Office of Naval Research, 800 North Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22217-5660

A -- RAPID, ORGANIC, STAND -- OFF TECHNOLOGIES FOR BREACHING SURF ZONE AND BEACH ZONE MINES AND OBSTACLES SOL 00 -- 002 DUE 030300 POC Brian Glance ONR 252 (703) 696-2596 The Office of Naval Research (ONR) seeks white papers describing innovative technology concepts that will form the foundation for future (circa 2010 to 2015) Naval systems for Countermine/Counterobstacle (CMCO) application in the Surf Zone (SZ) and Beach Zone (BZ) operational environments. These novel concepts must support the future naval warfare directions of power projection, Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS), Ship To Objective Maneuver (STOM) and Seabased Logistics. Emphasis is placed upon the Naval requirements to a) conduct rapid stand-off breaching/neutralization of all obstacles, and/or all mine types in the SZ and BZ environments and b) safely navigate the cleared areas via amphibious landing craft. Concepts should emphasize unmanned system approaches that meet size and weight constraints for deployment with Expeditionary Forces. Concepts should be able to be integrated with current and future ISR systems which locate mine and obstacle belts and focus the breaching effort. Concepts should include technologies to enable safe day/night navigation within the cleared areas. Selection criteria will reward those concepts exhibiting application to both mines and obstacles, application to breaching inland mines and obstacles and potential effectiveness through vegetation/foliage. The technological concepts and approaches sought in this offering will lead to future mine / obstacle breaching systems which will minimize exposure to Marines and Sailors, enable amphibious landing forces to maintain an unencumbered operational tempo from the sea to the objectives ashore and reduce total ownership costs and logistics requirements. Responses which propose adaptation of existing DoD warfare systems concepts to the SZ/BZ breach problem in an approach which will potentially reduce development costs and risk are encouraged. Awards under this BAA will be supported by Advanced Technology Development (Budget Category 6.3) funds. Priority will be given to concepts exhibiting strong evidence of being field demonstrable by 2003. To assist in informing prospective offerors regarding the missions of interest and in so doing promote more responsive white papers, the ONR is establishing a World Wide Web site http://www.onr.navy.mil/sci_tech/ocean/baa/mcmbaa99/default.asp which contains links to several relevant documents describing the operational background. Definitions of selected terms used in the above synopsis paragraph are found at this site as well. In addition it is planned to conduct a one-day public briefing at the U. S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia on 3 February 2000. This will provide a forum for potential offerors to obtain information regarding mission operating environments and constraints and obtain a better understanding of the advanced capability requirements necessary to effectively enable operational maneuver. Offerors who wish to attend this briefing must respond with notice of intent using the form provided on the web site no later than three weeks after the date of publication of this BAA, so that adequate meeting facilities can be provided at the Quantico Marine Base. All expenses for attendance must be borne by the potential offeror. Additional information regarding the meeting format, local hotels, security procedures and other relevant information will be available at the above web site. Proposers should recognize that this offering is distinct from ONR BAA 98-008 (Diver and UUV Systems and Technologies for VSW/SZ MCM Missions) and ONR BAA 99-004 (Innovative Technologies for Organic MCM) in that this BAA explicitly addresses mine and obstacle breaching systems and associated landing force navigation technologies in the transitional SZ/BZ operating environment in support of operational mobility in the littorals and in-stride amphibious operations moving from ship to shore. The earlier BAAs have focused upon reconnaissance in support of tactical decisions and battlespace preparation in advance of in-stride amphibious landing forces. The Program Executive Officer forMine Warfare (PEO-MIW) intends to use data and results from this advanced technology development effort in a FY2003 Analysis of Alternatives (AOA) in preparation for a FY 2004 fleet acquisition program. It is thus anticipated that successful advanced technology development may be followed by Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) efforts awarded by the PEO-MIW. PEO-MIW and the Naval Sea Systems Command will be responsible for the Acquisition phase(s) of the program, beginning with a contract for EMD. Interested parties are advised that the Naval Sea Systems Command anticipates limiting participation in any procurement leading to contract award(s) by the Naval Sea Systems Command to offerors who have performed work pursuant to an award made under this BAA. It is anticipated that any competitive acquisition of technologies transitioning to acquisition from work begun under an award made pursuant to this BAA will be conducted on a limited basis. White papers are initially sought to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror in preparing full technical and cost proposals without an initial assessment of the operational, technical and logistical feasibility of the concept. White papers are due by 1600 EST, 3 Mar 2000. Offerors submitting the most promising white papers will be invited to submit a full technical and cost proposal on all or part of their white paper submission. However, any such invitation does not assure a subsequent award. Any offeror may submit a full proposal even if its white paper was not identified