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•1. Description
The AFLCMC/HBAG is seeking information on Technology Development Candidates for a Prototype Precision Approach Capability that could be rapidly deployed, as described in paragraphs 7 (Mobility Requirements) and 8 (Deployability Requirements), to austere locations that may have limited airfield infrastructures or support systems.
There is an unmet need for a small footprint precision approach capability for both Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) and Forward Operating Locations (FOLs). The Government is interested in system(s) that are smaller in size and can be highly mobile in support of various airfield operational scenarios. The Government is seeking detailed information on existing systems, trade space considerations and suggested enhancements that could be included as part of a prototype development program. Technical tradeoffs are a possibility if no system could completely satisfy the desired criteria.
•2. Disclaimer
This is a Request for Information (RFI) only, which, as part of market research, is being issued in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 15.201(e). This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes to obtain information related to general programmatic topics, price, delivery, product line capabilities analyses, and demographic/other market information. This is not a solicitation/Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a solicitation and no contract shall be resultant from this synopsis.
AFMC AFLCMC/HBAG will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI.
Responses will be treated as information only and will not be used as a proposal. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this RFI, is strictly voluntarily.
•3. Background
The democratization of technology has allowed adversarial nations to gain relative parity in technology and capability placing U.S. forward operating airfields at risk of attack. To counter this threat, the U.S. Air Force needs the ability to rapidly deploy forces in all weather conditions to ensure freedom of movement, commitment to our partners and demonstration of our resolve. Advanced enemy capabilities directly impact the Air Force's ability to operate in contested areas and are known as Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environments. These advanced capabilities include Integrated Air Defense Systems, denied or contested electromagnetic environments and potential missile threats to forward-operating locations. Adaptive Basing is an emerging concept of operations (CONOPs) that calls for Agile Disaggregation (or dispersal) that divides operational units into geographically dispersed subunits conducting operations coordinated in time and space. These subunits are more agile if they can shift their operating bases or locations quickly and unpredictably. This requires significant resilience and mobility of combat forces. The need for mobility and agility places pressure on planners to reduce the military footprint and potentially take significant risks in the interest of speed.
Air Traffic Control and Landing System (ATCALS) provides vital mission support to enable USAF forces to deliver responsive and effective global vigilance, global reach and global power. ATCALS must respond to the joint operational need to deploy, employ, sustain, and redeploy aviation assets in multiple geographically separated and environmentally diverse regions at will.
The USAF Expeditionary ATC Technology Development effort seeks to manage the risks by iterative experimentation on the requirements trade space to rapidly develop and field expeditionary ATC capabilities to the warfighters by leveraging current and emerging technologies in radar, automation, network and communication. A small footprint precision approach capability is the first technology development effort.
•4. Expeditionary ATC Technology Development
To rapidly bring expeditionary ATC capabilities to the warfighters, this Technology Development effort is planned to develop a prototype system that can be used to demonstrate the operational utility of the system and to mature the technical requirements. A future contracting activity will follow to acquire production units suitable for fielding.
•5. Overarching Expeditionary ATC Technology Requirements
•5.1 Shall have no impact on aircraft instrumentation nor require any aircraft systems upgrades
•5.2 Shall continue to operate in GPS challenged and/or denied environment
•5.3 Shall have internal monitoring and automatic capability to shut off signal in space when system detects that it is out of tolerance
•5.4 Shall be modular and scalable to enable rapid seamless addition of future sensors and/or new functionalities
•6. Precision Approach Requirements
•6.1 The term "precision" for this proposal is not limited to ILS, MMLS, PAR or LDA with glide slope.
•6.2 The system must provide a vertical and horizontal component.
•6.3 The system shall provide an approach that complies with the criteria from 8260.3D, Chapter 10, or 8260.58, Chapter 3.
