Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL -- Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514

A -- FOLIAGE PENETRATION (FOPEN) RADAR AND ELECTRONIC SUPPORT MEASURES (ESM) SENSOR INTEGRATION FOR TARGET ENGAGEMENT (FORESITE) SOL Reference-Number-BAA-99-08-IFKPA POC Joetta Bernhard, Contracting Officer, Phone (315) 330-2308, Fax (315) 330-7790, Email bernhard@rl.af.mil WEB: Visit this URL for the latest information about this, http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS?ACode=P&;ProjID=Reference-Num ber-BAA-99-08-IFKPA&LocID=1142. E-MAIL: Joetta Bernhard, bernhard@rl.af.mil. CONTACT: AFRL Program Manager, Paul Gilgallon, email, gilgallonp@rl.af.mil; 315-330-4409; Contracting Officer, Joetta A. Bernhard, 315-330-2308, email, bernhard@rl.af.mil. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate (AFRL/SN) in conjunction with the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) and the Army, is soliciting white papers for innovative approaches in developing an integrated Foliage Penetration (FOPEN) radar system testbed concept. This concept will be developed into a data collection system that will integrate active monostatic ground moving target indication (GMTI) radar, passive bistatic radar, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electronic support measures (ESM) subsystems. The ultimate goal of the FORESITE system is to obtain test data, compare alternative system configurations and conduct real time SAR cueing experiments. The primary objective of FORESITE is to perform surveillance, target recognition and tracking over a large area and to provide cues to the SAR radar. To make FORESITE more affordable and reduce its size for deployment on a platform such as a HAE UAV, innovative solutions are required that will maximize the utilization of common subsystem elements. An example of this would be the sharing of the waveform generator, transmitter, transmit antenna, receivers and signal processor as appropriate. The system to be developed should allow the Government to test a wide variety of system parameters (e.g. frequency, polarization, bandwidth, antenna length, space-time adaptive processing (STAP) configuration, target revisit rate and ESM coverage as a minimum), yet not overly stress the risks and costs involved in its design. Secondary FORESITE objectives include the determination of the frequency and bandwidth best suited for GMTI. Determining the impact of potential interference caused by a wide band waveform disrupting communications equipment and navigational aids, as well as impacting the own-ship ESM performance and that of systems such as Guardrail and Rivet Joint, is alsoof interest. Thus, although low frequencies provide better foliage penetration and wide bandwidths enhance target recognition, the ability to use these might be severely limited. Also of interest is subsystem interoperability. The operation of the ESM and GMTI subsystems can be sequential, interleaved or simultaneous, depending upon the operational environment. The most efficacious scheduling of these subsystems is of interest to the Government. Also, simultaneous VHF SAR and ESM or VHF SAR and MTI operation is of interest. Anticipated deliverables for this BAA are: a system design, a concept of operations, monthly status reports, oral presentations, and a final report. It is envisioned that industry teams will be formed to address the FORESITE design. It is the desire of the Government that small businesses and/or Universities perform at least fifteen (15) percent of the study. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ENTIRE SOLICITATION. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. Offerors are required to submit five (5) copies of a ten (10) page or less white paper with a cover letter indicating whether the offeror is a large, small, women-owned small, or small disadvantaged business, or Historically Black College, University, or Minority Institution. The white paper will be formatted as follows: Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Cost of Task, Name of Company; Section B: Task Objective; and Section C: Technical Summary. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: Paul Gilgallon, Reference BAA 99-08-IFKPA, AFRL/SNRD, 26 Electronic Parkway; Rome NY 13441-4514. Small business offerors must also send one (1) copy of the cover letter only, by First Class mail (DO NOT SEND CLASSIFIED), to ATTN: Janis Norelli, Director of Small Business, AFRL/IFB; 26 Electronic Parkway; Rome NY 13441-4514. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Complete instructions for proposal preparation will be forwarded with the invitation for proposal submission. Evaluation of proposals will be performed using the following criteria: a) The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal, b) The innovativeness of the proposed approach and/or techniques, and c) The reasonableness and realism of proposed costs and fees. In addition, the Government will consider other factors, such as past and present performance on recent Government contracts and the capacity and capability to perform the requirements of the effort. The criteria used to evaluate proposals will also be used to determine whether white papers submitted are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government. No further evaluation criteria will be used in selecting the proposals. Offerors must mark their proposals with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a)." Individual proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or unacceptability without regard to other proposals submitted under this BAA. Options are discouraged and unpriced options will not be considered for award. Principle funding of this BAA and anticipated awards will start approximately FY00. Individual awards will not normally exceed 12 months in duration, with dollar amounts normally ranging from $1.2M to $1.8M. Total funding for this BAA is $3.0M. Awards of efforts as a result of this BAA will be in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or other transactions depending upon the nature of the work proposed. Foreign-owned offerors are advised that they be excluded from participating at the prime contract level. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors should immediately contact the contracting focal point, Joetta A. Bernhard, for information if they contemplate responding. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms on the Certified Contract Access List (CCAL) will be allowed access to such data. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this announcement is not an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost in FAR 31.205-18. Depending on the work to be performed, the offeror may require a SECRET facility clearance and safeguarding capability; therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET information at a time of award. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors for this announcement. Routine questions are not considered to be "significant concerns" and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer, Joetta A. Bernhard, (315) 330-2308. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the Contracting Officer or Program Manager, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Vincent Palmiero, Deputy Chief, AFRL/IFK at (315) 330-7746. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of the proposals or in the source selection process. The Ombudsman should only be contracted with issues or problems that have been previously brought to the attention of the contracting officer and could not be satisfactorily resolved at that level. An information briefing is not planned. To receive a copy of the AFRL/IFK "BAA & PRDA: A Guide for Industry," Sep 1996 (Rev), write ATTN: Lucille Argenzia, AFRL/IFK, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY 13441-4514, or fax her at FAX 315-330-4728, or the guide may be accessed at: http://www.if.afrl.af.mil/div/IFK/bp-guide.html. This BAA is open and effective until 30 Sep 00. All responsible firms may submit a white paper, which shall be considered. Respondents are asked to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) number with their submission and reference BAA 99-08-IFKPA. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Posted 08/19/99 (D-SN369821). (0231)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0011 19990823\A-0011.SOL)