Future Vertical Lift Head Mounted Display System

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES DEVELOPMENT COMMAND, C5ISR CENTER NIGHT VISION AND ELECTRONIC SENSORS DIRECTORATE AIR SYSTEMS DIVISION (ASD) 10221 BURBECK ROAD FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA 22060 Request For Information (RFI) W909MY-20-R-C024 CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS: Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground-Belvoir 10205 Burbeck Road Bldg 362 Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5863 RESPONSE DUE DATE: Interested parties should submit responses electronically by 03 August 2020 (1500 hrs EST) via e-mail to Christina.j.cassan.civ@mail.mil and sabin.a.joseph.civ@mail.mil Request for Information - Future Vertical Lift Head Mounted Display System 1. Request for Information: 1.1. Document Limitations and Scope: THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. The Government is not obligated to make an award as a result of this request. This Request for Information (RFI) is for informational purposes only; this is not an Invitation for Bids (IFB), a Request for Proposal (RFP), or Request for Quotation (RFQ). No solicitation document exists and a formal solicitation may or may not be issued by the Government as a result of the responses to this RFI. The Government will not be liable for payment of any response preparation expenses and is in no way obligated by the information received. Any costs incurred by interested companies in response to this announcement will NOT be reimbursed. The information provided may be used by the Army in developing a future acquisition strategy, Performance Work Statement, Statement of Objectives and/or Performance Based Specification (s). Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. NOTE: The use of RFI Number W909MY-20-R-C024 is for tracking purposes only. 1.2. Background/Description: The Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) Belvoir Division is conducting Market Research, on behalf of C5ISR Center, Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10, to determine the state-of-the-art in Head Mounted Display Systems suitable for integration into Future Vertical Lift aircraft platforms, referred to simply as FVL HMD for the remainder of this announcement. In addition, this RFI requests respondents describe their current or near term qualifications, expertise and experience in the following major areas: a) Development, production, test and integration of aviation qualified hardware and software. b) Engineering of vision systems for situational awareness, mobility, and pilotage. c) Ergonomic and human interface aspects of near-to-eye displays, head and helmet mounted displays. d) Augmented reality enabling technologies including head tracking and see-through optics. e) Displays and avionics for Army aviation systems. 1.3. Goals: The goals of this Market Research effort are to a) identify solutions for the FVL HMD that leverage technically mature and production quantity/quality ready technologies and b) incorporate innovative system architecture solutions that minimize system cost and dependence on aircraft integrated hardware/software. Responses are requested of those sources that have the existing capability or plans to develop and deliver Head/helmet mounted vision augmentation systems for aviation applications with the characteristics meeting or exceeding those detailed in section 2. 2. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENTS The end state technology readiness level (TRL) of the FVL HMD system sought would be required to be at TRL 7 by 4Q FY23 which would include Government evaluation of hardware flight operations as well as subjecting the system to military environmental qualification testing including electromagnetic interference, vibration, temperature, altitude, and humidity. In addition, a target production and fielding cost of less than $100K per ship set (one ship set supports both pilot and copilot) including aircraft integration of support hardware. The current TRL of any system component or enabling technology may be lower but would need to be capable of development to support a full system TRL of 7 by the 4Q FY23 with hardware deliverables to support aircraft integration and flight testing in the required time frame. The FVL HMD system architecture is left to the engineering discretion of the respondent though is generally regarded to be divisible in three main technology areas: 1) Helmet mounted display and optics, 2) Head tracking and line of sight processing, and 3) Aircraft data system interface and processing. This RFI is separated into three portions corresponding to the three main technology areas. While the Government seeks a fully integrated system solution as the end state, respondents are invited to address any or all of the three technology area sections as their response to this RFI. The full FVL HMD system would be the end result of many engineering design, schedule, and cost trades of interrelated requirements and performance characteristics. Tables are provided for the core characteristics and performance parameters of each of the three main technology areas. Respondents replying to any of the technology sections of this RFI are expected to complete the supplied tables of performance characteristics with values that are actually or reasonably anticipated to be simultaneously met. Actual test data is the preferred source but modeled performance data will be regarded as compliant to the RFI if test data is not available. The respondent is then required to support the rationale for values provided and relevant engineering trades with respect to the technology limitations as well as the constraints for safety and efficacy in a rotorcraft lift application in a narrative not to exceed a total of 35 pages if all three technology areas are addressed or a total of 10 pages for each technology area addressed if only 1 or 2 of the technology areas are to be addressed. 2.1 Technology Area 1: Helmet Mounted Display and Optics 2.1.1. Display and Optical Geometric Characteristics (see attachment 001) 2.1.2. Display Optical See-through Characteristics (see attachment 001) 2.1.3 Display General Characteristics (see attachment 001) 2.1.4. Display Ergonomics (see attachment 001) 2.2. Technology Area 2: Head tracking and line of sight processing (see attachment 001) 2.3. Technology Area 3: Aircraft data system interface and processing (see attachment 001) 3. General Company Information: Please note the following: Foreign participation is excluded. This is a market survey to identify all parties interested in taking part in this entire effort as a prime contractor. The Government would provide the above requirements and interface documents as part of any solicitation. Please provide the following information no later than 03 August 2020. Future communications related to this program will be distributed based on interested parties list. 1) Provide a brief summary of the company. 2) If a solicitation associated with the requirements of this RFI were issued, were you propose as a prime? 