A -- BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) -- ROBUST PASSIVE SONAR

Notice Date

January 26, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, 2531 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22242-5160

ZIP Code

22242-5160

Solicitation Number

N00024-01-R-6306

Response Due

February 9, 2001

Point of Contact

02632J, Ms. Janel Duval, Contract Specialist, 703-602-0951 ext. 629, email: Duvaljm@navsea.navy.mil

Description

. This is a modification to Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Robust Passive Sonar (RPS). This modification provides: 1) clarification for the term "equivalent" in regards to font size; 2) information on required margin sizes; and 3) responses to questions received in regards to this BAA. Please submit any other questions in regards to the RPS BAA or the questions and answers provided below by 31 January 2001 in order to allow the Government time to generate and post responses not later than 5 February 2001. Revise "The Technical/Management Volume (Volume I) is limited to a total page count of 50 pages (excluding the appendix) and shall be with a font no smaller than courier new size 12 or equivalent. The Cost Volume (Volume II) is not page limited. Volume I may include an appendix containing referenced material. All pages shall be printed on 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper." to read "The Technical/Management Volume (Volume I) is limited to a total page count of 50 pages (excluding the appendix) and shall be with a font no smaller than courier new size 12 or equivalent. An equivalent or larger font will have a maximum of 64 characters per line and 47 lines per page. Margins shall be minimum 1" on top, bottom, and both sides. All pages shall be printed on 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper. The Cost Volume (Volume II) is not page limited. Volume I may include an appendix containing referenced material." Questions and answers are as follows: Question 1. Will the Government entertain proposals that do not include At-Sea Tests but that propose a substantial, highly innovative algorithm vision with possibly high payoff? That is, could a contractor propose novel algorithmic architectures and technology that offer high payoff without being part of a team that performs At-Sea Tests? Such a contractor could use recorded test data to assess algorithm performance. If the algorithm proved superior, the contractor developing it could serve as an associate contractor to the team performing At-Sea trials as RPS moved into the second phase. Such efforts could increase the probability of reaching the Government's objective of a 10dB performance gain by opening the competition to a broader set of candidate technical approaches. Answer 1. The Government will plan and execute 2-3 At-Sea Tests and does not expect the contractor to propose such efforts. The proposed algorithm development vision must be presented in terms of an end-to-end system context, with end-to-end system development supporting a real-time demonstration during the final At-Sea Test. Contractor teaming is not required, but is being encouraged to promote a best-in-class solution. The first one (or two) sea tests will generate recorded data for contractor system development. For this (these) tests, it is expected that contractor involvement will be to provide input to test planning that supports development needs and, if desired and appropriate, to provide test observers. For the second (or third) test, the contractor must provide real-time hardware and operators for at-sea system demonstration. Question 2. Is it possible for funding to be provided to a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) directly as opposed to through a prime contractor? Answer 2. The Government will award and fund prime contract(s) with the prime being responsible for flow-downs to its subcontractor(s). The Government will not fund a UARC directly unless it is the prime contractor. Question 3. Is it possible for Industry to team with Government scientists who work at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC)? It is assumed that there would be separate funding vehicles for Industry and Government, but is there a way that industry can team, or formally associate its efforts at the proposal stage? Answer 3. Industry can team with Government scientists at NUWC. There will not be separate funding vehicles for Industry and Government efforts. The prime contractor will be responsible for all necessary flow-downs to its subcontractors whether they are Industry or Government. If Industry chooses to team with Government scientists, the two parties will need to work out their teaming arrangement/association. Question 4. When the BAA is issued, will it be posted to a website? If yes, which one? Answer 4. The BAA can be found in any of the following locations: 1) The Commerce Business Daily (CBD) -- Posted to CBDNet on 19 December 2000 and 20 December 2000 or Printed Issue Dates 21 December 2000 and 22 December 2000 (there are two dates because of the length of the BAA); 2) The NAVSEA 02 Internet at http://www.contracts.hq.navsea.navy.mil under Announcements; 3) The DARPA Internet at http://www.darpa.mil under Solicitations and 4) The RPS website at http://schafercorp-ballston.com/rps/ under Background. Question 5. Will visits be permitted to Navy and DARPA personnel during this BAA period? Answer 5. Visits will not be permitted to Navy and DARPA personnel during this period; however, any questions that Industry might have should be submitted to Ms. Janel Duval at Duvaljm@navsea.navy.mil. Answers will be provided to questions received and all question and answers (Q&A) will be posted in the CBD. Question 6. When will the BAA close? Answer 6. The BAA will close on 9 February 2001. Question 7. For Volume 1, there is an outline provided of the sections to include. Where would the main descriptions of the Technical Approach be included? Section D -- Executive Summary, Section G -- SOW or some other section? Answer 7. Although the Technical Approach is to be addressed in the Executive Summary, it is expected that detailed discussion of the approach will be contained in the Statement of Work. Question 8. Is there any restriction on using Government employees or organizations in our proposal? Answer 8. As discussed in a previous question, Industry can team with Government employees or organizations. If Industry chooses to team with Government activities, the two parties will need to work out their teaming arrangement/association. Question 9. The CBD for Robust Passive Sonar states "The Technical/Management Volume (Volume I) is limited to a total page count of 50 pages (excluding the