Industry Efforts for Improvements or Developmental Projects for Expendable Infrared Countermeasures

THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF SOLICITATION ISSUANCE, BUT RATHER A SOURCES SOUGHT that will allow the Government to identify sources with developmental and product improvement efforts relevant to Special Operations Forces (SOF) capabilities. The information sought herein is for planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a Request for Quotation (RFQ), Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB), or as an obligation or commitment on the part of the Government to acquire any product or service. There shall be no basis for claims against the Government as a result of information submitted in response to the Sources Sought. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Sources Sought, or otherwise pay for any information submitted by respondents to this request. This notice is for market research purposes only and is not indicative of a full requirement. The Technology Applications Program Office (TAPO) is conducting market research to identify industry efforts for improvements/developmental projects for expendable infrared countermeasure (IRCM) decoys. Request interested vendors provide information regarding their qualifications/capabilities to develop and produce advanced expendable IRCM decoys, including on-going vendor developmental efforts. TAPO is specifically interested in (1) any unique and/or specialized technology, materials and production process capabilities, (2) types/characteristics of decoys that vendors have the technology and capability to produce, and (3) capability/capacity to develop, test and manufacture IRCM decoys. Potential sources are requested to submit a brief summary of their capabilities and on-going/planned projects. This Sources Sought is the initiation of market research under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Part 10, and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. The information collected may be used by the Government to explore acquisition options and strategies. All information received in response to this Sources Sought that is properly marked as "proprietary" will be protected as proprietary information. Such information will be reviewed by a team comprised of Government as well as contractor personnel hired to provide technical assistance for the Government's preparation of an acquisition strategy. All members of the team will be reminded of their obligation to protect such information to the maximum extent permitted or required by the Economic Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. 1831 et seq., and other applicable statutes or regulations. In addition, Government members will be reminded of their obligations to afford protection under the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. 1905. All contractor members are required to protect the information by the terms of their contracts. The Government will make a determination whether or not contractor personnel have organizational conflicts of interest that could adversely affect protection of the information. In an effort to ease the coordination for potential need of nondisclosure agreements between multiple parties as part of the Government's market research, the Government will treat all notice responses as proprietary and to disclose the contents only for the purpose of Government market research and acquisition planning activities. All proprietary information is submitted with the above understanding that these contractor technical experts will have access and should be marked accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for, or suffer any consequential damages, for any proprietary information not properly identified. All interested, capable, and responsible sources that would like to respond to this sources sought are encouraged to provide a statement of interest along with supporting data via email to Aaron Martin at aaron.b.martin12.civ@mail.mil no later than 1300 Eastern Time on 26 January 2018. Once the sources sought requirement has closed, the Government will contact individual responders for any further information required.