AUTONOMOUS UNMANNED SYSTEMS CLARIFICATIONS AND DEADLINE EXTENSION.This notice is in response to several questions regarding both the Multiple Award Contract (MAC) and Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) regarding the process to form a consortium and providing Letters of Intent (LOI). This notice will (1) re-publish several key documents; (2) extend the deadline for LOI submission and; (3) provide the governments responses to questions asked. I. DOCUMENTS ATTACHED : 1. Draft Statement of Work (SOW) entitled Autonomous and Unmanned Systems MAC, published 05 August 2011 2. Draft Statement of Work (SOW) entitled Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Prototyping OTA, published 05 August 2011 3. White Paper entitled Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Industry Consortium, also published 5 August 2011 4. Briefing Slides from Industry Day, also published 5 August 2011 5. Q & As from Industry Day, also published 5 August 2011 6. Registration List from Industry Day, also published 5 August 2011 7. Request for Letters of Intent (LOI), published 01 September 2011 II. NOTICE OF DEADLINE EXTENSION The deadline for submission of Letters of Intent is hereby extended to 5 PM, PST on 14 October 2011. III. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Questions and Answers Specific to the Multiple Award Contract (MAC): 1. Will the MAC cover all current and future Navy UAV and UUV programs, like Fire Scout for example? If it does cover all Navy unmanned systems, or future ones, how would a future program like the Navy carrier UCLASS fit into the MAC? Would all work be conducted under the MAC, or separate? Answer: Both the OTA/MAC are intended to support current, planned, and emergent work. Neither is not intended, in any way, to cancel, absorb, overtake, replace or, challenge existing vehicles in place at any DoD or non-DoD agency. The OTA/MAC are simply part of our larger strategy to better support SSC Pacifics current customers and potential future customers in this domain; they are not intended to be used instead of any other agencies vehicles to the detriment of any agency or any program. These vehicles would not "cover" any specific program, rather they would be used to support all programs given appropriate scope. SSC Pacific could, in fact, cover much work done under Navy UCLASS or any other relevant unmanned systems effort that was within scope (so it will depend upon the exact work to be performed). 2. How would the MAC integrate Army and Air Force Unmanned systems? Would work under the Air Force MX-Q and other future systems be conducted under the MAC? Answer: The MAC does not "integrate" Service unmanned systems programs, rather SSC Pacific scientists and engineers might undertake tasking from the controlling Product Managers. The OTA/MAC would simply support work that might integrate portions of those programs. Work for Air Force programs could very possibly be done under the MAC, but typically would only support work up to (stopping short of) production. The SOW is fairly clear here. 3. Is there a more defined date for the MAC solicitation posting? Answer: SSC Pacific is anticipating posting a solicitation late in CY 2011 Questions and Answers Specific to the Other Transaction Agreement (OTA): 4. Do you know the current status of the Other Transaction Agreement with a consortium? Answer: The Government has requested Letters of Intent from an Industry. Previous deadline was 30 September 2011. With this Notice, we are extending the deadline to 14 October 2011. 5. May businesses submit a Letter of Intent directly to the Contracting Officer indicating its interest in being considered for consortium membership? Answer: No, Letters of Intent should be submitted by a designated Point of Contact (POC) representing a group of businesses and academic institutions declaring their intent to form a consortium. Refer to previous Request for LOIs notice, attached, for details on content. 6. Can the government establish a share-point type website to facilitate communications between interested businesses for forming a consortium? Answer: No, SSC Pacific does not currently have a means to establish such a forum outside its own restricted network. 7. We would like to be considered for a consortium - ( we are non- traditional - qualified small business for UAV field) I have not been able to identify a consortium - do you have a list of them? Can you pass on our contact information to potential consortiums? Do you have any other suggestions as to how to go about this process - successfully? We have read the published white paper and are interested in this consortium. We are a small business with experience in this area. What should our next steps be? I have talked to several primes and we are interested in building a consortium but are finding a forum that is easy and efficient to collaborate with each other is problematic. I fear that this is going to limit the industry response. Please clarify further how to form a consortium. Answer: All parties interested in potentially forming a consortium are reminded that the government will not advise how or with whom consortia may be formed. It is absolutely the responsibility of the individual interested parties to reach out to each other using whatever means they deem appropriate, including, but not limited to, using the posted list of registered attendees from Industry Day, attached. The parties themselves must determine the method of communication. Once a group has tentatively formed, its members must decide who will represent the group and designate such person as the POC for the potential consortium. Questions and Answers Applicable to both the MAC and the OTA: 8. Several questions were received from individuals having difficulty locating the information in FedBizOpps (FBO) or e-commerce. Answer: The information is posted in e-commerce and automatically flows into FBO. E-commerce requires registration. The link to FBO is www.fbo.gov . Previous posting dates were 05 August and 01 September under the headings of Autonomous Unmanned Systems Industry Day Follow Up and Autonomous Unmanned Systems Request for Letters of Intent, respectively. 9. I saw the FEDBIZOPPS announcement for the Industry Day for autonomous and unmanned systems back in July that was hosted by SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, but was not able to attend. Is there a way for me to get access to the briefing charts that were shown? Specifically, we would like to request a copy of, or access to, the following documents: Statement of Work (SOW) entitled Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Prototyping OTA, published 05 August 2011; White Paper entitled Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Industry Consortium, also published 5 August 2011; and any slides available from the Industry Day held on 21 July 2011. Answer: These documents and others relevant to this effort are posted as attachments to this Notice. Please see attachments section and click on each attachment title to download and view. 10. Can you please tell me what your role is within SPAWAR? Answer: I am the Procurement Contracting Officer (PCO) for both of these requirements.
