54--The Infantry Foot Bridge (IFB) should be a rapidly emplaceable (less than 10 minutes),manually-assembled footbridge able to span a dry gap of approx. 65 feet and a wet gap of up to 100 ft.

The Infantry Foot Bridge (IFB) should be a rapidly emplaceable (less than 10 minutes),manually-assembled footbridge able to span a dry gap of approx. 65 feet (20 meters) and a wet gap of up to 100 feet (30 meters) without intermediate support. Footbridge must be packaged in a set of interchangeable components that includes enough redundancy to allow for combat loss of bridge sections yet allow the mission to be completed. The bridge should come with its own reusable pallet/packaging configuration that takes up no more space than a standard 20' shipping container and packed in such a manner that package fits on a standard USMC MTVR (extended bed) and can be offloaded from a transport vehicle with a standard forklift using fork channels large enough for the most common USMC forklifts (TRAM, Terex, MMV). Repackaging/repalletizing the footbridge components must be simple and intuitive. The usual palletized/packaged configuration must weigh less than 2200 lbs (1000 kg) and include appropriate hardware to allow the configured set to be sling-loaded using commonly available USMC helicopter cargo slings. The IFB individual footbridge components must be light enough to be a two-man carry. The bridge set must have the ability to expand wet gap coverage by the addition of floats and include anchoring devices. Training requirements for employment (assembly/launching/delaunching and disassembly) must be minimal. The bridge must have a capacity, to hold combat-loaded Marines (approx 300 lbs/135kg each) spaced at least 30 feet (10 meters) apart to allow for timely crossing of wet and dry gaps by foot mobile personnel engaged in kinetic operations. The bridge must have the capacity and hardware to safely support a loaded standard or compact litter (stretcher) in order to evacuate casualties from one side of the bridge to the other. Additionally, the footbridge must have handrails that are high enough so that a Marine of average height (68"- 1.72m) would able to support himself while crossing the bridge bent over at the waist. The sides of the footbridge are to be so constructed that a Marine's whole body could not slip through any spaces should he slip and fall during crossing. The footbridge's decking, if not solid, should have holes small enough that a Marine would not be tripped up by them. This announcement serves as the advance notice for this project. It is anticipated that the actual issue date will be on or about Oct. 10, 2009.