SOURCES SOUGHT
58 -- Sources Sought Synopsis for Additional UHF Capabilities
- Notice Date
- 8/9/2007
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- 4301 Pacific Highway Bldg OT4 Code 02, San Diego CA 92110-3127
- ZIP Code
- 92110-3127
- Solicitation Number
- SPAWAR_Headquarters_MKTSVY_4A7DE
- Response Due
- 8/30/2007
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWARSYSCOM), on behalf of the Program Executive Office Space Systems and its Communications Satellite Program Office (PMW-146), is seeking to identify responsible prime sources (i.e. prime contractor or contracting teams) that can provide narrowband Military Communications (MILCOM) satellite services [i.e. Ultra-High Frequency (UHF)] beyond that currently provided or under contract for future use. The UHF Follow-On (UFO) constellation, procured from Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA) under contract N00039-88-C-0300, currently provides the warfighter its narrowband communications needs. For reference, the last satellite (F11) added to the UFO constellation has a design lifetime of 14 years and a payload with 41 channels: one (1) broadcast channel of 25 kHz bandwidth; 17 relay channels of 25kHz bandwidth; and 23 narrowband channels of 5 kHz bandwidth; plus one (1) EHF uplink and downlink channel for commanding the spacecraft. The warfighter also uses additional UHF capabilities (five 25kHz channels) from G2 Satellite Solutions Corporation (Washington D.C.) under the LEASAT services contract N00039- 05-C-0022. The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) constellation, currently being procured from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (Sunnyvale, CA) under contract N00039-04-C-2009, is the next generation narrowband Military Satellite Communications system that will replace the UFO system. Operational availability of the first MUOS satellite is scheduled for March 2010 with final satellite delivery scheduled for March 2014. For any additional UHF capabilities, the U.S. Navy is considering the use of firm- fixed-price contracts via FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items and possibly service-based only (???leasing???) acquisitions. Please note that the Government will consider UHF services from satellites that may contain other bandwidth (e.g., C-band) channels for other customers, provided that priority consideration is given to meet UHF service needs. Though not the preferred Government approach, if the interested party first requires Government funding to complete any engineering development (i.e. not manufacturing and applicable only to providing additional UHF capability), such effort would be contracted using FAR Part 15 with services options via FAR Part 12. The Government will not consider any arrangement that requires a multi-year (see FAR Part 17) contracting approach or termination of liability if any services options are not exercised. At a minimum, these Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) capabilities must be interoperable with current military UHF terminals and telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) system without changes to the integrated waveform. It is important to note that the Government prefers additional UHF capabilities to be provided sooner rather than later (i.e. less capability short-term is preferred over waiting longer for greater capability). Accordingly, the Government requires that any interested party identify the earliest availability date it can provide any UHF capabilities. Each interested party shall describe the range of its qualifications, including the feasibilty of providing UHF capabilities available at its earliest delivery date (month and year) via its lowest risk (technical and schedule)/most affordable solution with the related risk level (technical and schedule) and rough order of magnitude (ROM) price. THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF SOLICITATION ISSUANCE, but rather this is a sources sought synopsis in order for the Government to identify interested sources that are capable of providing these narrowband military communications satellite efforts. The purpose of this sources sought is to identify potential prime sources that: (1) can adequately demonstrate their current capabilities; and (2) have a detailed plan of action that shows the ability to meet satellite capability service requirements within executable schedules and corresponding ROM prices as well as contracting approaches required to perform accordingly. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized under separate cover on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website and the SPAWAR E-Commerce Central website. Potential offerors are responsible for monitoring these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement. The information requested herein will be used to support a potential solicitation issued in 4th quarter FY07 or 1st quarter FY08 that will result in a contract award as early as the end of the 2nd quarter of FY08. All information provided below is for planning purposes and is subject to change. The satellite, whether already produced or to be produced, must be designed for stabilization in geosynchronous orbit to ensure that the antennas are constantly maintained in an earth pointing orientation. The spacecraft must provide the necessary power to support the mission requirements during those periods when the satellite is in eclipse. The spacecraft must provide the essential support functions for the control of the communications payload, and must