Defense Special Weapons Agency, 6801 Telegraph Rd., Alexandria, VA 22310-3398

A -- DEFENSE SPECIAL WEAPONS AGENCY (DSWA) BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT POC Thomas Cox, Negotiator, (703) 325-1196, Scott G. Morton, Contracting Officer, (703) 325-1200. The Defense special Weapons Agency (DSWA) is soliciting proposals for its 1997 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), DSWA001-BAA01-97. (Note that DSWA will issue only one BAA this fiscal year.) Proposed research must investigate innovative approaches and techniques that lead to advances in the state of the art. PROPOSALS: Two forms of proposal will be accepted: (1) Quick-Looks and (2) Formal Proposals. Quick-Looks are limited to 5 pages and are intended to minimize unnecessary effort in proposal preparation on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest under the BAA. DSWA intends to respond to Quick-Looks within 30 days of receipt. Formal Proposals provide the full detail required to make final award decisions. A Quick-Look is encouraged prior to submission of any Formal Proposal (in any topic area) BUT IS NOT REQUIRED. Favorable review of the Quick-Look will in no way guarantee an award if a Formal Proposal is submitted. ALL PROPOSALS must address a specific technical topic and Subtopic area. If a proposal is to be considered under more than one topic area, a complete set of proposals must be submitted for each topic area. POINT OF CONTACT AND OBTAINING INFORMATION: Any submissions under this BAA, including ALL proposals, must be directed to Defense Special Weapons Agency, ATTN: Thomas L. Cox/AMB, 6801 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22310-3398. Questions may be directed to Mr. Cox at (703) 325-1196 or facsimile (703) 325-9295. FAR 3.104-2 implements Section 27 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 423)(OFPP Act) as amended by Section 814 of Public Law 101-89 which became effective 1 DEC 1990. Commonly referred to as ''Procurement Integrity,'' this act prohibits certain activities by competing contractors and government procurement officials during the conduct of a Federal Agency Procurement. In accordance with FAR 3.104-4(c)(3), this procurement shall be deemed to have begun upon the date of this announcement and shall end upon the award of a contract incident to each proposal or the written rejection of each specific proposal. SUBMITTING QUICK-LOOKS: Quick-Looks must be submitted in 3 copies and received by 1200 hours at DSWA on 31 March 1997. Classified submissions will NOT be accepted. Quick-Looks are limited to an absolute maximum of 5 pages of technical discussion. An additional one page is permitted for use as the cover page (or may be omitted if transmittal letter is used) but must contain only information requested in Section A below (no technical discussion). Attachments are NOT permitted. Quick-Looks must contain the following elements IN THE ORDER GIVEN: A) cover page including the following: BAA number, topic area (by letter), Subtopic area, proposal title, and technical and administrative points of contact along with complete address, telephone and facsimile numbers (if available), B) description of the technical approach and objectives to be achieved, C) description of the unique and innovative characteristics of the approach proposed including comparison with on-going research, if any, D) qualifications of key personnel to be committed to the project, E) rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate of the total costs. SUBMITTING FORMAL PROPOSALS: Formal Proposals must be submitted in 5 copies and received by 1330 hours DSWA local time on 31 May 1997. Classified submissions WILL be accepted. Proposals are not limited in number of pages but extraneous, repetitious or wordy submissions may result in lower ratings. Formal Proposals must include the information provided in the Quick-Looks, though generally in greater detail, plus the following ADDITIONAL information in the identified sections: A) date of submission of Quick-Look (if one was submitted), E) cost breakdown, including SF1411 and DD1861 (if applicable), providing all pricing rates used and equipment and materials listings (if applicable). Also include the following: F) clear Statement of Work (SOW) citing specific tasks and contractor requirements. Section G) may be included to provide other information including: proprietary claims, use of government facilities, and bibliography. Use of separate volumes for technical and cost data is acceptable but not required. Cost proposals should utilize separately-priced options whenever reasonable. Subcontractor proposals (if applicable), including pricing rate detail, should be provided concurrent with the prime contractor's submission. EVALUATION CRITERIA: Evaluations are conducted by DSWA technical personnel expert in each topic area under which each proposal is submitted. Each Quick-Look will be reviewed to determine if it 1) appears to be unique and innovative, 2) falls within the scope of the BAA, 3) is of sufficient interest to DSWA to warrant a Formal Proposal, and 4) has a realistic chance of being funded given budget constraints. Formal Proposals will be selected for award by a formal technical/business decision process and each will be evaluated on its own merit without regard to other proposals submitted under this announcement. Evaluation of proposals will be conducted in accordance with the following criteria, listed in descending order of importance: 1) degree of innovation and creativity, 2) applicability to current and future problems in the proposed technical area, 3) qualifications of the principal investigator and key staff personnel, 4) understanding of the problem, and 5) organization and clarity of the proposal. The merit of the technical proposal will also be evaluated in relation to the value and realism of the costs proposed and availability of funds. CONTRACT AWARDS: DSWA anticipates making the first contract award in the Second quarter 1997, though no minimum or maximum number of awards can be