A -- EFFECTS RESEARCH MODELING AND ASSESSMENTS (ERMA) EFFECTS RESEARCH MODELING and ASSESSMENTS (ERMA), PRDA NO. 99-DE05. POCs: Contracting issues: Ms Dorothy Black, Buyer, Det 8 AFRL/PKDP, 2251 Maxwell Avenue SE, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5773, AC 505/846-2037, telefax AC 505/846-1546, Email address: blackd@plk.af.mil. Technical issues: Dr Lawrence Grimes, AFRL/DEPE, 3550 Aberdeen Avenue SE, Bldg 909, Room 205, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776, AC 505/846-0956, fax 505/846-0566, Email address: grimesl@plk.af.mil. Information concerning this procurement shall be available on the Electronic Posting System (EPS) http://www.eps.gov. The AFRL PRDA/BAA Guide, dated 29 Jun 98, is available at http://aftec.afrl.af.mil/policy-guides.htm. The total program budget for this effort is approximately $24.85M over a five (5) year period. A-INTRODUCTION: PRDA 99-DE05. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Directed Energy Directorate (DE), Kirtland AFB, NM is seeking innovative techniques and approaches to AFRL research requirements for the Effects Research, Modeling and Assessments (ERMA) effort. The ERMA effort is seeking approaches to Ground Based Laser Technology Program, Airborne Laser Lethality, Space-based Laser Lethality and Special Projects. These four technology or task areas are detailed in the Statement of objectives (SOO). The goal of this effort is to develop innovative approaches for determining the susceptibility/ vulnerability of missile systems, tactical targets and other target assets to laser environments. We are seeking innovative approaches in the areas of experimental planning & execution, pre-and post-experiment analysis, and model validation/ verification. The population and maintenance of a unique database management system and target folders for the compilation/cataloging of laser effects on systems, subsystems and components are desired. The metric for a successful white paper shall be based upon innovative improvements proposed over current techniques and approaches that results in vulnerability criteria with the expenditure of fewer resources. The successful offeror shall demonstrate extensive knowledge on the physics of laser interactions and the formulation of vulnerability criteria. The successful offeror shall propose innovative methods, which improve the understanding of the phenomenology of laser interaction research and novel methods, which may improve current analytical approaches and experimental techniques. Also desired are innovative methods, which lead to scientific advancement and breakthroughs in understanding of laser effects and physics principles of ultra-short pulse effects. AFRL contemplates award of an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) cost plus fixed fee (CPFF) contract under this announcement, but reserves the right to award other types of contracts or non-FAR instruments as appropriate. Offerors are advised to note the ceiling amounts for each topic area. Should an offeror receive an award for some but not all areas, the award ceiling for their Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract shall be the sum of the values of the ceilings for those areas awarded, with a maximum ceiling of $24.85M. Offerors may note that the sum of all ceilings in the (SOO) actually estimated to equals $30M referenced in the (SOO). This is the result of a slight overestimation for the ceiling in each area, as the distribution of business under resulting IDIQ contracts cannot be known for certain at this time. Under no circumstances shall any IDIQ ceiling awarded from this action exceed $24.85M. The government reserves the right to make one, several, or no awards and to incorporate any one or more parts, or all, of the effort in an individual contract. Therefore, all interested firms, especially small businesses, are encouraged to participate in this action, even if not capable or satisfying all of the government's mission needs -- offer on that part or parts of the work which you can do well. A statement of objective (SOO), which outlines four distinct task areas, and examples of related work are provided on the website (http://www.eps.gov). While no pre-proposal conference is contemplated for this effort, prospective offerors wishing to visit AFRL facilities listed in the supplemental information package posted on the EPS may do so by contacting the technical POC cited above and arranging a visit. All visits shall be escorted. Only questions directly related to the facilities shall be answered. All other questions should be submitted in writing or by facsimile transmission to the Contracting Officer, Steven S. Young, Det 8 AFRL/PKDP, 2251 Maxwell Avenue SE, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5773, AC 505/846-4624, telefax AC 505/846-1546, Email address: youngs@plk.af.mil. Answers shall be posted on the website as general information to all prospective offerors. B-PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS: Offers shall submit a white paper focusing on innovative approaches (i.e., advancing the state of the art, increasing knowledge and understanding new and creative solutions to problems), techniques and unique capabilities which can be applied to work described herein and in the SOO presented on the EPS website. Offerors have latitude as to what information is presented in their paper. Offerors are advised to focus their limited discussion on strengths and new ideas rather than present a documented record of past accomplishments. Possible presentation approaches include a discussion of specific elements in the SOO, which offerors present innovative ideas for accomplishing the work, or discussion of innovative solutions to a hypothetical task (of their own creation). Any method is acceptable as long