A--Research and Development to Advance Better Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

The Army Contracting Command - New Jersey (ACC-NJ), on behalf of The Department of Defense (DOD) is releasing this special notice to inform interested parties of an interest in establishing a Section 845 Other Transaction (OTA) agreement with an eligible entity or group of entities to develop and mature technologies and support policy development to enable advanced approaches to electromagnetic spectrum use. This initiative will support possible needs across the government and industry, in alignment with the National Information Technology R&D (NITRD)/Wireless Spectrum R&D (WSRD) Senior Steering Group (SSG) mission to promote collaboration among government, industry and academia. The purpose of this effort is to identify areas of Research & Development/Prototyping (R&D/PROTOTYPING) of vital importance to the Department's ability to maintain access to the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS). The Government is seeking to facilitate optimal application of SRF funds in developing technologies that enable both spectrum sharing and more efficient spectrum use. Section 845(a) (2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 1994, Public Law (P.L.) 103-160, as amended (Title 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) Section 2371 note), authorizes the Secretary of the Army (SA) to carry out prototype projects that are directly relevant to weapons or weapon systems. The Government must ensure that, when an agency enters into an Other Transaction Agreement for a prototype project under this authority, nontraditional defense contractor(s) participate to a significant extent in the prototype project; or at least one third of the total cost of the prototype project is paid out of funds provided by parties to the transaction other than the Federal Government. Currently, the Government and industry share a common challenge of satisfying vastly increasing demand for the use of electromagnetic spectrum(s). Multiple efforts are addressing this fundamental issue as it hampers U.S. innovation and economic growth and hinders U.S. military operations both domestically and overseas. The envisioned collaboration between the Government and Industry focuses on (but is not limited to) the following Science and Technology areas for consideration: 1. Investments in Radar-Commercial communications sharing technologies, targeted initially to the 3.5 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Rationale: the Department is currently in discussions with both Industry and federal regulators to explore options for sharing portions of these bands with commercial wireless providers. There is also international interest in sharing these regions of the EMS. Investments in these technologies will enable the Department to maintain mission effectiveness and operational readiness while supporting our own, and the Nation's, strategic goal of spectrum sharing. 2. Investment in use of Millimeter Wave (MMW) and Free-Space Optical (FSO) technologies for terrestrial and air-ground communications and C2/telemetry applications. Rationale: the Department's use of spectrum below 6 GHz for terrestrial and air-ground communications is vital to mission effectiveness; demand for these services is increasing and geographical availability of these spectral regions is static or declining, making sharing with commercial service providers difficult. This problem is compounded in the case of air-ground communications and C2, where large exclusion zones have been encountered in the AWS-3 auction proceedings due to the nature of the airborne applications. Investments in MMW and FSO technologies will enable the Department to strategically explore these spectral regions and transition terrestrial and air-ground services into these less congested areas. 3. Development and deployment of the Air/Maritime Training Instrumentation (AMTI) waveform. Rationale: The AWS-3 auction proceedings enables commercial access to the lower portion (1755-1780 MHz) while DoD will have access to the upper portion (1780-1850 MHz) indefinitely. Though this provides commercial access to only a small amount of spectrum, the economic and political situation at the time made this an acceptable solution. Underlying this solution is the general understanding that industry will be seeking access to the upper portion in the near future. One of the concepts that has been investigated is modifying the ACTS system to use a much more efficient waveform, the AMTI; using the AMTI will better position the Department to open up additional spectrum access, on a shared basis, with commercial service providers. 4. Investments in Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) and Frequency Reuse (FR) technologies for communications and radar systems. Rationale: As sharing becomes more prevalent, systems will need to adjust dynamically to their current electromagnetic environment (EME) automatically and considering their geospatial and temporal location. Investments in this area will enable the Department to consider more dynamic sharing scenarios and mechanism and improve reliability and mission effectiveness in spectrally-constrained environments. 5. Investments in algorithms and approaches for improving spectrum situational awareness (SA), spectrum command & control (C2), and management of the electromagnetic environment. Rationale: As the Department moves towards sharing, with itself and with commercial service providers, while maintaining our ability to project power globally, it will be vital to improve our ability to maintain positive control of the spectrum resource and solid situation awareness of the spectrum quote mark terrain quote mark , both from a friendly force and enemy force perspective. This investment will develop technologies and techniques that can be deployed into land, air, sea, and cyber domain capabilities to achieve spectrum SA and C2 under the auspices of the Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (JEMSO) doctrine. 6. Investments in improvements for modeling and simulation of the Electromagnetic Environment (EME). Rationale: Emerging results from the DoD EMS Strategy Roadmap and Near-Term Action plan indicate that the Department must improve our ability to model and simulate the EME, to include assessing sharing approaches and techniques, and addressing attending interference and propagation effects. 