A -- Ocean Technologies for Maritime Military Operations

The National Defense Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) is soliciting proposals for concept development and demonstration of ocean technologies and applied ocean sciences for military maritime purposes. Of particular interest are proposals for development and demonstration of advanced technologies for Shallow Water Surveillance, Ocean Environmental Preservation, New Ocean Platform and Ship Concepts, Ocean Instruments and Engineering Tools, and Unique Properties of the Deep Ocean Environment. Innovative concepts and new approaches are being sought to advance technology, enhance capabilities and infrastructure in Hawaii, and demonstrate beneficial maritime military utility and commercial development potential for the Department of Defense. CEROS will execute the program outlined in this announcement contingent upon funding amount and availability. Subject areas of interest include: (1) Shallow Water Surveillance Technologies, emphasizing innovative approaches to collection, processing and presentation of information from and about the maritime operational environment. (2) Ocean Environmental Preservation, emphasizing innovative system development and demonstrations for ocean environmental sensing, remediation, monitoring and control. (3) New Ocean Platform and Ship Concepts, emphasizing development and demonstration of innovative designs, advanced structures or improved techniques. (4) Ocean Measurement Instrumentation and Ocean Engineering Tools, emphasizing development and demonstration of advanced sensors, innovative undersea systems or facilities, and new techniques for undersea measurement, modeling, prediction and data exploitation. (5) Unique Properties of the Deep Ocean Environment, emphasizing new techniques to identify or exploit unique properties, conditions, materials, products or potential of the deep ocean for enhanced maritime operational capability. Particular topics of interest to CEROS for the FY04 program include advanced technologies to enhance littoral operations and undersea warfare (USW) and techniques or devices to improve maritime readiness, force efficiency and operational effectiveness. These include enabling technologies for wide bandwidth submarine communications at depth and speed; enhanced USW capabilities for regions with high surface contact density; broad area search and cueing technologies for antisubmarine warfare (ASW); netted sensor applications and network centric, off-bottom, portable undersea tracking systems; inexpensive, expendable ASW sensors that can be deployed in large numbers; advanced ship concepts and shock mitigation techniques for high speed surface craft; materials and structures for enhanced survivability; nondestructive testing techniques; methods for failure detection and prediction in advanced materials; unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) or remotely controlled robotic systems for off board sensing, communications, and operations in confined space or denied areas; compact, high-endurance energy-dense batteries for special warfare applications and UUVs; small sonar systems and processing schemes to provide precise navigation, object detection and obstacle avoidance for undersea vehicles; wide area information collection and processing techniques; autonomous and covert environmental monitoring, sampling and analyzing systems; techniques and tools for dealing with underwater munitions and explosives of concern (MEC); harbor defense countermeasure devices for special operation forces; operationally relevant ocean modeling, measurement and prediction; tools and techniques to address operational issues of marine mammal monitoring and protection; deep-sea facilities and innovative instruments for high pressure environments; and new ocean range utilization concepts. Contract awards shall be based on proposal merit and funding availability. Proposed work should be structured with a base period of performance of 6 to 12 months. Options to extend the period of performance for up to 12 additional months may be included in proposal plans but funding of such options is not guaranteed. CEROS anticipates that initial contractor selections will be made during March 2004 from submissions received by CEROS in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii by 12 PM Noon, Hawaii Standard Time, 12 November 2003. However, properly formatted proposal abstracts received after initial contractor selections and before 12 PM Noon, Hawaii Standard Time, 29 March 2004 will be considered for award if funding is available. CEROS will use a two-step submission process to formulate a Core Program from projects submitted under this announcement. The first step requires submission of a Proposal Abstract. CEROS will evaluate all abstracts against the evaluation criteria herein without regard to other abstracts submitted. For the second step, CEROS will request full technical and cost proposals from selected offerors for proposed efforts deemed as best qualified for potential negotiation under this BAA. CEROS will specify the format for full proposals in the invitation to submit more detailed project information. No selection for negotiation or subsequent funding will be made under this BAA without full technical and cost proposals. Options to extend the period of performance for up to 12 additional months may be included in submissions to CEROS but incremental or follow-on funding of any such option is not guaranteed. CEROS may choose to fund such optional phases without additional competitive submissions from the offeror, contingent upon anticipated funding availability and results from the initial year's effort and only upon specific recommendation and approval from DARPA. CEROS may choose to fund all, some or none of the optional phases included in submissions in response to this announcement. The commitment of out-year funding to optional phases will not exceed $1.0M. PROPOSAL PROCESS: To be considered in the initial contract award period, offerors shall submit an unclassified abstract of the proposed effort to CEROS in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, by 12 PM Noon, Hawaii Standard Time, 12 November 2003. The abstract should provide an overview of the project and associated costs. To be eligible for consideration, the offeror must be a commercial enterprise. Abstracts should be submitted electronically through the website www.ceros.org/04baa_abstract.html according to the procedure described therein. The submissions shall be prepared in either PDF or Microsoft Word 2000 for IBM-compatible formats and each project should have a separate submission. Abstracts submitted by any means other than the specified website will be disregarded. Abstracts shall be prepared in the following format: 8.5 x 11 inch plain paper, single or double spaced, in at least ten point type, with margins not less than one inch, and pages numbered. CEROS will attempt to respond no later than 15 December 2003, to companies whose project abstracts are received on or before 12 PM Noon, Hawaii Standard Time, 12 November 2003. The abstract shall consist of a cover page and up to four additional pages of project information, including figures and tables. Abstracts exceeding 5 pages will be rejected. The Cover Page shall include the following: title of the proposed effort; intended product or result; name, company affiliation, phone number, fax number, and electronic and postal mailing addresses of the Principal Investigator and Administrative Point of Contact; proposed period of performance; funding required to produce the proposed products; names and affiliations of sub-contractors and co-investigators; and special requirements or considerations. The balance of the Abstract should clearly describe the project's Problem, Product, Process, Importance and Price. The Abstract shall include the following sections, each clearly