as offerors focus on their innovative solutions to problems in the mission requirements. The white papers (no more than 10 pages per technology or task area) are due 30 days from when this announcement is published. Resumes of the principal investigator and other significant personnel proposed to perform this effort may be included and shall not be counted against the 10-pages limit per technology or task area. Facilities and equipment to be used may also be identified without regard to the 10-pages limit per technology or task area, for a maximum of 40 pages if offering on all four areas: Ground Based Laser Technology Program, Airborne Laser Lethality, Space-based Laser Lethality and Special Projects. Margins and Page Count: Use at least 1" margins on top and bottom and 34" side margins. The binding (if any) shall not impair legibility. Both sides of paper may be used. Each printed side of an 8 12 " x 11" sheet counts as a page. Foldouts printed on one side only shall be counted as 2 pages. Blank pages, title pages, table of contents, lists of figures, lists of tables, tabs, cover sheets, or blank dividers are not included in the page count. The Government shall only read and evaluate white papers up to the page limit. Pages over the page limit shall be removed prior to evaluation. Use elite type size or equivalent (not smaller than 10-point vertical character height and not more than 12 characters per inch). A ten-point proportional serif font is acceptable, inwhich case characters per inch measurement does not apply. Typesetting or other techniques to reduce character size or spacing are not permitted. Cost proposals should NOT be submitted at the time of white paper submission. They will be solicited, as appropriate, after evaluation of white papers described below. White papers received after the initial due date may be evaluated dependent upon the availability of funds. New white paper submissions shall be accepted semi-annually from the date of this announcement. While the bulk of the awards are anticipated to be procured during the initial cut, this announcement will remain open for three (3) years after date of publication, in order to take advantage of innovative proposals that are of exceptional quality and/or present significant advances not previously identified, dependent on the availability of funding. Offerors are advised that only one white paper shall be accepted per offeror (this does not preclude offers from different divisions of the same company or corporation) per task area, semi-annually. The cutoff date for the semi-annually submission is the last date in January and July. Submit white papers (5 copies) in writing to Det 8 AFRL/PKDP, 2251 Maxwell Avenue SE, Bldg 499, Room 208, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5773, Attn:Dorothy Black Re: PRDA 99-DE05. Official proposals submitted by fax or Email will not be considered for award. An email version sent as a precursor to a hardcopy official proposal, which shall arrive by mail, is acceptable. In order to ensure proposals are afforded proper handling, offerors must mark them with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a). 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. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. Proposals shall be valid for period of not less than 120 days. All submissions must reference the above PRDA number and include a unique proposal identification number. C-BASIS FOR AWARD: This is a two-step process. Step 1: White papers shall be evaluated by a peer or scientific review process based upon innovative ideas, new technologies, and unique capabilities. Government evaluators may contact offerors prior to completion of initial evaluation of white papers as deemed necessary to gain additional information to complete evaluations. Such dialogue shall most likely be conducted telephonically, but may be done in writing or face to face as required. To reduce contractor expense, the government shall keep such interchange to the minimum amount necessary. Step 2: Upon completion of white paper evaluations, firms whose approaches or unique capabilities are of further interest to the government shall be invited to submit the balance of their technical proposal. Notification of selection for further consideration will be in writing. At that time, offerors will be provided a model contract, a technical description document (TDD), and the requirements for the initial task order and/or a program management task order contemplated for award. Offerors shall respond within 30 days or sooner with comments (if any) regarding the model contract, a contractor statement of work (CSOW) covering all tasks areas to be included in the basic IDIQ award, and a technical proposal and or program management task order (TO) proposal with a respective cost proposal and CSOW. Offerors should consider the TDD when drafting their CSOW and may use it as a basis for their CSOW, modified as necessary to reflect their proposal. The TDD is merely a tool and its use will not reflect favorably or unfavorably on an offeror's evaluation. Any offeror who submits a white paper may submit the balance of the proposal, but offerors not expressly invited to do so are discouraged from so doing. Full proposals will not be accepted from firms that did not initially submit white papers for consideration. TO cost proposals will be evaluated for realism and reasonableness. At this point intergrated technical and cost evaluation will be preformed, leading to catagorization as described in Section D below. The government does not contemplate downselecting to a predetermined number of proposals -- downselection is dependent on the number and quality of proposals received. Should the government enter negotiations with an offeror and be unable to reach a