accommodate and provide essential support functions for operation of the Communications Security (COMSEC) Equipment used for TT&C. The TT&C equipment must provide all necessary functions for the control of the satellite and communications payload. Any prime sources (i.e. prime contractor or contracting teams) shall reply to this synopsis if they are interested in proposing for this potential future narrowband satellite communications effort. Interested offerors shall submit qualification packages generally describing their capabilities and satellite designs for meeting this requirement. Packages shall be in the form of a narrative statement not exceeding 10 face pages double-spaced and a slide presentation (e.g., MS PowerPoint) not exceeding 25 slides. Interested offerors shall submit their qualification packages via the SPAWAR E-commerce website to the SPAWAR contracts point of contact, Ms. Maureen Zajano. Replies should be submitted by 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Thursday, Aug 30th, 2007. After reviewing the responses, Government may contact a prime source for a live presentation (telecon, VTC, or in-person, not to exceed 90 minutes) of its response. Any live presentations, if requested, must be made no later than Friday, September 14th, 2007. This is NOT a request for proposals. Proprietary data in responses will be protected where so designated. All respondents should indicate their company size status and the extent to which they can include small business participation (of all small business categories listed in FAR 19.7). If proposing a solution yet to complete manufacturing, the contractor size status is based on NAICS Code 334220 with an SBA size standard of 750 employees. If proposing a solution that in involves services only, the contractor size status is based on NAICS Code 517410 with an SBA size standard of $12.5M. Partnering between small and large businesses is encouraged. Responses received in reply to this notice may, in part, be used to make a determination of the level of competition for the resulting solicitation [e.g., full and open competition, SB set-aside, 8(a) set- aside, etc.]. Given the potential size and complexity of the proposed satellite utilized to fulfill the performance requirement, the Navy expects that the qualification packages submitted will describe the mature satellite design (whether satellite is already built or not) including: 1) define the satellite architecture to be used to meet the performance requirements and affordability constraints at verifiable and acceptable levels of risk; 2) describe the specifics of the system production, deployment, and operations processes; 3) identify key technical risk items and key cost drivers and demonstrate how they will be managed; 4) if the satellite to be used is not already in orbit, demonstrate the capability to achieve operation in orbit; 5) provide spacecraft information including satellite size, weight and power breakdowns to the payload and bus unit level with sufficient detail to demonstrate how spacecraft weight and power consumption estimates and margins were derived; technical descriptions of key spacecraft hardware and software components such as antennas, deployment mechanisms, feeds, filters, receivers, transmission lines, processors, and transmitter subsystems; and spacecraft reliability estimates to show that all performance requirements will be met; 6) technical descriptions of UHF payload in adequate depth to clearly demonstrate requirements satisfaction; signal analysis showing attainment of critical technical parameters such as gain, noise figure, dynamic range, linearity, efficiency, isolation, Gain to Noise Temperature (G/T), Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP), intermodulation products, out of band emissions, signal processing, and any other key technical parameters affecting performance; 7) bus architecture information including functional block diagrams of the satellite bus and technical descriptions of key bus subsystems that clearly demonstrate requirements satisfaction; technical descriptions of all key bus subsystems including power, attitude control, propulsion, TT&C, thermal control and any other bus subsystems required for proper spacecraft operation; and 8) a ROM price (by Government fiscal year) for providing the UHF capability and, if satellite not yet on orbit, delineate the portion of the ROM price attributed to completion of engineering development applicable to the UHF capability only. If an interested party believes its solution to meeting the Government???s requirements does not meet the FAR 2.101 definition of ???commercial item??? and that FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items does not apply, it shall state so, provide the rationale for such interpretation, and clearly specify its qualification package is based on an acquisition using FAR Part 15 only and what contract type. A duplicate version of this sources sought synopsis is available at https://e-commerce.spawar.navy.mil. (Click on the ???Headquarters??? folder for Headquarters, then the ???Market Surveys??? link, then the ???Additional UHF Capabilities??? folder.)
- Web Link
-
Click on this link to access the SPAWAR E-Commerce Central Web Site
(https://e-commerce.spawar.navy.mil/Command/02/ACQ/navhome.nsf/homepage?readform&db=navbusopor.nsf&whichdoc=AD75B1217CF1FE8B8825732C00626B64&editflag=0)
- Record
- SN01367958-W 20070811/070809222622 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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