as promising or if no white paper is submitted. Full proposals for Fiscal Year 2000 funding are due by 1600 EST, 12 May 2000. It is anticipated that funding decisions will have been completed by 20 June, followed immediately by funding actions. Approximately $30,000,000 of Advanced Technology Development (Budget Category 6.3) funds are anticipated to be available over a three-year period beginning June, 2000 to conduct these research and development efforts. Awards may be in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or other agreements as appropriate. The maximum length of an award will be 3 years. This BAA announcement does not preclude an offeror from submitting a full technical and cost proposal or white paper after published due dates. Proposals received after the published due dates may not be considered for funding under the Fiscal Year 2000 program, but may be considered for funding at a later time. Proposals in response to this BAA received after 1600 EST, 31 December 2001 will not be considered. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the submissions. White papers are limited to seven pages and should include the following items: (A) Cover page, clearly labeled "WHITE PAPER", including BAA title and date, title of white paper, administrative and technical points of contact along with telephone and fax numbers; (B) Technical Description, to consist of clear discussions of the concept and associated technologies being proposed, development objectives of the proposed effort, major technical issues to be resolved to accomplish objectives, approaches to resolving these issues, and a clear description of and schedule for demonstration of the development; (C) Managerial Description, to include partnering arrangements if any, list of key personnel, specific prior experience of offeror in the technology areas addressed, facilities, and a plan of action with milestones; (D) Cost Description, to be a one page cost estimate on a yearly basis partitioned by major tasks. One-page curriculum vitae for the Principal Technical Investigator, Project Manager, and other key personnel should be submitted. The vitae will not count toward the seven-page limit. Eight copies of the white papers are due at the submittal address listed below by 1600 EST, 3 March, 2000. The format for subsequent full proposals will be similar to that for the white papers and will be posted at http://www.onr.navy.mil/sci_tech/ocean/baa/mcmbaa99/default.asp White papers and full proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria: (1) overall technical, and socioeconomic merits; (2) technical innovation, feasibility and risk to successfully demonstrate the technologies by 2003; (3) potential to enhance SZ/BZ countermine/counterobstacle breaching countermeasures capabilities through the application of advanced technologies; (4) potential for transition to fleet capability; (5) the offerror's capabilities, evidence of synergistic industry-academic-government partnering arrangements as appropriate, past performance and related experience, facilities, techniques or unique combinations thereof that are integral factors for achieving the proposed objectives (included in consideration of this criterion will be an offeror's ability to successfully transition from the S&T phase to the PEO MIW acquisition program referred to above); (6) the qualifications, capabilities and experience of the proposed Principal Technical Investigator, Project Manager, and other key personnel critical in achieving the proposed objectives; (7) budgetary cost and availability of funds. Offerors must state in their white paper and full proposals that it is submitted in response to this BAA. Eight hard copies of each white paper must be provided. White papers and full proposal submissions will protected from unauthorized disclosure in accordance with FAR 15.413, applicable law, and DoD/DoN regulations. This BAA provides no funding for white paper or subsequent proposal development purposes. All white papers will be acknowledged. White papers will not be returned after evaluation. This CBD notice itself constitutes the BAA as contemplated by FAR 6.102(d)(2). Unless otherwise stated herein, neither additional written information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement be issued. Requests for the same will be disregarded. For awards made as contracts, the socio-economic merits of each proposal will be evaluated based on the extent of commitment in providing meaningful subcontracting opportunities for small business, HUB zone small business, small disadvantaged business, woman-owned small business concerns, and historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions (HBCU/MI). The standard industrial classification code is 8731 with the small business size standard of not to exceed 500. In addition, contract proposals that exceed $500,000 submitted by all but small businesses, must be accompanied by a Small Business Subcontracting Plan in accordance with FAR 52.219-9. No portion of this BAA has been set aside for HBCU and MI participants, though their participation is encouraged. White papers and Proposals should be submitted by the due dates cited in the BAA to: Office of Naval Research, Breaching BAA, ONR Code 32, BCT-1, Room 407, 800 N. Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22217. Use Kim Coleman, at (703) 696-5122 for express mail purposes ONLY. Questions regarding business and legal matters relating to this BAA should be directed to: Office of Naval Research, Attention Brian Glance (Code 252), Room 720, Ballston Towers One, 800 N. Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22217-5660, (703) 696-2596. Information regarding technical matters is available on the World Wide Web http://www.onr.navy.mil/sci_tech/ocean/baa. Posted 12/15/99 (W-SN408766). (0349)

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