Added: April 4, 2008
The US Army Contracting Agency, White Sands Directorate (WSMR DOC), White Sands Missile Range in support of Test Resource Management Center, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), is soliciting white papers and proposals, both technical and costsfor innovative research and development concepts focused in the area of Unmanned and Autonomous System Testing (UAST). This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) identifies scientific and technical areas of interest for research and or exploratory development of four technology areas in terms of four topic areas. The BAA is conducted using full and open competition. In an effort to minimize proposal preparation cost, the BAA utilizes a two- step process. The first step will be the submission of a white paper.The white paper must contain as a minimum: Title, Period of Performance, Rough Order of Magnitude Cost, Company Address, Technical and Contracting Points of Contact, Phone, Fax & Email, Task Objective, Technical Summary and Proposed Deliverables. Offerors that submit white papers that are consistent with the intent of the BAA, and are of interest to the Government will be invited to submit a proposal (step two). The submission of a white paper is required prior to the submission of a proposal. Failure to follow this two-step process may preclude the chance for award. White papers submitted in response to the BAA will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in the BAA. Technical evaluations will employ a peer or scientific review process. A white papers technical evaluation and its importance to agency programs, along with funding availability are primary bases for contract award. Cost realism and reasonableness shall also be considered to the extent appropriate. White papers will be accepted continuously through 19 May 2008. The BAA technical areas of interest are divided into the following groups: 1. UAST Modeling and Architecture (MA), MA-1 Sensors and Intelligence Fusion Processing, MA-2 Multi-Agent, Multi Sensor, MultiModal Decision Making, MA-3 Modeling, Simulation, and Prototyping for Complex Adaptive Environments, MA-4 Energy and Sustainment, MA-5 Human Systems Integration and Human Machine Interface, MA-6 Adaptive Architectural Frameworks, MA-7 Collaborative Tools, 2. UAST Aspects and Protocols, (AP) AP-1 Synthetic/Surrogate Presentations, AP-2 System- ilities Assessment, AP-3 Ensuring Safety in all Battle space Environment, AP-4 Payloads and Weapons Fail Safe Management at System Level, AP-5 Obstacle/Collision Avoidance, AP-6 Launch and Recovery, AP-7 Long Duration Testing, 3. Test beds and Test Environments (TTE), TTE-1 Distributive Command and Control (C2) and Situational Awareness Portal, TTE-2 Communications and Natural Networks, TTE-3 Bandwidth and Spectral Diversity, TTE-4 Interfaces and Semiotic Agents, TTE-5 Platforms and Ecosystems, TTE-6 Prescribed System of Systems Environments, TTE-7 Unfolding Complex System Environments, 4. UAS Analytics (A), A-1 Autonomy Classification, A-2 Cognition Evaluation, A-3 Sensing and Perception for UAST, A-4 UAST Concept of Operations, A-5 Measures of Performance and Measures of Effectiveness, A-6 Swarming and Intelligent Agent Behavior, A-7 Perceptional Invariance and Categorization. OFFEROR INFORMATION: Evaluations may take up to 60 days from receipt of White Paper to complete. Numerous awards may result from this BAA and will depend upon the quality and merit of white papers and proposals received and available funding. If the Government decides to pursue a concept with regard to this BAA a formal proposal will be requested. Award of any contracts resulting from this BAA is anticipated to occur in FY08 or FY09. If selected, you must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) (http://www.ccr.gov/) in order to receive the award. If you are not in the CCR at the time we are ready to make the award, you will be disqualified. Issuance ofthis BAA does not obligate the Government to fund any white paper, pay any proposal preparation costs, or to award any contract. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a white paper, which will be considered. No portion of this announcement is set aside for historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's) or minority institutions (MI's); proposals are invited from all sources. The Government reserves the right to select for award, all, some, or none of the white papers or proposals received in response to this announcement. The UAST BAA, instructions for the submission of white papers and required proposal summary form are published at the WSMR DOC web site located at http://www.wsmr.army.mil/docpage/pages/sol_stat.htm . Potential sources are reminded that it is their responsibility to frequently check this website for any issues and updates regarding this Broad Agency Announcement. White papers are to be submitted electronically on CD-ROM in Microsoft Office 2003 or higher. The original and one copy of the CD-ROMs shall be submitted to Army Contracting Agency White Sands Directorate. The date and time for submission of the completed white papers and the proposal summary form, is 19 May 2008, 12 Noon Mountain Standard Time. Point of Contact Email your questions to timothy.a.byrnes@us.army.mil and mindy.franklin@us.army.mil Deadline for questions is 01 May 2008.
Fourth set of questions and answers.
1. Were making an assumption that the Proposal Summary sheet (was in the BAA announcement as a separate file but not mentioned in the actual BAA document) has to be completed and included in the submittal.
Response:
This is a Contracting Requirement that must be addressed even though it was not specifically mentioned in the BAA.
2. Is this Proposal Summary page part of the 15-page limitation or not?
Response:
No, this is over and above.
3. Is the preference to have the Proposal Summary sheet as a separate file on the CD or incorporated into the White Paper submittal? If in the White Paper submittal do you want it presented before or after the Cover Page?
Response:
Yes separate file for contracting to easily identify.
4. What is the software preference for the files on the CD (i.e. is the White Paper and Quad Chart suppose to be submitted just as a *.doc or is the preference in *.pdf format)? Realize the Gantt chart will be in *.mpp format.
Response:
Preference is for a Microsoft Office Word with the quad chart and the Gantt chart embedded. However, Gantt chart must also be submitted in MS Project format as a separate *.mpp file.
5. In reviewing the postings for BAA-UAST0002, Unmanned and Autonomous System Testing, a question was asked (Modification 1) about whether the BAA would be interested in the R&D; of new SIGINT/COMINT sensors for unmanned systems. The response to this question was yes.
We would like to obtain a clarification of this Q&A; as it relates to the BAA's four technical topic areas of interest. Is the BAA potentially interested in developing a SIGINT/COMINT sensor, as prime mission equipment, for intelligence gathering purposes (if so, then which area of interest and capability framework would this interest fall under) or would the interest be in investigating the dual-use of a SIGINT/COMINT sensor as a platform to also perform the test and evaluation of UAS?
Response: Modeling and Architecture
Refer to the technical topic areas on page 18. In column 3 the BAA describes the types of S&T; investments that are needed in UAST. Without knowing the details of your proposal, we could surmise you are proposing an architectural framework for SIGINT/COMINT. Therefore, this would lead us to believe that you are primarily addressing modeling and architecture (MA). Even though this may be primarily focused on MA, it could have relationships to other subtopic areas as indicated by the parenthesis references in column 3. For instance, this architecture could utilize a SIGINT/COMINT platform to verify the feasibility and scalability of this approach.
