MODIFICATION
A -- Air Force Life Cycle Management Center - Consortium Initiative (ACI)
- Notice Date
- 10/1/2018
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFLCMC/PK - WPAFB (includes PZ, WL, WW, WI, WN, WK, LP, WF, WK), 2275 D Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, 45433-7218, United States
- ZIP Code
- 45433-7218
- Solicitation Number
- FA8604-19-R-4050
- Point of Contact
- Kari Wedemeyer,
- E-Mail Address
-
kari.wedemeyer@us.af.mil
(kari.wedemeyer@us.af.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 1. OVERVIEW (a) The purpose of this announcement is to solicit qualified offerors to submit proposals for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center - Consortium Initiative (ACI). ACI aims to enable the Air Force to acquire prototypes at the pace of commercial innovation, from the widest possible pool of prospective suppliers. To achieve this aim, the Government is exploring options regarding competitive award of a 10 U.S.C. §2371b other transaction (OT) agreement to a consortium manager to create a new or leverage an existing consortium of large and small organizations, representing traditional and non-traditional Defense contractors, as well as academic institutions. Other Department of Defense organizations may utilize this OT agreement. The consortium manager must have the ability to manage competition, award, and administration of individual prototype projects with substantial participation from nontraditional defense contractors. The mission of the consortium will include performing research, development, and test and evaluation within prototyping projects that address requirements presented by, or of interest to, the US Government. (b) It is the Government's intention to enter into an OT agreement with only one consortium manager that can best meet the Government's defined scope provided below. By definition, a consortium is an organized group of entities that agree to participate under a common rule set. The consortium should be open to new membership and display a broad array of expertise and experience connected to the domains identified herein. Prospective members must agree to the terms of the consortium. A consortium comprised of educational, nonprofit, and commercial organizations with broad and open membership is required to provide the Government a partner able to collaborate across barriers that include military/civilian, public/private, local/regional/national, and political/jurisdictional matters and concerns. (c) The Consortium Manager can be an individual, a for profit organization, or a not-for-profit corporation. The consortium manager will serve as an independent agent of the Government and will not be eligible to compete for project awards. The consortium manager will serve as the broker for the individual prototype project agreements. In other words, the Government sends the funds to the consortium manager; the consortium manager takes the appropriate fee for service per the terms set forth in the consortium OT agreement; and the consortium manager then delivers the remaining funds to the performers per the terms of the project transaction. (d) The Government anticipates that ACI will be awarded as an Other Transaction (OT) Agreement for Prototype Projects, as authorized under 10 U.S.C. §2371b. The resulting agreement is expected to be valued at a maximum funding ceiling of $100M, with a performance period of one year base period of performance with four, one-year options (for a total of five years). Note: this ceiling is likely to grow to $500M or higher. It is anticipated that this OT agreement will be funded on a Firm Fixed Price basis, in increments, with pricing based on the outcome of an indefinite number of individual prototype project-level competitions and individual prototype project agreements. Despite the Firm Fixed Price nature of the Agreement, the consortium manager will need to identify an accounting system that is capable of tracking the receipt of Government funding and the resolution of milestone payments. (e) Deliverables are expected to consist nearly entirely of prototypes (software, hardware, and/or technical documentation). Periodic reports will be required for the overall program. 2. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES (a) The United States Air Force has identified the need for an AFLCMC OT Consortium to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the military aviation acquisition process. This consortium would perform critical research, development, test, and evaluation within prototyping projects supporting the AFLCMC mission areas identified within Section 2(b) below. The core objective of ACI is to create a mutually beneficial environment between the Government and industry/academia that fosters collaboration to close the gap between existing technology/capability and performance threshold requirements within the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's (AFLCMC's) mission sets detailed in section 2(b) below. (b) The scope of AFLCMC prototyping projects might include any topic generally consistent with the research, development, test and evaluation within prototyping projects of the AFLCMC mission sets. These mission sets include, but are not limited to: weapon system and commercial derivative aircraft platforms; battle management; simulators; human systems; clothing/uniforms; business enterprise systems; command, control, communications, intelligence and networks; armament, support equipment and vehicles; automatic test systems; electronic warfare and avionics; information, surveillance, reconnaissance and special operations; aircraft