A -- PROGRAM RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BALLISTIC MISSILE TECHNOLOGY

Notice Date

March 14, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL -- PL "Space Vehicles Directorate", 2251 Maxwell Ave, Kirtland AFB, NM, 87177

ZIP Code

87177

Solicitation Number

PKV-01-03

Point of Contact

Kelley Janssen, Contract Specialist, Phone 505 846 7601, Fax 505 846 7549, Email Kelley.Janssen@kirtland.af.mil -- Shari Barnett, Contracting Officer, Phone (505) 846-6189, Fax (505) 846-7549, Email

E-Mail Address

Kelley Janssen (Kelley.Janssen@kirtland.af.mil)

Description

A. INTRODUCTION: The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/VSEB), Kirtland AFB, NM, is interested in demonstrating state-of-the-art advanced missile technologies. The total program budget for these efforts is approximately $7.5M over two years. AFRL estimates up to two years effort for each area. The government anticipates making up to three awards but reserves the right to make more than 3 awards based on availability of funds. This PRDA will remain open through 30 Sep 01. B. WHITE PAPER INSTRUCTIONS: the first submission of white papers is required within 14 days from publication of this announcement at 4:00 PM Mountain Standard Time to AFRL/PKVI, Attn: Kelly Janssen, 2251 Maxwell SE, Bldg. 592, Room 62, Kirtland AFB NM 87117-5773. Fax or e-mails of the white papers will not be evaluated. Interesting white papers may result in offerors being invited to submit full technical and cost proposals by a specific date. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. To be eligible for a contract award, the offeror must have submitted a white paper. A separate white paper should be submitted per technology area. The page limit for the white paper is 3-5 pages (12 pitch or larger type), single-sided, 8.5 by 11 inch pages. In addition, include a one page Rough Order of Magnitude per proposed effort. Offerors thinking about submitting a white paper should talk with the technical point of contact PRIOR to committing resources to the preparation of the white paper(s). White papers will be evaluated based on innovative ideas and new technologies pursuant to the evaluation criteria under Basis of Award. The Government reserves the right to request and evaluate additional white papers received throughout FY01. Government technical evaluators may contact offerors before completion of the initial evaluation of the white papers as deemed necessary to gain additional information to complete evaluations. C. REQUIREMENTS. Proposals are desired for advanced vehicle technology system designs and all facets of missile technologies. The research areas of particular interest are: 1) Advanced vehicle technology system design; 2) Strategic missile materials; 3) Reentry plasma effects; 4) Navigation and guidance; 5) Strategic missile electronics including high-speed data & signal processors. Proposals which enable a future missile system to demonstrate and meet performance, reliability, maintainability, supportability, and affordability goals or which enhance performance, significantly reduce cost, schedule, or risk are of interest. Area 1 -- Advanced vehicle technology system design. The advanced vehicle technology design effort should provide two experimental test beds; a near term design and a far term design which can accommodate various high value conventional payloads and experimental packages and adapt easily to multiple launch platforms. The vehicle design should be maintainable, economically supportable, reliable in operational environments, and capable of accepting control updates for multiple experimental events or targeting while in route. General system performance goals should include 15 minute targeting, global range with flight times of 30-60 minutes, and accuracy of three meters with terminal guidance. Proposals should consider a technology freeze at the end of FY04 for a near term vehicle and a technology freeze at the end of FY07 for a far term vehicle. Area 2 -- Strategic missile materials. Proposals are sought to develop and test a wide range of strategic missile materials as well as to demonstrate their cost-efficient manufacturing methods. Vehicle materials must maintain structural integrity under high heat load, extreme g-forces, and jerk. Compared to materials currently available, emerging strategic missions may require thermally more robust materials while other missions may require extended thermal soak times. Novel antenna window materials and designs are of interest. Novel test methods and data analyses are sought for missile material evaluation, surveillance, and demilitarization. Area 3 -- Reentry plasma effects. Models and simulations are needed to predict more precisely the effects of reentry plasma on communication with the goal of reducing or eliminating this blackout effect. The goal is to have continuous ground-to-vehicle control and GPS navigation and guidance. Area 4 -- Navigation and guidance. Innovative proposals are sought to develop and demonstrate robust strategic-grade navigation instruments that may be augmented by antijam GPS receiver technology. All technologies must be robust enough for missile applications and capable of eventual flight qualification. Preference will be given to designs that are miniaturized, lightweight, and use minimal power. Associated technologies like GPS antennas and antenna arrays will be considered. Area 5 -- Strategic vehicle electronics including high-speed data and signal processors. Develop