3) Please describe the FVL HMD solution advocated by your company. In this description, please discuss the details of your solution; be sure to address each of characteristics listed in section 2 of this RFI. When discussing an existing system or planned improvements, please provide rationale for the prioritization of trades that were made. Include a detailed discussion on the maturity and estimated TRL of your system and the major subsystems and/or major components with your justification for this TRL rating. Provide an estimate for the costs and schedule required to develop your solution to TRL 7 and provide a brief justification for both. 4) Does your company have experience working with aviation HMD systems as part of a Public Private Partnership Work share as described above? For any previous effort(s), please provide the Contract Number, Points of Contact (POCs), e-mail address, phone number, and a brief description of your direct support of the effort. 5) Does your company possess the capabilities to provide the entire range of these requirements? If not, please list which requirements your company can provide. If your company needs to acquire or build new capabilities, describe the effort and timeline required. 6) If your company is planning on business arrangements with other companies, please list the capabilities or services provided by these other companies that would contribute to this effort. Please provide details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances, or other business arrangements to satisfy these requirements. Respondents are encouraged to identify teams, indicating each team member's size based upon the NAICS code of the work that the team member may be doing. 7) Does your company have experience as a prime contractor administering Contracts? If so, please provide as much of the following information as possible: contract number(s), dollar value, and similarity of scope and effort. 8) What are the core competencies of your employees that would support these requirements? Also, provide the total number of individuals currently employed by your company that are capable of supporting the requirements. 9) Does your company have a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certification or similar? If not, does your company plan to acquire one? 10) Do all the employees that would support this requirement have a security clearance? If not, what percentage of employees that will be involved in this effort, have a security clearance? 11) Does your firm possess an approved Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) accounting system? 12) Please identify your company's business size standard based on the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code of 334511 for example. For more information, refer to http://www.sba.gov/content/table-small-business-size-standards: a) Large Business Concern b) Small Business (SB) Concern c) 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) d) Woman-Owned Small Business e) Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) f) Veteran-Owned Small Business g) Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business 13) In addition to the above, small businesses responding should provide the following information: (questions 14-16 will not count against the 35 page limit). 14) If you are a Small Business and plan to prime, please inform how you will meet the limitations on subcontracting Clause 52.219-14. 15) Under the current SB size standard, do you anticipate your company remaining a small business, under the stated NAICS code 334511? 16) If you are a small business, can your company sustain if not paid for 90 calendar days? 4. Submitting Responses to this RFI Interested parties with the ability to satisfy the above characteristics and capabilities should submit a white paper, not to exceed 35 pages, discussing your company's ability to meet the above requirements. The response should include a complete discussion of the ability to meet the above stated characteristics and capabilities, contractor's facility availability and staffing capabilities. The supporting documentation must be in sufficient detail to enable the Government to determine if the potential vendor either has the required product, hardware, and data, or the capabilities and production qualifications required for this combined effort. Please also include a discussion of any commercially available solutions which your company can provide. Descriptive literature of the commercial product, if available, should be provided and will not be included in the above page count. Responses should also include a cover letter (not included in the page count) providing: Company: Address: Point of Contact: Phone Number: Fax Numbers: Email Address: CAGE Code and DUNS Number: If your company holds a GSA Schedule contract (874 or other), please provide the Schedule number. Responses to this notice shall be received no later than 03 August 2020. Respondents are requested to submit one electronic copy of the response to the Contracting POCs. Include - FVL HMD RFI W909MY-20-R-C024 - YOUR COMPANY NAME in the subject line. All requests for further information must be in writing or via e-mail; telephonic requests for additional information will not be honored. POC: Christina Cassan Contract Specialist, Belvoir Division Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground 10205 Burbeck Road, Bldg 362, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060 E-mail: christina.j.cassan.civ@mail.mil Responses are due no later than 3:00 PM EST (local time at Fort Belvoir, VA) on 03 August 2020. Email responses should not exceed 5 Megabytes (MB). Responses received after this date and time may not be reviewed. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF A CHARACTERISTIC OR CAPABILITY IS NOT ADDRESSED THE GOVERNMENT WILL ASSUME THE RESPONDENT DOES NOT OR CANNOT MEET THE SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS MARKET SURVEY. This Sources Sought is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid (IFB), request for quotation (RFQ), request for proposal (RFP), or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this request will be treated as INFORMATION ONLY. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement or the Government use of such information. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by the Army in developing its acquisition strategy and statement of work/statement of objectives and performance specifications. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request or to otherwise pay for the information submitted. Responses will not be returned nor will receipt be confirmed. No solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of a solicitation. Response to this Request for Information should be received no later than 03 August 2020. All requests for further information must be in writing or via email; telephonic requests for additional information will not be honored. You may forward request for additional information and/or responses to Christina Cassan, Contract Specialist at christina.j.cassan.civ@mail.mil, and Sabin Joseph, Contracting Officer at sabin.a.joseph.civ@mail.mil. The purpose of Amendment 001 is to provide answers to questions received. Please see Amendment 001.