guaranteed. Contracts to be awarded will generally be cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) completion type contracts. Contracts less than $100,000 may be awarded firm-fixed-price (FFP) based on the degree of technical risk. DSWA anticipates the average proposal to be priced $100,000 to $300,000 and to be performed in 6 to 18 months. Note that awards are to achieve the specific technical objectives, not to provide sustaining research funds for a funding period, the period proposed should be driven by how long is expected to achieve the technical objective. NO LIMITS or other anticipated averages have been developed, especially with regard to: level of funding by year, directorate or topic area, level of effort, number of awards, awards by business type, or number of proposals submitted by a given firm (though ''shots in the dark'' are NOT encouraged). Bidders may propose any combination of teaming or subcontracting arrangements. Proposals requiring substantial performance by a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) CANNOT be considered under the BAA. Contractors may include DSWA-furnished CRAY computer usage time in proposals and may utilize Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and DoD Nuclear Information Analysis Center (DASIAC) resources in proposal preparation. This CBD notice itself constitutes the Broad Agency Announcement as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2). No preproposal conference is to be held. No additional information, Request for Proposal (RFP) or other solicitation is available. Information that becomes available and is of general interest to all potential bidders will be released in future CBD issues. DSWA reserves the right to select for award all, some or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. Continued in PART II. PART II OF II. AREA A - Warfighter Support - Information Warfare Superiority and Counterforce - The Defense Special Weapons Agency requests analytical and technical support on offensive application of strategic and operational information warfare in the weapons of mass destruction arena. This program will focus on developing, applying, and maintaining information superiority during hostilities and denying an adversary from doing the same. AREA B - Nuclear Operations - Weapon System Safety Assessments - DSWA seeks new and innovative concepts to improve on probabilistic risk assessment techniques, models, and methodologies. Abnormal environments that may be encountered by weapon systems include mechanical, thermal, and electrical insults, and combinations of these environments. Concepts should make use of new and emerging technologies. AREA C - Physical Security Equipment - Defense Special Weapons Agency is looking for new and innovative solutions to physical security needs in the areas of delay or denial devices, advanced sensors, mobile platforms (robotics), advanced storage or transport concepts, or waterside security techniques. Funding and project approval will be provided by the DoD Physical Security Equipment Action Group (PSEAG). Any proposal received will be coordinated with the appropriate Services for sponsorship and agreement to transition the program into the Services Advanced Engineering Development Program. AREA D - Simulation Testing - Transportable X-ray Pulser - Conduct feasibility study for a small transportable hi-fidelity x-ray pulser suitable for operability/performance evaluations at system developers' manufacturing plants. The objective is to identify potential industrial demand for and the technical approach for developing a high fidelity transportable x-ray pulsar as well as any barriers to implementation by users. AREA E - System Testing -Materials and Optics - Data is available from underground nuclear weapons effects tests and above ground radiation test facilities on the performance of optical materials (baffles, windows, lens, filters, and mirrors) as a function of different radiation exposure conditions. Correlations between data from different tests have been extremely limited. New correlation methods that are based on a better understanding of material properties to include manufacturing produced conditions (such as stress or strain) are required. Identification of the important material properties, as well as the appropriate measurement techniques, is also necessary. The ultimate goal is to develop test validation methodologies that will permit extrapolation of data taken at the component level to the system level leading to system performance data. AREA F - Pulsed Power Technology - Development of Compact Pulsed Power Technology - DSWA is seeking to sponsor development of pulsed power components (indicators, diodes, switches, etc.) required to improve on today's state of the art compact pulse forming network (PFN). There is a class of government and commercial applications for electrical pulsed power which has not been thoroughly explored because they require an order of magnitude higher energy density PFN than is available today. AREA G - Survivability Assessment - System Operability - Present methods to examine end-to-end connectivity of C3I systems are complex and are not responsive in real time. They currently require extensive manpower to analyze large quantities of data and several complicated and diverse computer codes to determine system performance. Methods are required to improve the capability of performing real time end-to-end system operability assessments against a nuclear scenario. In addition, cost effective and efficient methods are required to catalog and archive the large quantity of data developed and maintained for an assessment. AREA H - Radiation Hardened Microelectronics - Radiation Hardened/Tolerant Microelectronics and Photonics - Develop and demonstrate radiation hardened/tolerant microelectronics, photonics and electronic packaging technology including hardness assurance, advanced diagnostics, silicon insulating materials, compound materials and quantum mechanics. AREA J - EMP/HPM Hardening/Survivability - Develop innovative EMP/HPM