appendix) and shall be with a font no smaller than courier new size 12 or equivalent." I am seeking to clarify if equivalent is restricted to non-proportional fonts of size 12, or any non-?condensed size 12 font. examples might be | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | | New Courier 12 | | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | | Letter Gothic 12 | | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | | Times New Roman 12 | | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | | Arial 12 | | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- | Which of these are considered to be equivalent? Since Email may not correctly transcribe fonts, the above, including an example, is included as a word document which should correctly convey fonts. Answer 9. An equivalent or larger font will have a maximum of 64 characters per line and 47 lines per page. Margins shall be minimum 1" on top, bottom and both sides. The BAA has been modified to reflect this language. Question 10. What is the intent of section K: "Definition/description of the planned/desired transition objectives, including a description of the results, products, and transferable technology expected from the contract. This section shall also include the expected technology transfer path (i.e., prime contractor agreements in place, soliciting prime contractors)? Is this a requirement for offerors to have a prime contractor agreement in place? Answer 10: There is no requirement for offerors to have a prime contractor agreement in place. The parenthetical statements were provided only as examples. Question 11. How may classified material be submitted in the proposal? Since classified material may be only a small fraction of the overall proposal discussion, can it be submitted as a supplement for ease of handling at both the contractor and the government? If so, can the necessary cover pages, etc., not be counted within the page count. Answer 11. It is preferred that an integrated proposal be submitted. If a separate classified addendum is submitted, any additional cover page, table of contents, etc. will be included in the Technical/Management Volume page count. Classified portions and/or attachments accompanying BAA submissions shall be submitted to the following address: Commander Naval Sea Systems Command Attn: NAVSEA 93/ASTO 2531 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, VA 22242-5169 Guidance for providing classified material to the Government is contained within the body of the BAA. Question 12: Key personnel resumes are called for, with one resume per page. With an end-to-end system concept, the number of key resumes can be large, severely eating into an already tightly allocated page count. Please give consideration to having key resumes as an appendix and not a part of the page count (and limit the number of resumes, if so desired). Answer 12: Resumes are not limited to one person per page, but one page or less per person. Key individuals must be identified in the Technical/Management Volume as described in the BAA and should include their name, organization, and role in the effort. Resumes as described in the BAA should be provided as an appendix to the Technical/Management Volume and will not be included in the volume page count. Question 13: The BAA calls for " end-to-end processing with discrete interference rejection figure-of-merit (FOM) improvement > 10 dB and detection FOM improvement > 6 dB". How is the improvement baselined, i.e. improvement over what standard? Will the government specify a baseline FOM standard or should the offeror try to deduce and defend such a standard? Answer 13: The Government will not specify a baseline FOM standard. It is incumbent on the offeror to propose and defend such a standard. Question 14: The RPS BAA (N00024-01-R-6306), in the "Volume 1," paragraph, says: "Volume 1 ... may include an attached bibliography of relevant technical papers or research notes (published and unpublished), which document the technical ideas and approach upon which the proposal is based. Copies of not more than three (3) relevant papers can be included with the submission." Is it the government's intent that the three (3) relevant papers can be published or unpublished? Answer 14: Yes, it is the Government's intent that the papers may be published or unpublished. However, the papers will be considered background supplemental to the proposal and will not be evaluated directly. It will not be incumbent upon the Government Evaluators to review these papers. Question 15: Does NAVSEA consider Times New Roman size 12 as an "equivalent" font compliant with the BAA requirements? Answer 15: See Question and Answer 9 above. Question 16: For the BAA Statements "All Offerors and proposed subcontractors must affirm whether they are providing scientific, engineering and technical assistance (SETA), or similar support to any NAVSEA or DARPA technical office(s) through an active contract or subcontract. All affirmations must state which office(s) the Offeror supports, and identify the prime contract numbers. Affirmations will be furnished at the time of proposal submission. All facts relevant to the existence or potential existence of organizational conflict of interest must be disclosed. The disclosure should include a description of the action the Offeror has taken, or proposes to take, to avoid, neutralize or mitigate such conflict." Is it NAVSEA's intention to receive a list of all active contracts with NAVSEA or DARPA where we "are providing scientific, engineering and technical assistance (SETA), or similar support", or, only those active contract(s) where there is a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest to the RPS effort along with "a description of the action the Offeror has taken, or proposes to take, to avoid, neutralize or mitigate such conflict." ?. Answer 16: As stated in the BAA, Offeror's must affirm whether they are providing SETA or similar support to ANY NAVSEA or DARPA technical office(s) through an active contract or subcontract, regardless of the relationship, or apparent lack thereof, to RPS. The Offeror must provide the information requested for NAVSEA/DARPA to make a determination whether a real or potential Organizational Conflict of Interest exists. Note: An updated list of organizations interested in the RPS Program will be emailed to all who attended the Industry Briefing. Those organizations who were unable to attend, but have expressed interest in this program will also be emailed an updated list. If you do not receive an updated list, please contact Ms. Janel Duval at (703) 602-0951 ext. 629.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010129/ASOL009.HTM (W-025 SN50B8E1)