NATIONAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY, PCOE/MS D-5, 4600 SANGAMORE ROAD, BETHESDA, MD 20816-5003

T -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION, GENERATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION TERRAIN INFORMATION DUE 120197 POC Kenneth D. Popkin, Contracting Officer THE PURPOSE of this Request for Information (RFI) is to conduct market research to determine the ability of industry to provide the most timely, accurate, efficient and cost effective processes to collect, generate, store and disseminate high resolution terrain information (HRTI) in support of geospatial and intelligence needs for NIMA and the US Department of Defense (DoD). NIMA is also interested in learning about vendor capabilities to generate very high resolution and highly accurate ground truth data sets as test sites for evaluating HRTI products. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: High Resolution Terrain Information (HRTI) is defined as the combined feature and terrain elevation information corresponding to a given set of geographic coordinates at a specified grid resolution. Currently, DoD user requirements only address the terrain elevation component of HRTI in detail; these have been captured in NIMA's "HRTI Elevation Requirements Document". The DoD community still must define the detailed requirements ofthe HRTI feature component. HRTI has numerous DoD applications and chief among them are mission planning activities, rapid battlefield visualization, image perspective views and weapons systems targeting. The HRTI terrain elevation requirements for accuracy and timeliness are very stressing for current systems designed collect and process source imagery and data needed to generate HRTI. Consequently, NIMA is looking for innovative ideas on technologies supporting the collection of source data and the generation of HRTI which satisfy the terrain elevation requirements. Also, NIMA requires a variety of very high resolution ground truth data sets to validate the accuracy of HRTI collection and production systems. Interested parties that have made or are making substantial investments in imagery acquisition and/or related value-added imagery production activities are encouraged to submit information in the form of high level innovative CONCEPT PAPERS that will address and describe ideas and proposals concerning solutions to be used by NIMA and other DoD components to meet DoD HRTI needs. NIMA is also interested in plausible options that address related issues not fully discussed in NIMA's documentation (e.g., acquisition and generation of high resolution feature information). Additionally, NIMA encourages parties that have existing capabilities or systems for HRTI collection and/or production to consider submitting prototype products for evaluation by NIMA. Each concept paper should contain the following four (4) sections: 1) scope, 2) approach, 3) cost estimate, and 4) company and key personnel credentials. The scope section should clearly identify which portion(s) of the HRTI collection, generation, dissemination, archival or validation process(es) are being addressed. Submitters may respond to all or any one of these areas of interest. In addition, the scope section should state any assumptions made in responding to this RFI. The section on approach should comprise the bulk of the proposal and should provide a description of how the respondent proposes to address the HRTI requirements. Included in the approach should be a discussion of timeliness and an assessment of the maturity of the process or technique (i.e., currently available, available within two years, needs significant R&D investment for long term future availability, etc.). Since one of the top priority requirements for HRTI is accuracy, those papers addressing HRTI collection, generation or production processes should state the achievable accuracies of the approach and give the source and magnitude of potential errors. Respondents may give a rough order of magnitude cost estimate in the third section, although this is not a mandatory section. The final section should provide the organization's background and record of demonstrated capabilities, which would substantiate the success of the proposed concept(s). Only written responses to this RFI will be accepted. Please limit each response to no more than twenty-five (25) pages. It is requested that five (5) copies of your response be provided. No verbal or faxed responses will be accepted. Responses are due no later than 2 P.M. EST,01 December 1997. NIMA plans to share responses with members of the Army Topographic Engineering Center, the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office and the National Reconnaissance Office for evaluation purposes. Responses will be evaluated by the following four (4) criteria: 1) understanding of the problem, 2) thoroughness in addressing area(s) of interest, 3) scientific/technical merit, and 4) ability to meet HRTI requirements. HRTI RFI SUPPORT DOCUMENTS: NIMA has published a document called the "HRTI Elevation Requirements Document" and is related to this RFI. Respondents can obtain this document from NIMA through the NIMA World Wide Web site at www.nima.mil/poc/contracts/contracts.html, or by contacting Mr. Ken Popkin (301-227-1904). Based upon an examination of the RFI responses, it is anticipated that NIMA will develop a statement of work and issue a request for proposals. However, the Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise reimburse for the information solicited. (0304)

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