Sources Sought for the Manufacture of the M284 155mm Cannon Tubes

ANNOUNCEMENT INTENT: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This Sources Sought announcement requesting information is issued solely for information and planning purposes. No contract/agreement will be awarded from this announcement. This is not a Proposal Request or an announcement of a forthcoming solicitation, nor is it a request seeking contractors to be placed on a solicitation mailing list. Response to this announcement is voluntary and no reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to it and any follow-on information requests. Data submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned. No solicitation document exists at this time, and calls requesting a solicitation will not be answered.

DISCLAIMER: Reference herein to any specific commercial company, product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the Department of the Army (DA). The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the DA, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

PROPRIETARY INFORMATION: It is the responsibility of Industry, when providing any comments/responses, to properly mark such information that is considered proprietary or is otherwise restricted. The United States Government (USG) is not obligated to protect unmarked data. Nor is the Government obligated for like data in possession of third parties or for data which is afterwards placed in the public domain by the contractor or by third parties through no fault of the USG. Should the USG need to reproduce the protected data for distribution purposes between Government offices, all such data will be reproduced with restrictive legends in place.

The USG acknowledges its obligations under the Federal Acquisition Regulation 3.104-4 to protect confidential information provided to the Government (18 U.S.C. §1905). Pursuant to this statute, the USG is willing to accept any trade secrets or proprietary restrictions placed upon qualifying data forwarded in response to this Sources Sought announcement and to protect such information from unauthorized disclosure, subject to the following:

• Qualifying data must be clearly marked PROPRIETARY and be accompanied by an explanatory text so that the Government is clearly notified as to exactly what data so qualifies.
• Mark only data that is truly confidential.
• Do not mark data that is already in the public domain or is already in possession of the USG or third parties on an unclassified basis.
• Proprietary data transmitted electronically must have the PROPRIETARY legend on both the cover of the transmittal e-mail as well as at the beginning of the file.
• Proprietary information contained within the correspondence shall use the legends: "PROPRIETARY PORTION BEGINS" and "PROPRIETARY PORTION ENDS."

GENERAL INFORMATION:  There is no risk to respondents for responding to this announcement.  Participation in this effort is strictly voluntary with no cost or obligation to be incurred by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued.  However, this is an important opportunity for industry to provide input on this program.  This announcement, and all information herein, is for informational planning purposes only and does not constitute a “Proposal request of any kind,” nor is it to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government.

PURPOSE:  The Army Contracting Command - Detroit Arsenal (ACC-DTA), Michigan  48397-5000 is surveying the market on behalf of the Project Manager Self-Propelled Howitzer Systems (PM SPHS) to identify potential sources for manufacture of the M284 155mm cannon tube.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESPONDING TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT:  Responses to the announcement are due on 17 July 2024. Responses shall be in white paper format.  Responses received after the stated due date, may not be considered.

Responses to this announcement shall be sent via e-mail to Contract Specialist, Brianna Davis at [email protected].  You are requested to put "[Vendor] Response to Notification ID: PMSPHS-M284-2024" in the subject line of the e-mail and attachments shall be in MS Word or PDF format.

Responses are not restricted to United States based companies.  Non-US companies are encouraged to respond to this Sources Sought.  As this notification is nearly identical to the Joint Program Manager Office Towed Artillery Systems (JPMO-TAS) M776 155mm cannon tube Sources Sought posting - W15QKN-23-X-0VBY, resubmission of those responses to this posting are acceptable if there were no significant operation changes.

A. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:

1. Manufacturer
   • Name: 
   • Mailing Address: 
   • CAGE:                                        
   • DUNs and/or UEI Number: 
2. Business Type (identify all that apply);
   • 8(a)
   • Minority Owned
   • Disabled Veteran
   • Small Business
   • Hub Zone
   • Small-Disadvantaged
   • Large Business
   • Women Owned
3. Personnel Responding to this Questionnaire.
   • Name: 
   • Title: 
   • Responsibility/Position:  
   • Telephone/Fax Numbers: 
   • E-mail address: 

B. White paper summarizing/addressing the following:

1. Generally describe the vendor’s:
   • past performance, total capability and current capacity to manufacture rifled, 155mm, artillery cannon tubes.
2. A description of the vendor’s existing facilities, equipment, personnel and an outline of the cannon production process.
   • To include, but not be limited to: facility location, manufacturing square footage, available cranes & capacities, infrastructure age, number of personnel & their average years of service/experience, familiarity with working with heat treated alloy steel
3. A description of the vendor’s cannon tube source material grade, supporting vendor(s) and processing (i.e. steel making, forging/preforms, guide bore, heat treat…etc)
4. A description of the vendors bore and outside diameter cold working capabilities.
5. A description of the vendor’s turning, boring and milling capabilities along with the size capacity or each (length, weight, outer/inner diameters)
6. A description of the vendor’s rifling capabilities to include a general description of the rifling configuration (i.e. number of lands, grooves & twist)
7. A description of the vendor’s bore coating capabilities.
8. A description of the vendor’s Outer Diameter (OD) protective coating and painting capabilities
9. A description of the vendor’s quality system, to include, but not limited to:
   • the type and quantity of Non-Destructive Testing Equipment, measuring inspection equipment, and number of inspectors.
10. Identify the standards the vendor is certified to, or adheres to.
11. A description of the vendor’s proof firing process.
12. A description of any chrome plating, or wear prevention, capability.
13. What would be the most economical production rate for this item? (please include unit price)
14. Commerciality determination (acknowledge):
    • [ ] I do not believe this item to be commercially available.
    • [ ] I believe this item to be commercially available. Explain.

C. Questions, comments, concerns should be addressed/sent to the Contract Specialist, Brianna Davis via email: [email protected] unless stated otherwise.

1. It is the intent of the Government to address questions generated from this posting anonymously.  Thus, questions should be posed without mention of proprietary information.  Government address of questions may be answered and posted anonymously to this website (SAM.Gov).
2. Product brochures and/literature will be accepted.  If they cannot be sent via email, they may be sent via mail:  PM SPHS, 6501 E. 11 Mile Rd, ATTN: Brianna Davis, BLDG 229, Mail Stop: 531, Detroit Arsenal, MI  48397-5000.
3. Submissions that are not fully compliant with requested requirements are also encouraged so PM SPHS may assess the capabilities of sources.