AFTAC Data Operations (Data Ops)

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE AND IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. IT DOES NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. I. INTRODUCTION: The Acquisition Management and Integration Center (AMIC) Det 2 OL/PKA, Contracting Office, in support of the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) at Patrick Space Force Base (SFB), seeks through this sources sought announcement to invite industry to submit a white paper through the current AFTAC Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) 2024, Topic 6 - ENTERPRISE WIDE INTEGRATION AND ARCHITECTURE MODERNIZATION. The effort will be in support of the AFTAC Cross Domain Data Operations (Data OPS). The CSO can be found at SAM.gov Contract Opportunities with Notice ID FA702224SC001. All business sizes are encouraged to respond to this notice by submitting a white paper following the CSO instructions therein only. See additional information on the subsequent sections. It is noted that the Secretary of Defense has directed "all DoD Components to adopt the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP) as the preferred pathway for all software development components of business and weapon system programs in the Department"; and to accomplish this, "the use of CSO as the default solicitation and award approach for acquiring capabilities under the SWP" is directed. See applicable memorandum, dated 06 March 2025, attached to this notice. The results of this sources sought will be utilized to conduct a scientific review of the submitted white paper and determine if the submission provides a cost-effective solution that may satisfy the Government's need to support AFTAC's Cross Domain Data Operations. Potential Contract Details: Estimated Award: Approximately November 2025 Contract Type: Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) with pre-priced labor for future Task Orders Anticipated Ordering Period: Base Ordering Period of 5 Years. Options only on Task Orders. Anticipated Funds: Research & Development (R&D) & Operations and Maintenance (O&M) CLIN Structure: 0001, On Cloud Development (R&D); 0002, ONPREM Data Operations (O&M); 0003, On Cloud Data Operations (O&M); 0004, Travel (R&D and O&M); 0005, Technical Data & Information Deliverables (CDRLs) (NSP). PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Percentage of Effort Government (On-Site) Contractor (Off-Site) AFTAC Patrick SFB 100% 100% 0% II. BACKGROUND: 1. CURRENT CONTRACT INFORMATION: Current Contract: FA7022-19-D-A002 and due to expire 31 October 2025 (with ongoing task orders). Contract Type: CPFF, CR. Incumbent: Leidos, Inc. at 1750 Presidents St FL 10, Reston, VA 20190-5617. Not Set-Aside. Note that this AFTAC Data Operations requirement is not a follow-on procurement to the above contract. 2. PROGRAM BACKGROUND: The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is moving to a cloud cross-domain service that enables secure and efficient data exchange and integration between multiple domains, including both cloud and legacy systems. The required service will provide a standardized and easy-to-use interface for applications to access and exchange data across different domains, while ensuring data privacy, security, and compliance with relevant and applicable regulations. The service will also provide a robust data flow mechanism that enables real-time and batch processing of data, as well as data transformation, validation, and quality assurance. The current AFTAC cross domain capability operates at the AFTAC headquarters located at Patrick Space Force Base (PSFB) FL and Alternate facility located at Millington TN, with developmental cross domain flows across cloud diodes. AFTAC is transitioning on-premises operational cross domain capability to an Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud diode through using DAF Cloudworks service provider. 3. EFFORT (See attached draft SOO): On Cloud Cross-Domain Development (R&D). Maintenance and Sustainment will be required for both the ONPREM and future On Cloud Data Operations (O&M). The focus of this effort is to ensure cross domain data to the SECRET and TOP SECRET domains for all AFTAC mission data, and software artifacts. Data origins may include a variety of sources (e.g., commercial cloud, GovCloud, FTP Servers, Commercial data providers, standard message formats, file stores, others) and acquisition may be in either pull or push modes. Data targets will also include a variety of destinations depending on mission needs. The current on-premises cross domain systems shall be maintained until all mission data flows are engineered for a cloud environment and an active Authority to Operate is acquired for the cloud environments. Once mission data, mission support system patches, and software artifacts can be delivered operationally from the cloud environment and pass the Test and Evaluation (T&E) phase, the on-premises hardware may be decommissioned. The non-personal services to be performed under this contract will be related to maintaining and sustaining as well as improving overall system performance in support of data operations and the cross-domain system. III. RELEVANT DOCUMENTATION See attachments included with this notice. IV. OFFEROR/CONTRACTOR REQUIRED CAPABILITIES TOP SECRET facility clearance (FCL) issued by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) and ensure the FCL is documented in the National Industrial Security System (NISS) Key management personnel, along with all technical personnel performing classified work on the potential contract, are eligible for access to TOP SECRET. In addition, all individuals working within any AFTAC sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) to train AFTAC staff and to install software deliverables are ICD 704 eligible based on a current T5, T5R investigation or continuous evaluation (CE) date. This eligibility for access must be available at potential contract award. IV. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Software Acquisition | Adaptive Acquisition Framework at https://aaf.dau.edu/aaf/software/ Interested parties are invited to submit a white paper following the instructions therein on the CSO for Topic # 6. Please do not submit white papers directly to the POCs on this notice. Some of the priorities for this development effort are to create an efficient (cloud cost-minimized), maintainable (current software languages that have valid future updates), and security compliant (meeting or exceeding Air Force Guidance). Separately from the white paper submission, if any potential offeror has recommendations or suggested changes (e.g., data or requirement objectives gaps) to any of the attached documents (except SECDEF Memo) or this notice please contact both the contracting officer (David Dike) and contract specialist (Lileana Moran) noted as POCs in this posting via e-mail.