labeled: A. Problem, stating the technical problem and Department of Defense (DoD) maritime technical need addressed, describing the technical rationale for the proposed effort, and summarizing the technical objectives of the work. B. Products, describing the work's expected results and planned deliverables and discussing the anticipated military and commercial applications of the technology, plans for follow-on development or technical transitions, and patents or other intellectual property that may result from the work; C. Process, describing the planned technical approach and methods to be used, including the work's schedule, task assignments, and major developmental milestones and summarizing special capabilities of the work team, planned risk mitigation efforts, and special techniques or facilities to be used for the proposed work. D. Importance, stating the specific technical advances and innovation that will be demonstrated by the work, describing the work's anticipated residual benefits to maritime military and/or commercial marine technology and discussing the advances to state-of-the-art technology expected and their technical relevance to CEROS program objectives. E. Price, consisting of an estimate for a firm, fixed price level of effort project, including the principal cost elements, direct material costs, direct labor costs, other direct costs, indirect costs, facilities capital cost of money, and profit or fee. The Abstract may also contain any other information deemed germane to the proposed effort, such as descriptions of leveraged assets, co-funding arrangements, consultant commitments, or technical references. EVALUATION CRITERIA: The following criteria apply to both Abstracts and full proposals requested under this announcement. CEROS will select for award those projects offering the best value and, except for the first criterion (item A), will give equal weight to each of the following criteria. Item A will receive twice the weight of any other criterion in the evaluation. A. Quality. Technical quality of the proposed effort and its potential to successfully address the technical problem involved and to advance the technical state-of-the-art and maritime military technical competence; relevance to DoD technical needs and the CEROS mission; and potential importance to intended recipients of the developed technology. B. Approach and Capabilities. Realism of technical approach and methods proposed and potential for attaining stated objectives and milestones on schedule using the techniques and resources described; corporate and individual qualifications for the work; adequacy of equipment, materials and facilities proposed; and quality of technical risk management and transition plans. C. Anticipated Benefits. Potential for significant technical advancement in maritime military and/or commercial marine technical capabilities at reasonable cost and in a timely manner; potential for residual benefit to the DoD and the state of Hawaii; military or commercial transition potential and potential for generating intellectual property or follow-on support from sources other than CEROS. D. Costs and Budget. Cost realism and value of anticipated results for funding requested; schedule and resource efficiency; leveraged, cost-saving, or value added aspects to the proposed effort. Cost is considered a substantial evaluation criterion but is secondary to technical excellence. Furthermore, each technically qualified project will be scrutinized for maritime military operational significance and near-term application or transition potential. OTHER REQUIREMENTS: CEROS plans to make up to $6M available to fund proposals in response to this announcement. Specific funding depends on funding availability and out-year funding has not been defined. Multiple, firm fixed-price level of effort contract awards, not exceeding $1M each, are anticipated as a result of this BAA, contingent upon funding. CEROS encourages proposals involving multiple entities (teaming) to leverage capabilities, develop technology in Hawaii, and address priority Department of Defense maritime technology needs. Non-commercial, not-for-profit and/or government entities may be part of project teams but the team must be headed by a commercial enterprise. Contract awards will be based on proposal merit and funding availability. CEROS may request that successful offerors deliver one technical presentation in Hawaii as part of the project. This solicitation will remain open for 180 days from the date of this announcement. However, to be considered in the initial award period, a properly formatted abstract must be received by CEROS in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii by 12 PM Noon, Hawaii Standard Time, 12 November 2003. Offerors responding to this announcement are wholly responsible for timely submissions. It is CEROS policy to treat all submissions as competitive information and to disclose the contents only for the purposes of evaluation. CEROS may use selected contractors as special resources to evaluate abstracts and proposals. These contractors are restricted by contract from disclosing proposal information or using it for purposes other than the technical assessments for CEROS. By submitting an abstract to CEROS, an offeror agrees that the project's technical and management information may be disclosed to selected contractors and evaluators for the limited purpose stated above or unless otherwise required by law. Any information submitted to CEROS that an offeror intends to exclude from such limited release must be clearly marked proprietary and submitted apart from other proposal material. All abstracts submitted under this BAA must be unclassified. If offerors propose to undertake classified work or require access to classified information, they must be able to certify that they have a proper facility clearance, and key personnel must be certified as holding a Secret clearance. Abstracts must clearly state that the proposed work will be classified. An invitation from CEROS to submit a full proposal does not assure subsequent award. The decision to submit or not submit a full proposal is the responsibility of the offeror submitting the abstract. Successful offerors will be required to execute a State of Hawaii Contract for Goods and Services with the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority pursuant to its statutory authority provided under Chapter 227, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The Contract General Conditions and Special Conditions, which may be viewed at the CEROS website, are subject to negotiation. Pursuant to section 103-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, contract payments shall be contingent upon the receipt of federal funds. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Information about CEROS is available through the CEROS website at www.ceros.org. The CEROS website includes information from the CEROS industry briefing of 10 September 2003. Information on the goals and objectives for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii and the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority is available at www.nelha.org. Information about technology business and development in Hawaii is available from the state's High Technology Development Corporation website at www.htdc.org and the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) website at www.state.hi.us/dbedt. Contact Point: questions relating to this BAA are to be directed to William A. Friedl, Technical Director, CEROS Project Office, 73-4460 Queen Kaahumanu Highway, Suite 111, and Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740, phone +1 (555) 000-0000. All responsive sources may submit a proposal abstract, which shall be considered by CEROS. CEROS reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. The program described in this announcement is contingent upon funding availability.