integration, and aircraft subsystems. It is anticipated that ACI will promote competition for individual prototype projects through a two-step white paper/proposal process. (c) AFLCMC aims to take advantage of the inherent flexibility afforded by other transactions for prototyping authority to achieve the following general objectives. • Expose AFLCMC requirements to, and lower barriers to entry for, the broad community of traditional and nontraditional solution providers. • Encourage rapid solicitation to award timelines. • Employ objective, test-based, Validation and Verification as basis of Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), trade analysis, source selection, and performance monitoring. • Develop Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR) and Data Rights that incentivize mutually beneficial government-industry partnership. • Transition successfully tested prototype applications as vendor-supported off-the-shelf products. • Continuously evolve an appropriately "open" technical architecture that optimizes government investment by both leveraging best available existing commercial technology and developing new technology in partnership with industry. • Minimize risk of technology perishability by executing rapid, iterative, evolutionary, demonstration-to-delivery cycles. 3. LIMITATIONS OF OT AUTHORITY (a) Individual project-level agreements issued under the resulting OT Agreement must be limited to prototype projects that are directly relevant to enhancing the mission effectiveness of military personnel and the supporting platforms, systems, components, or materials proposed to be acquired or developed by the Department of Defense, or improvements to the platforms, systems, components, or materials in use by the armed forces. (b) To the maximum extent practicable, the individual prototype projects shall be awarded on a competitive basis, in order to provide for the opportunity to award a follow-on prototype agreement or follow-on production contract or transaction to the participants in the individual prototype projects. Further, the individual prototype projects may provide for prototypes or follow-on production items to be provided to another contractor as Government-furnished equipment. (c) At least one third of the total cost of each prototype project is to be paid out of funds provided by sources other than the Federal Government unless one of the following applies: a. There is at least one nontraditional defense contractor or nonprofit research institution participating to a significant extent in the prototype project; b. All significant participants in the transaction other than the Federal Government are small businesses (including small business participating in a program described under section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638)); or c. The senior procurement executive for the agency determines in writing that exceptional circumstances justify the use of a transaction that provides for innovative business arrangements or structures that would not be feasible or appropriate under a contract, or would provide an opportunity to expand the defense supply base in a manner that would not be practical or feasible under a contract. (d) For purposes of these limitations identified in Sections 3(a)-3(c) above, the following definitions apply: • Prototype Project / Individual Prototype Project - A prototype project can generally be described as a preliminary pilot, test, evaluation, demonstration, or agile development activity used to evaluate the technical or manufacturing feasibility or military utility of a technology, process, concept, end item, effect, or other discrete feature. Prototype projects may include systems, subsystems, components, materials, methodology, technology, or processes. A prototype project may involve a: proof of concept; a pilot; a novel application of commercial technologies for defense purposes; a creation, design, development, demonstration of technical or operational utility; or combinations of the foregoing, related to a prototype. • Small Business - a small business concern as defined under section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632). This definition also includes small businesses participating in a program described under section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638), e.g., Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program participants. • "Directly relevant to enhancing military capabilities" - development that enhances mission effectiveness of military personnel and supporting platforms, systems, components, or materials proposed to be acquired or developed by the Department of Defense, or improvement of platforms, systems, components, or materials in use by the Armed Forces. • Nontraditional Defense Contractor - any entity that is not currently performing and has not performed, for at least one year preceding solicitation of this agreement, any contract or subcontract subject to the full Cost Accounting Standards coverage required by 41 U.S.C. § 1502. • "Participating to a significant extent" - supplying new key technology or products; accomplishing a significant amount of the effort; causing a material reduction in the cost or schedule, and/or causing an increase in the performance of the work effort. In order to be relieved of the one third cost share requirement, the prime traditional contractor must submit documentation describing the significant participation of the nontraditional contractor, which must be approved by the cognizant Agreements Officer. 4. PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS (a) Interested parties are requested to respond to this combined synopsis/solicitation with a proposal. (b) Proposals in Microsoft Word for Office compatible format are due no later than 5 October 2018, 1700 EST. Submissions are limited to 20 pages. Any supporting information, such as Consortium Membership Agreements, Letters of Intent, etc., must be included in the addendum (the addendum does not count against the 20-page submission limit). Responses shall be limited to 20 pages and submitted via email only to the Agreements Officer, Kari Wedemeyer at kari.wedemeyer@us.af.mil no later than 1 October 2018, 1700 EST. Any proposals received after this date and time will not be evaluated. As a practical matter, existing consortia that submit proposals must be represented by consortium managers with means and authority to speak for the members, organize their activities, and make binding agreements on their behalf. (c) For standardization purposes, each proposal shall include relevant information in the following format: (i) Section 1: Administrative information, to include the following as a minimum: 1. A cover page labeled with the heading, "Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) -Consortium Initiative," name of company, name of corporate point of contact (POC), name of technical POC, telephone number for each POC, mailing address, email addresses for each POC, CAGE code, and any other pertinent information. 2. Business type for the offeror. a. Business types may be: non-profit, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a)-certified small disadvantaged business, HUBZone small business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business. b. Business types shall be based upon North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541611, Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. 3. The facility security clearance of the offeror, to include capability to handle classified material up to and including SECRET. 4. Proposed process for handling sensitive materials (FOUO, proprietary, etc.). (ii) Section 2 Performance Management/Technical information, to include the following: 1. How the objectives would be addressed and performance against objectives would be measured. Provide evidence of ability to meet government objectives by: a. Recommending a competitive process and operational procedures for handling requests for individual prototype projects. This should include procedures for handling white papers, full proposals, and projects that are determined to have merit, but for which no funding is available. b. Performing fiduciary tasks associated with transferring funds from government to individual prototype project participants. c. Performing targeted recruiting of new individual prototype project participants. d. Facilitating teaming among individual prototype project participants. e. Providing services associated with domain technological expertise such as: i. Independent Validation and Verification ii. Capturing and documenting standards and best practices iii. Performing training iv. Facilitating technical exchange f. Supporting and managing consortium communications in the following manner: i. Providing a centralized capability, such as a website, containing and organizing the consortium's information for easy access by US Government customers ii. Providing US Government customers with prototyping resources and important OT information iii. Providing secure data portal capable of transferring and storing FOUO and proprietary information iv. Providing membership information (i.e., member listing and contact information) g. Suggesting innovative fee structures designed to incentivize achievement of government objectives. It is anticipated that the consortium will operate on a fee-for-service basis. Examples include, but are not limited to: i. Fixed transaction fee (same fee regardless of individual prototype project price) ii. Tiered transaction fees (fees vary for individual prototype projects that fall within different price ranges) based on individual prototype project price, and/or services rendered, adjusted to exclude hardware, material, and travel costs. Note: The exclusion of hardware, materials, and travel costs from the fee calculation is intended to capture labor costs as the main indicator of risk in a given project, which may lead to more challenging management during the performance of a given project. Individual prototype projects that consist in large part of material, hardware, and/or travel are perceived to be less risky and require less potential for substantial involvement on the part of the consortium lead. iii. Percentage of price up to a maximum dollar amount based on project price adjusted to exclude hardware, materials, and travel costs iv. Percentage of project price up to a maximum dollar amount h. Providing corporate competencies and past performance with respect to Government objectives and selection criteria. Explain experience with regard to consortium management in context with government and/or commercial applications. i. Describing experience working on projects with the Federal Government, State and Local Governments, academia, and/or industry. Include affiliations, associations, and specific involvement in and with the federal and non-federal research and development, testing and engineering community, sufficient to demonstrate a well-established presence in that community. j. Providing a proposed schedule for consortium establishment, if one does not currently exist. (iii) Addendum The Addendum to the proposal will not be included in the page count. The addendum shall be comprised of a proposed consortium charter