B-2 Armament Test Program Sets (TPS)

AFLCMC/WWZ B-2 System Program Office Wright Patterson AFB OH B-2 SBRA SMS TPS Modification 1 April 2014 This is a Sources Sought Synopsis. There is no solicitation available at this time. This action is being conducted to identify potential sources capable of meeting the B-2 Smart Bomb Rack Assembly (SBRA) Stores Management System (SMS) Test Program Set (TPS) to provide capability for on-aircraft testing of the Monitor and Control Equipment (MACE)/Carriage and Release Equipment (CARE). The SBRA SMS TPS is a modification of the SBRA TPS to allow on aircraft testing of the SBRA. Force Development Evaluation of identified a need to modify the SBRA SMS TPS to perform a full functional check-out of the MACE/CARE. This will allow the SBRA SMS TPS to detect failures in the MACE/CARE prior to upload of the weapon. This capability will prevent hung stores due to undetected MACE/CARE failures. In order to best procure this modification, market research is being conducted to ascertain the prevalent business practices in the market place and to review the capabilities among industry sources. This questionnaire/survey is for the purpose of obtaining information relative to modification of the SBRA SMS TPS. While industry sources are requested to provide full and comprehensive responses to this questionnaire, they are reminded that all information is voluntary, and the Government will not reimburse sources in any way for responses provided. Likewise, a company's participation in the market research via this questionnaire does not obligate the Government to enter into any contractual agreement, either formally or informally, with a company. Please provide as much detail in your responses as possible. Interested parties responding to this announcement shall indicate whether they are large, small, disadvantaged, Section 8(a) qualified, women -owned, minority-owned, service-disabled veteran, or Hub zone, in relations to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 336413. Interested parties responding to this announcement shall indicate whether they are foreign owned. Responses are requested no later than 15 April 2014, 1600 EST. I. COMPANY INFORMATION - 1. Company Name and CAGE Code: - 2. Address (Including Telephone No. and E-Mail Address): - 3. Points of Contact: - 4. State whether your company is: Small Business (Yes / No) Woman Owned Small Business (Yes / No) Small Disadvantaged Business (Yes / No) 8(a) Certified (Yes / No) HUBZone Certified (Yes / No) Veteran Owned Small Business (Yes / No) Service Disabled Small Business (Yes / No) Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (Yes / No) - 5. Is your company domestically or foreign owned (if foreign, please indicate the country of ownership). II. GENERAL COMPANY INFORMATION Describe your company's primary business product line. Describe your company's business regarding automated test set equipment, including but not limited to design, testing, and/or production of automated test equipment such as LRUs, automated test sets, automated test equipment retrofit work, and test program sets. - 3. Does your company adhere to any particular shop practices, e.g. T.O. 00-25-234, General Shop Practice Requirements for the Repair, Maintenance, and Test of Electrical Equipment? - 4. What established quality control and inspection systems does your company have? - 5. Please identify any industry certifications that your company presently holds in the areas of quality assurance and/or configuration management. - 6. What are some of the typical tests that your company performs on its automated test equipment? Would your company allow tests to be tailored to customers' requests? III. TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES - 1. Does your company have experience with the following? - a) Design, development, and integration of an automatic test system/set (ATS) for flightline and backshop use? If so, please provide detailed information. - b) Design, testing and/or production of armament test systems? If so, please provide detailed information. - c) Development or re-hosting of Test Program Sets (TPSs) for use with ATS? If so, please provide detailed information. - d) Development of aircraft interface requirements? If so, please provide detailed information. - e) Developing an ATS that is backwards compatible with an earlier version and its' associated TPSs, including regression testing or retrofitting? - 2. Does your company have any working involvement with the B-2 armament system listed in the Performance Specification such as Line Replacement Unit (LRU) repair and design, interface requirements, aircraft stores management systems or suspension and release equipment testing? If so, please provide detailed information. - 3. Describe your company's efforts to utilize commercial parts, components, systems, and/or designs in the replacement of developmental type items. - 4. The Government anticipates a production decision will be made after the following conditions are met: - a) Successful tests of the MACE/CARE - b) Successful Self-test and acceptance With this in mind, approximately how long would it take your company to accomplish these actions on the preproduction units? Approximately what would be the delivery time for the production units? Does your company have experience successfully producing detailed operations and maintenance manuals, schematics, Product Drawing Packages, training program development and management plans, test reports, software program documents, provisioning data, and other similar type documents? If you answer affirmatively, please provide a brief description of the work. - 6. Does your company have any experience with embedded systems programming relative to aircraft and ATS? (In embedded systems, the software typically resides in firmware, such as a flash memory or read-only memory (ROM) chip.) Please explain. - 7. Does your company perform calibration work organically or does it subcontract it to other sources? Please describe the calibration requirements to which your company adheres. IV. BUSINESS PRACTICES Does your company have experience with long-term contracts or purchasing agreements with fixed prices, i.e. more than 5 years in duration? Does your company provide for discounted prices based on the quantity of the items provided? If yes, are there pre-set quantity levels at which the discounts apply? What type of technical information does your company provide with its products? Does your company have any experience with Government technical manual requirements? Does your company accomplish this through your own workforce or would it be subcontracted? Please explain. Does your company offer a standard warranty on your products? Does it cover parts, labor, and /or technical support? What is the standard time duration? Does your company consider that commercial parts, components, and/or assemblies could be utilized for the production of the B-2 SBRA SMS TPS modification? To what extent or degree of the overall items could commercial items be utilized? Note that "commercial" does not denote strictly commercial-off-the-shelf but also encompasses those items that undergo modifications (for detailed definitions see Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101). For this effort would your company need to subcontract any part of the work? Please provide a detailed response. Please return responses to Jules Opperman, Contract Negotiator, in the B-2 Division no later than 15 April 2014, 1600 EST. Responses should be e-mailed to yuliya.opperman@us.af.mil. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this sources sought synopsis nor to otherwise pay for the information solicited in this request.