavia, Europe, North Africa, North America, Latin America, Japan/Korea, Middle East. Commercial satellite surge support for the Warfighters will extend the DISN, supplement intra-theater communications, and support airborne reconnaissance. These communications services must interface with the fixed portion of the DISN which is migrating to a fiber-based ATM network. The call up of services will be phased to support build up of forces. Initial support is required within 30 days is required, and arrangements to release capacity as it becomes unnecessary is desired. To allow tailoring the capacity to the deployed forces, the capacity should be available in units as small as 1.544 Mbps to whole transponders. The estimate of year 2005 required surge capacity is approximately 663 Mbps of total duplex traffic on a worldwide basis. This peak capacity will be required in a time-phased build up and draw down. The traffic will be between terminals ranging from large supporting sites to a variety of mobile platforms. The estimated mix of traffic is: fixed to mobile, 15 Mbps; fixed to transportable, 515 Mbps; transportable to mobile, 6 Mbps; and transportable to transportable, 127 Mbps. For the near term, transportable terminals range from 1.8 meters to 6 meters, supporting one to multiple 1544 or 2048 kbps trunks. Additional asymmetrical capacity is required to support airborne reconnaissance. Current plans require 50 Mbps from a mobile platform to a fixed base and 2 Mbps from base to mobile. There are two platforms per theater and 200 Mbps is required worldwide. In the year 2005, the number of mobile platforms can grow to 6 or 7 per theater. This would require 600 Mbps worldwide. New ways of doing business might include: arrangements for use of otherwise existing/planned systems; First Right of Refusal (FRR) or preemption rights contracts negotiated either during construction or after launch; partial Government ownership or anchor tenant arrangements with short-notice expansion rights; ownership/long-term lease with remarketing. Examples of potential pre-launch spacecraft modifications include: reduction of commercial capacity to carry military-unique packages, either X-band or custom C or Ku-band; reduced commercial capacity during call-up to support military requirements; additional reconfigurability such as additional beams or beam steering, additional cross-strapping, additional power/weight at launch, use of spare components such as receivers, power amplifiers and antennas; crosslinks; satellite traffic switching. When you respond to this RFI, please prepare a white paper and address the following questions in order as listed: (1) Estimate the nonrecurring investment costs and recurring costs which would be charged to the Government. (2) Describe the contractual features of your proposed concept, including effects on other customers. (3) Describe the technical changes to the satellite constellation(s) proposed, including how open systems solutions are used. The point of contact for technical issues concerning this announcement is Mr. Alexander Bartko, DISA/D21 at (703) 681-0213, Fax 681-0342. The point of contract for contractual matters is LtCol James Lloyd (703) 681-1234, Fax (703) 681-0342. The Contracting Officer is Mr. Peter G. Smingler, (703) 681- 1235, Fax (703) 681-0342. Responses to this RFI must be submitted no later than 7 January 1997 and must include one original, ten hard copies and one electronic copy in Word Perfect 6.1 to LtCol James Lloyd, DISA/PAD, Room 9168, 5111 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3205. Sources submitting a white paper who are interested in also making a technical presentation between 13 and 17 January 1997 may arrange to do so by contacting Mr Alexander C. Bartko at (703) 681-0213, Fax 681-0514. (0309)

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