that includes: a. Proposed Consortium by-laws; b. Proposed Consortium membership process; c. Proposed consortium membership fees; and d. Proposed consortium membership requirements 5. EVALUATION CRITERIA (a) The government will perform an integrated assessment of each proposal to make a final determination of which consortium provides the best value to the Government. For evaluation purposes, the following criteria will be assessed, in no relative order of importance: • Factor 1: Strategy for attracting, retaining, and expanding consortium membership. The Government will evaluate the consortium manager's strategy as it relates to the openness of the consortium, in particular the ease with which new members are able to join and participate; specific actions intended to expedite formation of the consortium; specific actions intended to ensure the consortium membership aligns with the mission areas identified above; and plans to grow and mature the consortium membership base. • Factor 2: Strategy for coordinating and assisting activities of consortium members at the individual prototype project level. The Government will evaluate the consortium's strategy as it relates to the processes by which the consortium will assist the project-level member with proposal preparation, proposal analysis, co-development and integration, test and evaluation, progress reporting, invoicing and expedited payments, intellectual property, and project close-out. • Factor 3: Schedule for the consortium to be established. The Government will evaluate the proposed consortium implementation plan and timeline to determine when the consortium will be capable of competing Government prototype requirements. The Government intends to solicit for individual prototype projects upon execution of the consortium OT agreement. • Factor 4: Recommended competition processes and operational procedures. The Government will evaluate the proposed competition process and operational procedures for prototype projects that the consortium believes is the best fit for the consortium OT agreement. • Factor 5: Organizational and fee structure of the consortium. The Government will evaluate the proposed organizational and fee structure of the consortium, to include Consortium Metrics, Management Framework of Consortium, Reporting, Articles of Collaboration/By-Laws, Consortium Member Agreement, innovative fee structures designed to incentivize achievement of government objectives, and any other relative information on how the consortium intends to operate. A consortium managed by a Consortium Management Firm is preferred. 6. EVALUATION RATINGS Each of the six factors identified in Section 5 above will receive an evaluation rating supported by justification in the Government's decision of which one consortium best meets the Government's needs. The following ratings will be utilized: • Good: The proposal demonstrates a thorough approach and understanding of the requirements. The prospective consortium has provided a comprehensive and detailed plan in accordance with the evaluation criteria as outlined in the combined synopsis/solicitation. The risk of unsuccessful performance is low. • Acceptable: The proposal demonstrates an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements. The prospective consortium has provided an adequate plan in accordance with the evaluation criteria as outlined in the combined synopsis/solicitation. The risk of unsuccessful performance is no worse than moderate. • Unacceptable: The proposal does not demonstrate an ability to meet or understand the Government requirements. The prospective consortium did not provide a plan in accordance with the evaluation criteria as outlined in the combined synopsis/solicitation. The risk of unsuccessful performance is high. 7. COMMUNICATIONS WITH OFFERORS AND FINAL PROPOSAL REVISIONS The Government will perform an initial review of the proposal(s) submitted. The Government reserves the right to make an award based on the initial proposals submitted in response to this synopsis/solicitation notice without further interactions. Proposals that do not contain the information requested are at risk of being determined Unacceptable in accordance with the evaluation ratings above. If the Government determines that further interactions and/or an opportunity to revise proposals is necessary, the Government reserves the right to contact all, some, or none of the offerors and/or request proposal revisions. 8. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS (a) Government Property: Government Property is not currently being provided. It is not anticipated that the consortium manager will require access to Government Property in order to carry out its role in this acquisition. Use of Government Property may be considered for individual project agreements. Terms and conditions regarding the tracking, use, disposition, and title to Government Property will be included in the resulting agreement to provide the framework for providing Government Property to individual project prototype performers. It is understood and accepted that time may be needed to implement Government Property requirements upon the first instance of property being provided. It is also understood that projects that require Government Property may take longer to award than those without property requirements. (b) Security Clearance/Classification: The consortium manager will be responsible for coordinating clearance verification, access, and safeguarding of required classified resources. Tracking and disposition of this support will be the consortium manager's responsibility upon conclusion of the