•6.4 Shall provide azimuth and elevation guidance to at least four military aircraft out to a minimum of 20 (TBD) nm with no onsite operator/controller interaction
•6.5 Shall provide azimuth and elevation guidance to all military aircraft to the lowest Decision Altitude (DA)/Decision Height (DH) practicable
•6.6 Azimuth volume shall be a minimum of 30 degrees
•6.7 Elevation volume shall be a minimum of -1 to 7 degrees
•6.8 System shall be capable of successfully completing a flight inspection in accordance with (IAW) the FAA Flight Inspection Handbook, TI 8200.52 and Federal Aviation Administration Order (FAAO) 8200.1 United States Flight Inspection Manual
•6.9 System shall be Mode 5 capable in accordance with DoD AIMS 03-1000C if dependent on the use of the aircraft Identification, Friend or Foe/Selective Identification Feature (IFF/SIF) transponder
•7. Mobility Requirements
•7.1 Shall be capable of transport by semi-trailer flatbed truck
•7.2 Shall be capable of being fork lifted by a 10K vehicle
•7.3 Shall be capable of being transported by vehicles in the USAF inventory but no larger than a 1-ton 6 pack or Joint Light Tactical Vehicle
•7.4 Shall be transportable via a maximum of one 463L pallet position on one C-130H (intra-theater)
•7.5 Transportation loads shall meet weight/balance requirements for each specified aircraft (C130, C5, C17)
•7.6 System shall be "sling" transportable
•7.7 Shall meet Type 4 ground transportation requirements IAW SAE AS8090
•7.8 Shall be capable of transport via ocean-going carriers
•7.9 Shall be capable of rail transport and meet Association of American Railroads (AAR), Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET), Gabarit International de Chargement (GIC) standards for rail transport
•7.10 Shall survive airdrop
•8. Deployability Requirements
•8.1 Equipment stored in portable containers are designed to not exceed a two-person lift.
•8.2 LRUs shall meet the lift criteria as defined in MIL-STD-1472G for 2 persons or less, or have self-contained support equipment for moving
•8.3 Shall be capable of physical, on-site, set-up by 2 trained personnel or better wearing appropriate cold weather clothing and/or full nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) mission oriented protective posture (MOPP 4) clothing
•8.4 Setup with NBC or MOPP 4 gear shall be 6 man-hours or less
•8.5 Teardown with NBC or MOPP 4 shall be no more than 4 man-hours
•8.6 Setup without NBC or MOPP gear shall be no more than 2 man-hours
•8.7 Teardown without NBC or MOPP gear shall be no more than 1.5 man-hours
•8.8 Shall be capable to be setup in winds up to 30 knots
•8.9 Shall be capable of setup and operations in worldwide austere locations in all course grained and fine-grained soil conditions as defined in FM 5-472/NAVFAC MO 330/AFJMAN 32-1221(l), Materials Test, App B, Unified Soil Classification System
•8.10 Shall not require permanent foundations (e.g., concrete, cement, etc.).
•8.11 Shall be capable of being powered by a standard Mobile Electric Power (MEP) generator, Advanced Medium-sized Mobile Power Sources (AMMPS) generator, battery, solar, and a commercial generator that meets standard military MEP or AMMPS generating sources requirements. The system shall operate via worldwide commercial power. Power-generating equipment shall be included as part of overall system size and as part of setup time.
•8.12 Shall operate in adverse weather conditions and precipitation including temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 49 degrees Celsius plus up to 1120 W/m2 of solar loading and winds up to 100 mph
•8.13 Any outdoor lighting shall be NVG capable and be able to be turned on/off remotely
•8.14 Shall have obstruction lights IAW FAA Advisory Circular AC150/5345-53D and AC 70/7460-1 and be able to be turned on/off remotely
•8.15 Shall have lightning protection IAW AFI 32-1065 and MIL-STD-464C section 5.5
•8.16 Shall provide grounding, bonding, shielding IAW NFPA 70 article 250 and lightning protection IAW NFPA 780 using MIL-HDBK-419A section 1.11 Military Mobile Facilities as guidance
•8.17 Shall transmit and operate in ATCALS approved military frequency bands (e.g. 960-1215 MHz, 108.10 -111.96 MHz, 329.15 - 335.00 MHz)
•9. Other Requirements
•9.1 Spectrum management and use will be IAW DoD 4650.01, Policy and Procedures for Management and Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, to include the Spectrum Supportability Risk Assessment (SSRA) requirement.