meeting of the minds, that proposal may be displaced by a lower rated proposal and the government may at that time enter into negotiations with an offeror not originally contacted for negotiations. Offerors are advised that in the event the government makes two or more awards in the same task area, subsequent task orders may be competed. If competed, offerors will be evaluated on past performance which is includes quality and timeliness of work on technical task orders issued on the contracts. In addition proposed cost will also be evaluated for realism and reasonableness. D-EVALUATION CRITERIA: Proposals shall be evaluated in accordance with the following evaluation which are in descending order of importance: (1) The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal, including capabilities and related experience, facilities, innovative techniques or unique combinations of these which are integral factors for achieving proposal objectives, (2) and the potential contributions of the effort to the project's mission and the extent to which the research effort shall contribute to the overall mission program; and (3) realism and reasonableness of cost. No further evaluation criteria shall be used to selecting the proposals. AFRL reserves the right to select any part or all of the proposal(s) selected for award in response to this announcement, subject to availability of funds. Once the evaluation is completed, all proposals shall be sorted into categories as follows: (i) Category I: Well conceived, scientifically and technically sound proposals pertinent to program goals and objectives, and offered by a responsible contractor with the competent scientific and technical staff and supporting resources needed to ensure satisfactory program results. Proposals in Category I are recommended for acceptance and normally are displaced only by other Category I proposals; (ii) Category II: Scientifically or technically sound proposals requiring further development and are recommended for acceptance, but are at a lower priority than Category I; (iii) Category III: Proposals not technically sound or do not meet agency needs. When requested, a debriefing shall be provided in accordance with FAR 15.506. E-ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: To prepare its proposal and perform services under the contract, the contractor may require access to Militarily Critical Technical Data whose export is restricted by U.S. export control laws and regulations. After receipt and evaluation of proposals the government shall determine whether the technology area shall be subject to export control laws and regulations and the offerors shall be requested to submit an approved DD Form 2345, Militarily Critical Technology Data Agreement, after receipt and evaluation of proposals. Contact the Defense Logistics Service Center (DLSC), Federal Center, 74 North Washington, Battle Creek, Michigan 49016-4312, 1-800-352-3572 for further information on the certification and approval process. To be eligible to receive an award, a firm is required to be registered in the DoD Central contractor Registration Database prior to award of any contract, basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or blanket purchase agreement, for awards based on solicitations issued after 31 May 98. Firms must register on a one-time basis and annually confirm accuracy and completeness of registration information. Either the CAGE code or a DUNS number shall be used to identify the contractor to the paying office. The government does not intend that Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) use privileged information or access to facilities to compete with the private sector. If a contractor proposes using an FFRDC as a subcontractor, other than DoD-sponsored FFRDCs, in the capacities discussed in DFARS 235.017, it must provide rationale in its proposal that supports the unique capability of the FFRDC. The contractor's proposal must also demonstrate that the FFRDC can accept work from other than the sponsor. Discussions with any of the points of contact shall not constitute a commitment by the government to subsequently fund or award any proposed effort. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the government. Foreign-owned firms are advised that they are precluded from becoming a prime contractor. Contract awards are anticipated to be unclassified. For the purposes of this PRDA, the business-sized standard is 500 employees, SIC 8731. This PRDA is unrestricted and is solicited based on full and open competition. Interested parties must be able to demonstrate their ability to manage a broad-based support effort in the technology areas stated above and have a SECRET Facility Clearance. A possibility of possessing and maintaining a TOP SECRET Facility Clearance may be required for some of this effort. This PRDA and SOO shall be posted on the Electronic Posting System (EPS) located at http://www.eps.gov. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors during the proposal development phase of this acquisition. Routine questions are not considered to be of "significant concern" and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer. 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 does not participate in the evaluation of the proposal or in the source selection process. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Mr Eugene DeWall, Deputy Director of Contracting, Det 8 AFRL/PKDP, 2251 Maxwell Avenue SE, KirtlandAFB, NM 87117-5773, AC 505/846-4979. See Note 25. WEB: Visit this URL for the latest information about this, http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS?ACode=S&;ProjID=PRDA99DE05&Lo cID=1122. E-MAIL: Dorothy Black, blackd@plk.af.mil. Posted 09/16/99 (D-SN381219).

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