individual prototype project effort(s). Base Support and Government network access are not anticipated for the consortium manager or the individual prototype project performers at this time. (c) Intellectual Property: with the exception of commercial software, which will be handled through commercial licensing, all software and technical data developed by the consortium manager or the individual prototype project performers is anticipated to be delivered with the following Government Purpose Rights: the rights to • Use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose technical data, computer software, or computer software documentation within the Government without restriction; and • Release or disclose technical data, computer software, or computer software documentation for United States Government purpose. This definition applies to noncommercial technical data, computer software, or computer software documentation. The Government reserves its right to negotiate intellectual property rights that differ from what is described above, as necessary. (d) Accreditation: Performers should note that some military information systems require access to source code for accreditation purposes. Accreditation is a part of security testing for certain Information Systems. The accreditation process is tailored to each new Information System, so the need for source code must be determined on a case-by-case basis and will vary based on the system program office associated with each project. The Government will make every attempt to identify the extent to which code will be required to complete accreditation and provide this information with the initial prototype project announcement. Any source code requirements will be captured in the project approval letter that the Government will send to the consortium manager following selection of a successful proposal. In such cases, source code requirements will also be included in the individual prototype project agreement between the consortium manager and the individual prototype project performer. (e) Organizational Conflicts of Interest: All facts relevant to the existence or potential existence of organizational conflicts of interest must be disclosed (i.e., Offerors must disclose those situations in which, because of other activities or relationships with other persons, a person or organization is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice to the Government, or the person or organization's objectivity in performing the agreement work is or might be otherwise impaired, or a person or organization has an unfair competitive advantage). The disclosure shall include a description of the potential conflict as well as the action the Offeror has taken or proposes to take to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate such conflict. Proposals that fail to fully disclose potential conflicts of interest and/or do not have plans to mitigate this conflict may be rejected without evaluation and withdrawn from further consideration for award. Throughout performance, the consortium manager will be required to monitor potential conflicts of interest between its individual project level performers and the contractors currently developing for and operating the targeted systems. 9. SPECIFIC TERMS AND CONDITIONS (a) Specific terms and conditions of the resulting OT agreement will be negotiated and finalized with the selected consortium prior to award. (b) The Government intends to make a 10 U.S.C. §2371b OT agreement based on proposals submitted in response to this competitive combined synopsis/solicitation notice. All information in response to this notice is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the Government. The Government will publish an Intent to Award Announcement to FedBizOpps upon selection of a consortium in response to this combined synopsis/solicitation. The Government does not intend to provide debriefings to unsuccessful respondents. A notice of the Government's consortium award selection will be announced on FedBizOpps upon the conclusion of the evaluation process. (c) Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. No sensitive or classified information will be discussed. Foreign-owned, controlled, or influenced firms are advised that security restrictions may apply that may preclude their participation in these efforts. (d) The most effective time to handle potential problems is during the proposal preparation stage, i.e., prior to the proposal due date, not in the proposal. Therefore, if a prospective Offeror believes that any conflict of interest exists or may exist (whether organizational or otherwise), the Offeror is strongly encouraged to promptly raise the issue with the Agreements Officer by sending Offeror's contact information and a summary of the potential conflict by email to kari.wedemeyer@us.af.mil before time and effort are expended in preparing a proposal and mitigation plan. If, in the sole opinion of the Government after full consideration of the circumstances (including review of the Offeror's mitigation plan), any conflict situation cannot be effectively mitigated, the proposal may be returned without evaluation and withdrawn from further consideration for award under this combined synopsis/solicitation. (e) For planning purposes only, offerors should assume an award date of 6 November 2018; however, proposals in response to this combined synopsis/solicitation will be assumed to be valid for 180 days from receipt of offer. NAICS code 541715 in general information section of FBO posting changed to reflect NAICS code 541611.
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