ANNOUNCMENT:The United States Air Force, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) seeks small business sources for subject matter experts (SME) to support operational tests. This FedBizOpps notice is an announcement seeking market information on small businesses capable of providing the services described herein. AFOTEC is currently conducting market research to determine qualified, experienced, and interested potential sources. The information requested by this Request for Information (RFI) will be used within the Air Force to facilitate decision making and will not be disclosed outside the agency. For the purpose of this RFI, the anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541710, Research and Development in the Physical, engineering, and Life Sciences, and the small business size standard in number of people is 500. This RFI is issued for informational and planning purposes only. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP). It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Air Force will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by interested parties in responding to this RFI. SYNOPSIS OF THE REQUIREMENT: The mission of AFOTEC is to test and evaluate new weapons systems in realistic battlespace environments to provide decision makers accurate, balanced, and complete assessments of mission capability. AFOTEC conducts these tests at various locations throughout the US and sometimes at deployed locations. The new weapons systems AFOTEC tests include Air Force and joint aircraft; air armament; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); and space systems. Many AFOTEC programs require subject matter experts (SME) to conduct plausible operational tests and evaluations (OT&E). Technical expertise is required for OT&E concepts, planning, execution, and reporting. Tasks would cover the range from advice, education and training, test and evaluation (T&E) design, data analysis, and reporting. Specifically, SMEs could be required for coordinating multiple test team activities, program presentations, and team meetings; participating in T&E documentation preparation (test concepts, test plans, data management and analysis plans, detailed test procedures, and reports); collating and basic analysis of information for both internal and external daily, weekly, and monthly reports; maintaining a test database system; scheduling internal and external test team meetings; coordinating test team logistics; and monitoring deliverables against plans and flagging any potential problems. The length of time a SME could be required depends on the program, the program's stage in the acquisition cycle, the money available for test, and the amount of work needed to answer specific test measures. Thus, the length of time could range from a few months to a few years. Also, the time the SME is needed may not be in just one block of time. The SME may be needed at various stages of the test program. For example, the SME may be required to work on the program for four months, not needed for six months, and then be required for a year to finish the program. The time between the determination of the need for SME support and the beginning of work may be as little as two weeks. For the purposes of this RFI, a SME is - an individual who exhibits the highest level of expertise in performing a specialized job, task, or skill within an organization, or - an academic expert in a particular discipline, and/or - an operator. SME operators may be required when AF personnel are not available due to manning shortages or the demands of real-world operations. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: AFOTEC requests Capability Statements include the following. 1. Company name, address, point of contact (POC), telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, NAICS code, GSA schedules held, small business type (8(a), small disadvantaged business, HUBZone, minority-owned, woman-owned, veteran-owned, etc.). 2. Demonstrate the ability to provide SME support for short periods of time (1 to 4 months) on short notice (as little as 2 weeks from need determination to work start). 3. Demonstrate the ability to provide SME support for broken blocks of support time (e.g., 2 months working the program, 4 months with no support for the program, 6 months back working the program, etc.). 3.a. Demonstrate the ability to provide the same SME in question 3 for the same labor cost. 3.b. Demonstrate the ability to delay SME support if there is a delay in a test program. 4. Demonstrate the ability to provide SME support at several locations. 5. Demonstrate the ability to provide SMEs with clearances up to Top Secret with temporary access to Sensitive Compartmented Information. 6. Indicate in which of the following areas your company can provide SME support. Radar Directed energy Infrared Optical Laser Information operations Jamming, and anti-jamming Military and civil satellite communications systems Defensive systems operation, integration, performance, and test Aircraft and ground radar systems operations, ECM, and LPI/LPD Logistics systems design, operation, and test Commercial aviation (FAA) test and evaluation Lightweight composite materials Low observables Reliability, maintainability, and availability modeling for aircraft systems Engine performance evaluation and test Intelligence systems operations, integration, test and evaluation Aircraft avionics systems (all varieties) Aircraft flight performance and flying qualities test and evaluation Aircraft-weapons integration Datalink systems and encryption EO and IR sensor systems operation, integration, test and evaluation Special operations Air refueling systems integration, operation, and test and evaluation C4ISR systems operations, integration, test and evaluation Life support Logistics readiness Civil engineering 7. Indicate to what programs relevant to AFOTEC your company has provided SMEs. Interested parties shall not submit more than 5 single-sided, type-written pages using 12-point type or larger. Published literature may be any number of pages. Responses are requested no later than 27 April 2007. What type of contract would you consider to meet this kind of requirement? Point of Contact Rinda Kearney, Contracting Officer, Phone 5058532695, Fax 5058462414, Email rinda.kearney@afotec.af.mil Place of Performance Address: Kirtland AFB, NM; Edwards AFB, CA; Eglin AFB, FL; Peterson AFB, CO; and other locations Postal Code: Country: UNITED STATES
