US Army, CECOM Acquisition Center, Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey 07703-5008

99 -- SINCGARS SIP/ASIP ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT SERVICES DUE 082197 POC Point of Contact Mr. James Goon, (732)427-3054 E-MAIL: Engineering Development Support services, goon@doim6.monmouth.army.mil. This is a market survey conducted by the Department of the Army(DA) to determine the existence of additional sources for the follow-on procurement of engineering development support services for the SINCGARS System Improvement Program(SIP) and the Advanced SIP radio system. These services are currently provided to the Government by ITT-Aerospace/Communications Division, Fort Wayne, IN; under contract DAAB07-88-C-T041.The continued engineering development support is required for both production and developmental efforts involving the SINCGARS Ground ASIP radio to include the Internet Controller(INC) card. These efforts are in support of equipment developed and produced under contracts DAAB07-88-C-T041, DAAB07-96-C-C501, DAAB07-97-C-C600. Requirements for this contract requires that the perspective contractor possess an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the design and capabilities of the SINCGARS ASIP radio system and the SINCGARS Internet Controller(INC). Specific tasking to be performed includes,as a minimum, improvements to the SINCGARS SIP radio system in the following areas;a. Continued modifications to the SINCGARS INC software under the Enhanced SINCGARS Packet Data (ESPD) effort to allow packets to be routed more efficiently throughout the Tactical Internet. The INC software will be upgraded to support the internet Group Management Protocol along with support of Internet Protocol Multicast. A Dead Gateway Protocol will be developed and tested to efficiently identify Command and Control gateways between SINCGARS and EPLRS nets. Additionally, the INC software to capitalize on features of the EPLRS VECP radio program, such as the coordination channel and virtual call capabilities. Delivery of IP datagrams over SINCGARS net will be improved by modifying the MIL-STD-188-220 link layer software and by developing a Situation Awareness Agent to efficiently distribute situation awareness data on SINCGARS links. The Internet Controller hardware will be upgraded to improve processing thoughout, provide additional memory resources, as well as, provide additional interfaces. b. Provide a SINCGARS system solution to the performance degradation experienced during the Task Force XXI exercise at Fort Irwin. The contractor will analyze and develop software solutions to the following performance degradation factors: Network fragmentation, system robustness in extreme hostile RF environments, packet lengths and voice range extension in voice/data packet networks. These development efforts are geared primarily towards the SIP radio, RT-1523C, but close coordination with the Internet Controller will be required. The system solution will require system analysis, modeling, prototype, laboratory validation and field validation testing. c. Modifications to the SINCGARS ASIP radio to provide enhancements in the data throughput and net utilization. This development effort will require the perspective contractor to modify the ASIP software/hardware to implement a design that will allow for high capacity data/simultaneous independent voice and data to be transmitted on the same channel. This modification shall also allow for equal channel access for voice and data users to reduce the problems associated with voice data contentions. Accordingly, it is extremely important to this development contract that the perspective contractor possess specific knowledge of the Army's Tactical Internet(TI) architecture and how it relates to the SINCGARS INC and its emerging software changes to accommodate TI maturation. The Government presently does not have configuration control of any drawings for the ASIP radio nor sufficient software documentation to support development of a technical data package. There is presently only one source for development of the ASIP ground radio, and the modifications of the SINCGARS software resident in the INC. (0216)

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