electronic sensors to process target-acquisition data and navigation subsystem data to enable effective vehicle flight control. These electronics must function unimpaired through vehicle flight and reentry environments. High speed guided reentry vehicles should be autonomously able to reacquire, identify, and strike their targets precisely. Sensors for target acquisition should operate with fast efficient algorithms. System design should maximize COTS electronics designs thus permitting the use of commercial design and software tools. Work performed under any resulting contract may be classified up to the Secret Level. The DD254 is available @www.eps.gov. The contractor(s) who is selected for an award under this PRDA may be required and then must be eligible to obtain a Secret facility clearance. Technical point of contact: AFRL/VSEB, Dr. Sandra H. Slivinsky, 505-846-7222, fax 505-846-5589, email sandra.slivinsky@kirtland.af.mil. Open communication with the technical POC is encouraged until proposals are received. D. PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS: Proposals shall be due 30 days from the date the Government requests the proposal. The government reserves the right to evaluate and award any proposal received after the due date based on availability of funds. Submit separate proposals for each area. (1) TECHNICAL PROPOSAL: shall address the following sections. (a) Executive Summary, (b) Program Description, (c) Program Plan, (d) Statement of Work (SOW) and Milestone Chart, (e) Facilities and Equipment description, (f) Description of Relevant Prior Work, (g) Management Plan, and (h) Resumes of Key Individuals. The following information describes what should be addressed in the technical proposal. Section (a) Executive Summary: Describe the proposed program, objectives, approach, and end product addressing any of the technical areas. The information should be innovative, fielding new ideas that advance the state-of-the-art in addressing any of the five technical areas. Section (b) Program Description: Describe the ideas which are going to be addressed in this proposal, how these ideas are innovative and to what degree they advance the state-of-the-art, and how this will be beneficial to the Air Force in terms of new and innovative technologies. Also describe any potential for commercial application and the benefits expected to accrue from commercialization. Section (c) Program Plan: Describe in detail the approach planned and how the plan will be executed. This section should include all technical aspects and how the approach will be executed to come to a solution of the task areas. If options are proposed, include the key factors or data needed to proceed to the next phase. Section (d) Statement of Work and Milestone Chart Description: Include a Statement of Work detailing the technical tasks to be accomplished under the proposed effort and to be suitable for contract incorporation (no proprietary legends). Milestones should indicate when specific objectives are expected to be met in the overall schedule of the task and should identify the specific accomplishments necessary to proceed to the next task and the final product to be delivered. Section (e) Facilities and Equipment Description: Describe the facilities which can be used in terms of security classification levels, computational systems, testing facilities, and any specialized equipment. Section (f) Description of Relevant Prior Work: Include a list of both in-house efforts funded by internal research funds and contracts funded by others. Include a list of the principal investigator, title of effort, contract number, brief summary of results, and a technical and contracting point-of-contact, including phone numbers, with the funding organization. Section (g) Management Plan: Include an appropriate work breakdown structure and/or assignment chart. Address any major areas of risk including schedule, cost, or technical components. Describe the methods or procedures within the organization used to monitor progress and reassign resources. Section (h) Resumes of Key Individuals: Include brief summaries of resumes of relevant key individuals including any consultants or subcontractors that might be proposed. The technical proposal shall be limited to 50 pages (12 pitch or larger type), double-spaced, 8.5 by 11 inch pages. The page limitation includes all information i.e., indices, photographs, foldouts, appendices, attachments, resumes etc. Use at least 1-inch margins on top and bottom and 1 inch side margins. The binding shall not impair legibility. Both sides of paper may be used. Each printed side of an 8" x 11" sheet counts as a page. Foldouts printed on one side only will 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 will only read and evaluate proposals up to the page limitation. Pages over the page limitation will 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, in which case characters per inch measurement does not apply. Typesetting or other techniques to reduce character size or spacing are not permitted. (2) COST PROPOSAL: Cost proposals should be prepared in accordance with instructions located at www.eps.gov under this PRDA. The cost information, other than cost or pricing data, requested therein is necessary for the government to perform a cost realism analysis. (3) GENERAL: Data deliverables, including status reports and a final report, shall be proposed that will adequately provide the government with sufficient information to ascertain the effectiveness of the offerors performance. Proposals shall be submitted in original and three copies with the original being clearly marked in such a manner as to distinguish it from the copies. Proposals submitted by fax or e-mail will not be considered for award. Do not send proposals to any other address or they may not be considered for award. Submit Technical and Cost proposals in separate volumes. Proposals shall be valid for a period of not less than 180 days after the due date. Proposals must reference the above PRDA number, include a contractor unique proposal identification number, as well as identify the subject area of the proposal. Unnecessarily elaborate brochures or presentations beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective proposal are not desired. