U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command – Chemical Biological Center (CCDC CBC), Rock Island, IL, on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy via its Manufacturing Resiliency and Assurance Office, and Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program (10 U.S.C. § 2508), in conjunction with Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI), manages the Cornerstone Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), in accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 2371b. Cornerstone was architected to create a broad-based, flexible and enduring public-private consortium focused on strategic strengthening of the U.S. Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and provide a strong complement to the mandates in Presidential Executive Order 13806.

ACC-RI, on behalf of CCDC CBC and CCDC Armaments Center, intends to issue a competitive Cornerstone Initiative Request (CIR) for Energetic Characterization Testing on or after 15 April 2020, with an estimated closing date of 10 business days after issuance. The CIR for Energetic Characterization Testing is restricted to Cornerstone consortium members.

The CIR will solicit whitepapers for multiple expenditure-based OTAs. Period of performance will be 60 months. Non-competitive follow-on production OTAs are not intended for this initiative.

The objective of this effort is to test and evaluate novel and legacy munitions (new material, munition redesign, and/or process qualification) and energetic materials in support of qualification testing for final Type Classification/Materiel Release (TC/MR) and qualification of manufacturing processes for munitions. Demonstration and characterization of prototype weapon system energetic materials is a requirement for all munitions research and development efforts; this effort will incorporate performance evaluations against multiple target sets, insensitive

munitions properties, initiation reliability, mechanical properties, launch characteristics, and ballistic performance, all of which are of high interest to the Government.

The CIR for Energetic Characterization Testing will be communicated to the Cornerstone consortium and companies with pending applications via email. Entities are required to have begun the membership process for their proposal to be reviewed. Entities must be members of the Cornerstone consortium, with a signed Cornerstone Consortium Management Agreement, to be awarded this OTA task. Contractors may obtain Cornerstone registration information by visiting the Cornerstone website:

http://ibasp-public.ria.army.mil/cornerstone/

or sending a request to the Cornerstone mailbox:

[email protected]

Interested parties should stay alert for any changes that may be published to this beta.sam.gov posting. Please email all questions and responses to the Cornerstone mailbox.

This Special Notice is for planning purposes only and does not constitute a CIR or an obligation on behalf of the U.S. Government. Issuance of this Special Notice is not a guarantee of a future CIR or an award and is not a commitment of any kind by the Government.