•9.2 Shall comply with overall electromagnetic environmental effects (E3), including interference and spectrum management guidance
•9.3 Shall operate in its intended operational electromagnetic environment (EME) without suffering or causing unacceptable performance degradation due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from/to other equipment in the same environment and should be immune to all EMI/ radio frequency interference
•9.4 All applicable equipment shall comply with national and international spectrum standards and guidance on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum
•9.5 Shall be designed to reduce security risks and vulnerability to Electronic Attack
•9.6 System shall provide cybersecurity protections at the moderate /moderate /moderate categorization level for confidentiality/integrity/availability IAW DoD's Risk Management Framework
•9.7 No Ozone Depleted Substance (ODSs) shall be used during the manufacture, fabrication, operation, or disposal of the equipment
•9.8 HAZMAT required for the manufacture, operation, maintenance or existing at disposal of the system or its support equipment, will be identified along with instructions for safe handling, storage, and disposal of materials and the appropriate material safety data sheets
•9.9 Reliability/Availability/Maintainability (RAM)
•9.10 Operational Availability (Ao) shall be equal to or greater than (≥) 98 percent per year for the total system
•9.11 Mean Time Between Critical Failure (MTBCF) shall be ≥ 2,000 hours
•9.12 Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) for other than critical failures shall be equal to or less than (≤) 30 minutes
•9.13 Maximum Time to Repair (MaxTTR). MaxTTR shall be ≤ 1.5 hours to the 95th percentile
•9.14 Shall require no more than one on-site visit per year for preventive maintenance
•9.15 Shall have dual transmitters (e.g. one for backup) and automatic transfer switch
•10. General Requests and Questions
•10.1 Provide a brief description of your company's expertise and qualifications for providing precision approach capabilities in tactical ATC environments.
•10.2 Provide a brief description of your company's expertise involving ATC systems.
•10.3 Provide information on hardware modification and acceptance test of systems and their internal modules, maintenance and retrofit of previously produced systems.
•10.4 Identify the commercial and military sales history for any proposed system including date, customers and quantities.
•10.5 Provide any additional information you consider relevant to providing an aircraft precision approach landing capability.
•11. Program Management Requests and Questions
•11.1 Describe the qualifications of your engineering staff who have experience in the development of precision approach landing systems.
•11.2 Describe your company's experience with Field Service and technical support.
•11.3 Describe your company's experience with modifications to include incorporation of Military Standard (MIL STD), and configuration management of baseline changes.
•11.4 Describe your company's experience with Quality Assurance Testing, Customer Acceptance Testing, Interoperability Certification Testing, and Joint Interoperability Testing support.
•11.5 Describe your company's experience in developing or updating Technical Data Packages (TDP).
•11.6 Describe your company's policy in providing TDPs to the Government.
•11.7 Describe your company's process for tracking program risks and mitigation steps utilized on past contracts that reduced risks to an acceptable level.
•12. Technical Requests and Questions
•12.1 Provide a description of your proposed small footprint precision approach landing system. Present as much detail as possible on each of the system components and any modifications that will be required to current off the shelf components.
•12.2 Provide any analyses or data on your proposed system's Signal-in-Space (SIS) guidance quality performance (accuracy, integrity, continuity, availability) to support precision approach. The SIS performance can be like those define in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) International Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) Annex 10 Vol. I Chapter 3.1, 3.2, or 3.7.
•12.3 Explain any limitations and challenges for meeting the proposed small footprint precision approach landing capability requirements specified above. Present as much detail as possible on trade space issues.
