19 -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY SURFACE COMBATANT The U.S. Navy's Program Office for the 21st Century Surface Combatant (SC 21) is requesting interested parties to provide inputs concerning the content/requirements of a performance specification and development of a total ship Smart Product Model (SPM). The objective of this RFI is to identify leading-edge development concepts for a total ship SPM, which will also be used as the basis for developing the SC 21 SPM performance specification. This specification may subsequently be provided to industry as part of the anticipated SC 21 ship solicitation. For purposes of this announcement, a Product Model (PM) is defined as a combination of geometric and non-geometric engineering data which describes the physical and logical configuration of the ship, including elements of the ship's information architecture and combat systems. A Smart Product Model is defined as a Product Model that has component and system level physical and operational behaviors and environmental data incorporated. The Program Office envisions that the SPM will be used as a tool for the evaluation of ship concepts throughout the life cycle of the program including implementation of Cost As an Independent Variable (CAIV). The SPM must be able to evaluate proposed concepts in the areas of ship and system performance, warfare assessment, cost, manufacturing, test and evaluation, training, future upgrades, and operations. It will also be utilized to evaluate prototype and production equipment and computer programs as part of the T&E program throughout the ship's life cycle. The SPM will include system models for shore, space, air, undersea and other surface based segments. The SPM must have, at a minimum, the functional capabilities to: (a) build complex multi-domain data representations of complex ship and weapons systems; (b) build a common frame of reference to simulate the environment which is representative of the actual operational and physical environment that a system under investigation is expected to operate in; (c) create executable representations of the system under investigation with the fidelity required to conduct analysis in the areas of: *operations analysis *concept formulation*engineering discipline specific analysis*total ownership cost analysis*design and construction analysis*test planning and performance prediction analysis*maintenance and operations analysis*manufacturing and process flow analysis; (d) execute simulations and gather performance data for the purpose of analysis and visualization of results; (e) integrate legacy and new models and simulations; and (f) provide a support infrastructure which will insure flexibility, openness and minimal non-proprietary constraints to users. All parties interested in submitting recommendations to the Government on content/requirements of the performance specification and development of an SPM for SC 21 shall submit non-proprietary responses that address the following: 1) Suggested concepts and annoted outline for performance based specifications for developing an SPM for potential inclusion in the SC 21 request for proposal (20 page maximum). 2) Issues related to and/or recommended approach to providing adequate control of proprietary data and processes (optional 5 page maximum addendum). Technology issues to be addressed include distributed simulation capability, HLA compliance, incorporation of legacy models/simulations, hardware independency, proprietary versus COTS hardware/software, and any others deemed important by respondents. Non-technical aspects of SPM implementation to be addressed include policy or organizational issues/impediments and the applicability and availability of standards such as ISO/STEP standards for PM data. Responses for developing SPM performance specifications shall address design, manufacturing, operations support, future upgrades, life cycle use of the SPM, testing and training. Responses shall be no larger than one Mbyte file size (self-extracting compressed files are acceptable) in Microsoft Office format entitled "SC 21 RFI" with the submission date, points of contact with their telephone and FAX numbers, and mailing and e-mail addresses. Submittals shall be limited to one document of 20 pages with an optional 5 page addendum. This announcement is a request for information only and is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an announcement of solicitation. The Government will not pay for any materials provided in response to this synopsis. Responses will be accepted for a period of 60 days from the date of publication of this notice. All responses and questions are to be submitted to Janet Jaensch, PMS 400RV, via email at the following address: jaensch_janet@hq.navsea.navy.mil.

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