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this PRDA is not considered an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or to any other contract. However, it may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs as specified in FAR 31.205-18. The Government reserves the right to award a procurement instrument best suited to the nature of research proposed. Cost Plus Fixed Fee or Firm Fixed Price type contracts are contemplated. The offeror shall include their recommendation and rationale for the type of instrument proposed in the cost proposal. Proposals are to be submitted within 30 days after the request for proposal. Foreign owned firms are advised to contact the Contracting Officer or Project Manager before submitting a proposal to determine whether there are restrictions on receiving an award. It is anticipated that contractors may have access to or may generate data that is unclassified with limited distribution and/or subject to U.S. Export Control laws. Therefore, in these cases, offerors will need to be certified by the Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) prior to submitting offers. Contact US/Canada Joint Certification Office, DLIS, Federal Center, 74 Washington Ave, North, Battle Creek, Michigan 49017-3084 (1 (800) 352-3572) http://www.dlis.dla.mil/CCAL/ for further information on certification and the approval process. The offeror is required to either submit a copy of the DLIS approved DD Form 2345 with its proposal or to the Contracting Officer if access to unclassified, limited distribution data is required to prepare the proposal. 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. Offerors must mark their proposals with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609(a). Contract awards are anticipated to be unclassified. For the purposes of this PRDA the business size standard is 1000 employees, NAICS 54171. All firms submitting responses must reference this announcement and indicate whether they are, or are not, a small business, a socially and economically disadvantaged business, an 8(a) firm, a woman-owned business, a hub-zone certified small business, a historically black college or university, or a minority institution. E. BASIS FOR AWARD: Evaluation will be in accordance with AFMC FARS 5335.016-90. Technical proposals will be evaluated using the following factors in descending order of importance based on scientific peer review: (a) overall technical and/or scientific merit of the proposed effort and its relevancy to current and future DOD needs, (b) capabilities and related experience, facilities, techniques or unique combinations of these which are an integral factor for achieving proposal objectives and (c) availability of funds. No further evaluation criteria will be used in selecting the proposals. Subject to the availability of funds, the Government reserves the right to select for award any, all, part, or none of the proposals received. Multiple awards may be made. When requested, a debriefing will be provided IAW FAR 15.505 and 15.506. A copy of each final report of any resultant contract will be available, subject to national disclosure policy and regulations. F. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This PRDA will be posted at www.eps.gov, USAF, HQ, AFMC, Phillips Research Site, Space Vehicles. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear concerns from offerors and potential offerors during the proposal development phase of the acquisition. The purpose of the ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the program director or contracting officer, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements, and recommendations to the appropriate government personnel in the pre-proposal phase of competitive, negotiated acquisitions. Before contacting the Ombudsman, potential offerors should communicate first with the Contracting Officer. In those instances where offerors cannot obtain resolution from the Contracting Officer, they are invited to contact the Ombudsman, Mr. Gene DeWall, by calling (505) 846-4979, or writing to Air Force Research Laboratory -- Phillips Research Site, Directorate of Contracting/PK, 2251 Maxwell Avenue SE, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5773. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentially as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of the proposals or in the source selection process. All responsible sources may submit an offer, which will be considered. See Note 26.

Web Link

Visit this URL for the latest information about this (http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS.woa/wa/SPF?A=P&P=PKV-01-03&L=2682)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010316/ASOL005.HTM (D-073 SN50G1Z7)