protection and test technologies and system effects characterization tools. Identify materials, design and test methodologies, and effects assessment tools to integrate survivable military and COTS equipment into systems. Concepts should be innovative and affordable improvements on the state-of-the-art, e.g., intrinsic EM shielding using composite materials, conformable and compact terminal protection devices, and combined effects assessment tools for military systems/networks operating in hostile environments. Technologies providing unified protection and test methods that are at least 30% cheaper than currently achievable are desirable. AREA K System Testing - Combined Effects Testing - Study to identify innovative and cost effective solutions in the ability of system designers to conduct system hardness validation against combined nuclear environments through analysis and aboveground test simulators. Emphasis is placed on determining whether combined nuclear environments impact system design and test methodologies beyond single environment restrictions. The study should address Non Developmental Items/Commercial Off-The-Shelf (NDI/COTS), as well as developmental item testing in the area of combined nuclear environments. AREA L System Tesing - Strategic Asset Qualification - Review of our current simulation and analysis capability to qualify strategic assets such as re-entry vehicles (RV's), Post Boost Vehicles (PBV's), and penetration aids (pen-aids) to their radiation hardening criteria without using Underground Nuclear Tests. Identify analysis and simulation deficiencies related to hardening and qualification. Identify innovative and cost effective solutions to correct the deficiencies. AREA M - Information Systems - Innovative Information Technologies - To provide Information Systems support to future R D T & E for DSWA, research and applications are needed in the following areas: preservation, archival, and retrieval, automated conversion of physical information products into high-quality electronic format, knowledge preservation and presentation, audio video, and digital multi-media preservation, integration of analytical tools, computer-supported collaborative workgroup environments, and organization-wide data warehouse capabilities. AREA N - GRANT PROPOSALS ONLY. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS RESEARCHIn accordance with DoD Appropriations Act FY 96 for continued research into the impact of environmental pollutants on human and ecological systems and in compliance with U.S.C. 2361, the Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) is soliciting proposals from major research universities working in close collaboration with a historically black college or university to conduct environmental pollutants research specializing in topics of concern to the Department of Defense (DoD). This effort, initiated in FY89, has been and is currently performed under a grant to Tulane University working in collaboration with Xavier University. The program shall consist of a DoD focused interdisciplinary effort covering such diverse disciplines as toxicology, medicine, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, cell and molecular biology, chemistry, ecology, and information sciences. The DoD is concerned about environmental pollutants that have been or may be produced as the result of defense related operations. These pollutants may be produced during the research, development, testing, production, operation, and maintenance of military equipment and weapon systems. The effects of these pollutants on DoD personnel, civilian population, the environment, and the wildlife are of concern. Examples of specific topics that are of concern include: 1) Development of methods to clean up radiation or hazardous waste contaminated sites, 2) Improvements in the methods and instruments used for field identification, quantification, and evaluation of contamination, 3) Disposal of the residues resulting from the demilitarization of chemical weapons, 4) Methods and sensitive instruments for rapid field identification, quantification, and evaluation of biological and chemical agents within a dust cloud or dispersed in the air, 5) Predicting and preventing environmental damage caused by the hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants generated and disposed of by DoD facilities which could endanger the public health, welfare, or the environment, 6) Developing methods to reduce the production and use of the hazardous materials disposed of by DoD facilities, 7) Investigation into the effects of electromagnetic energy on humans, 8) Determining which pollutants pose the most serious health risks, 9) Investigations into the injury mechanisms of pollutants, 10) Investigations into the effects of long-term, low-level exposure to radiation and pollutants of interest to DoD, 11) Methods for counteracting the effects of radiation and hazardous materials on human performance, and 12) Methods for protecting humans from the harmful effects of radiation, and chemical and biological agents. It is anticipated that a Grant will be used in the award of this effort. The offeror shall propose specific research projects intended to be pursued to include resumes of the principle investigators. It is envisioned that all the research projects to be conducted under this grant will be presented during the course of the grant by the Universities and approved by DSWA. This grant is solely for the purpose of research. Therefore, the grant recipient is expected to supply the necessary infrastructure to support the depth and breadth of the proposed interdisciplinary research program. Information on DSWA solicitations, already released, can be obtained by calling the DSWA Hotline at (703) 325-1173. As of 31 May 96, Acquisition Management has added ''Procurement Opportunities'' to the DSWA Home Page avialable on the World Wide Web. Information will include the synopsis and more. Please check us out at www.dswa.mil. Reference Synopsis No. 97-09 (0319)

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