7. Investments in Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) and other communication and radar waveform efficiency technologies. Rationale: As more regions of the spectrum become open to sharing, the Department will need to be more efficient with our available spectrum access. Investments now in basic and applied R&D/PROTOTYPING will yield useable technologies for programs in a few years at a time when spectrum sharing will be implemented on a wide scale. 8. Interference tolerance and hardening technologies for communications and radar system. Rationale: As the department transforms to a share-first model, it will become increasing important for new communications and radar systems to be tolerant of interference that characterizes sharing environments. Department R&D/PROTOTYPING investments now will create technologies mature enough to be implemented in programs later when spectrum sharing becomes more widespread, both nationally and internationally. 9. Investments in adaptive RF technologies. Rationale: In Quadrennial Defense Review 2014, the Department recognized that the EMS, along with international waters and airspace and the cyber domain were vital to the Military's ability to project the force internationally. As spectrum sharing increases both domestically and internationally, the Department will face additional barriers to spectrum access as it deploys into regions of the globe that either do not support sharing arrangements in particular bands or deny use of those bands. It is prudent for the Department to invest in technologies now that will enable communications and radar systems to be able to change the spectrum regions in which they operate in response to either enemy action or the exercise of nation-state sovereign rights. It is anticipated that industry members may propose forming a consortium that would seek to work with the Government through an OTA in this area. DOD and NITRD/WSRD recognize that both Government and industry can benefit from an OTA with a consortium, in order to achieve more rapid contracting, acceleration of discovery, unparalleled ability to tailor research, policy consideration concurrent with technological advances, a more focused and synergistic research agenda, and relief from excessive requirements. Any company, university, or research organization is eligible to join the consortium. The Government is seeking interested parties that are willing to join and/or establish a consortium with collective expertise in the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS). The Government anticipates responses from this announcement from interested parties, with an eligible entity or group of entities, to include industry, academic, non-profit, and not-for-profit partners, for research and development efforts to support the NITRD/WSRD. Interested parties shall provide a response no later than 4:00 PM EST on 14 November 2014 by email only. Responses can be sent to Ms. Kristen Kachur, Contract Specialist, via email at contact@example.gov. NO TELEPHONE INQUIRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED. Responses should contain the interested parties' experience and capability information. In addition, if any existing consortium wishes to respond as an entity, the response shall include consortium name, vision, mission statement, goals, membership (indicating traditional and nontraditional defense contractors), success criteria, metrics, management framework, articles of collaboration/by-laws, Consortium Member Agreement (CMA), accounting practices, fee structure, and other information which the respondent considers of assistance in developing successful Government/academia/industrial partnerships. In addition, the interested parties shall provide specific experience in technology areas listed in this notice along with a description of their capabilities for the categories under which they have experience. Electronic responses are to be in Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word format using a size 12 font with one inch margins. Adobe PDF format is preferred. Responses should include a cover letter and at a minimum, provide the following: 1. A cover letter 2. A cover page labeled with the heading, quote mark Government Parties Seek Collaboration with Industry on Research and Development (R&D) to Advance Better Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, quote mark name of company, name of corporate point of contact (POC), name of technical POC, telephone number for each POC, full mailing address, e-mail addresses for each POC, CAGE Code, and any other pertinent information. 3. No more than twenty (20) pages of technical information including: (a) Narrative describing how the specified technical requirements would be addressed and fulfilled (b) Corporate competencies and past performance experience with regard to development and modification of systems including relevant history of ability to develop and integrate similar technologies. (c) An indication as to whether the technology is sufficiently mature to build and demonstrate, or whether additional development would be more appropriate prior to a subsequent build. (d) Describe any Independent Research and Development (IRAD) programs applicable to this announcement regarding Government modified commercial systems for applications such as this. (e) Describe experience gained by working on projects that span the three services and the other defense agencies, as well as 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. Please submit all pages as a single (.doc or .pdf) file. 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. This Special Notice is for information and planning purposes only, shall not be construed as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or a commitment by the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this announcement. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the Government. The Government is not obligated to notify respondents of the results of this announcement. The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any private sector input, as a result of this announcement. If a formal solicitation is generated at a later date, a separate solicitation notice will be published. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. 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.