84--Body Armor/Load Carriage System (BALCS)Body Armor Flotation Vest (BAFV)

NA The US Army Robert Morris Acquisition Center, Natick Contract Division, in support of the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (USA SBCCOM), intends to conduct negotiations and award a purchase order to Englands Specialist Safety Equipment on the basis of other than full and open competition in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation part 6.302-1. This acquisition is being procured under the Department of Defense (DoD) Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Program using DoD Directive 5000.3 -M-2. For further information on the DoD FCT Program go to http://www.acq.osd.mil/fct on the Internet. This acquisition is for the procurement of 45 Body Armor Floatation Vests (BAFV). The Body Armor Flotation Vest must contain a positive buoyancy lift rate with floatation duration time for 250lbs at 24hrs minimum with an objective of 72hrs. The system must be able to self-right a 250lb soldier as a minimum with an objective of 350lbs. The weight of a medium size vests with Body Armor/Load Carriage Sy stem (BALCS) Body Armor Subsystem hard armor plate is18.5lbs with an objective weight of 17.5lbs (floatation device included). The weight requirement for a medium size vest without the BALCS hard armor plate is 8.5lbs minimum with an objective weight of 7 lbs (floatation device included). It is our intent to have the flotation components integrated into the current BALCS vest with the current soft and hard armor as part of the BAFV while still maintaining the functional configuration requirements such as the quick release and load carriage system configuration. The objective is to have the floatation components incorporated into the BALCS vest and protected from ballistic penetration by the soft armor and the minimum threshold is to enhance the BALCS vest by adding a flotation capability. The soft armor for the BALCS vest/Collar provides NIJ IIIA and fragmentation protection equal to or greater than the Personnel Armor System Ground Troops (PASGT). The flotation components should be capable of being re-a rmed and repacked by the user. It must also have a dual option-arming mode that will enable the user to manually override the automatic employment of the floatation device to manual inflation. The final configuration color of the vest is woodland camoufl age and three-color day desert. Under the requirements of the FCT Program a 45-day Market Research was conducted on the Federal Businss Opportunities (FBO) webpage. Englands Specialist Safety Equipment is the only source that provided a sample that meet s the basic requirements. Additional test articles are required to conduct further testing to verify additional threshold flotation and operational requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS. However, the Government will consider all quotations received within three (3) days after date of publication of this announcement. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed purchase order based upon responses is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement to the U. S. Army Robert Morris Acquisition Center, Natick Cont racting Division, ATTN: AMSSB-ACN-S/Peggy Dube, Natick, MA 01760-5011 no later than 5:00 p.m. ESTon 21 Feb 2003. Inquiries may be made via e-mail to contact@example.gov. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. See FBO Note 22.