•12.4 Has the system been installed for operation at an airfield and subsequently redeployed?
•12.5 Has the system been transported on C-130 aircraft? If so, how many?
•12.6 Can the system provide precision approach guidance without air traffic controller intervention onsite? Describe if any Human Machine Interface (HMI) is necessary during the precision approach operations. If so, describe how it would need to be provided away from the system onsite.
•12.7 Does the system require U.S. Air Force aircrew training beyond that required for traditional landing systems?
•12.8 Does the system require more than one frequency pair for guidance to at least four aircraft on approach simultaneously?
•12.9 Are all maintenance and status functions available remotely?
•12.10 Describe the operational environmental extremes for which your system can meet the capabilities that you have described.
•12.11 Describe the non-operational (e.g. storage/shipping/handling) environments that your system can withstand without degradation.
•12.12 Describe limitations for coverage at the minimums and maximums.
•12.13 Describe your system's power requirements.
•12.14 Are technical orders available or in development to U.S. military specifications for a USAF 1C8X2 technician?
•12.15 Are operator and maintainer training available or in development to U.S. military specifications for a USAF 1C8X2 technician?
•12.16 Are current DoD cybersecurity standards (Risk Management Framework) incorporated or in development?
•12.17 Describe any significant opportunities that your proposed system would achieve to support expeditionary ATC operations if other trade spaces are considered beyond those described in this RFI.
•13. Logistics Requests and Questions
•13.1 Describe your company's standard approach for storage of systems while they are awaiting retrofit or awaiting shipment.
•13.2 Describe your company's experience or approach for system warranty coverage.
•13.3 Describe your company's experience in the safe packaging and handling.
•13.4 Describe your company's past involvement with Department of Defense (DoD) logistics requirements and discuss your success record in meeting those requirements on previous DoD contracts.
•13.5 Provide a description of your company's most complex project, which is like this project. Focus on overall management, and mitigation of identified risk factors.
•13.6 Describe the transportability requirements of the system proposed, to include its weight and size.
•14. Cost and Schedule Information
With the understanding any pricing or cost data is not final but general in nature and not demanded but considered extremely helpful, the following questions are requested:
•14.1 What is your estimated price for the development and demonstration of one functionally-representative prototype system?
•14.2 Based on previous production experience, would you be able to produce 20 systems in a five (5) year period? What would be your estimated unit production costs for the five-year period?
•14.3 What is your estimated schedule for the development and demonstration of one functionally-representative prototype system?
•14.4 Provide any other relevant cost information. While not restricted to the following, relevant cost information could include:
•14.4.1 Top three anticipated cost-drivers
•14.4.2 Anticipated breakout of hardware and software costs
•14.4.3 Any other price/cost information you are willing to share
All cost and/or pricing information will be held in the strictest confidentiality.
•15. Ombudsman
An AFLCMC Ombudsman has been appointed to consider and facilitate the resolution of concerns from offerors, potential offerors, and others for this acquisition. Before consulting the Ombudsman concerned parties should first address their concerns, issues, disagreements, and/or recommendation to the Contracting Officer for resolution. In addition, AFFARS 5352.201-9101, Ombudsman, will be included in this acquisition's solicitation and contract. The AFLCMC Ombudsman can be contacted at the following telephone number: (937) 255-5512 or email: [email protected].
•16. Response Format
There is no limit on the number of pages you respond with, however all responses must be responded to as letter sized pages using 12-point, Times New Roman font and minimum one-inch margins in Microsoft® Word or compatible format. Responses to this RFI are required in the English language and received by close of business on, 13 March 2019. All responses shall be unclassified and reviewed to ensure consideration of operational sensitivities. All RFI responses and correspondence related to this matter are to be e-mailed to the Contracting Officer, Richard Williams ([email protected]) with a copy also sent to Capt John Phinney ([email protected])