Joint Counter Radio-Controlled IED Electronic Warfare [JCREW] Announcement Soliciting Industry Comments on the CREW 3.3 System Architecture Development

The Department of Defense is initiating an incremental development of a System Of Systems to counter the threat posed by the world wide proliferation of Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Devices (RC-IEDs). The full System Of Systems will provide dismounted personnel, vehicles and fixed sites protection from RC-IEDs. The DoD anticipates these systems will use a common open architecture that will support modularity and expandability between systems and cost effective upgrades to counter future threats. In developing the required System Of Systems, the DoD anticipates awarding one or more contracts. The prime contractor will assume sole responsibility for transforming the Governments performance specification into the final System Of Systems. In accomplishing this, the prime contractor will assume the system engineering role in allocating requirements between the dismounted, mounted and fixed systems. Additionally, the prime contractor will develop and deliver the required systems, either through direct in house design or through subcontracting. This is not envisioned as a Lead System Integrator contract, but as a prime contractor with responsibility for design and development. The DoD anticipates it will develop and define a GFI open modular architecture for JCREW 3.3 program. This architecture will help the contractor understand the Government's expectation of functional requirements allocation and define the interfaces between functional requirements. The DoD desires industry feedback in developing and defining this architecture. Background: The DoD is soliciting Industry feedback on potential CREW 3.3 System Architecture Concepts. These concepts have been developed to establish a basis for Industry dialog with the Government regarding potential approaches to best satisfy an Open Architecture requirement for CREW 3.3 systems. In developing these concepts, the Government has considered multiple factors including, but not limited to: operational experience with legacy systems, technology status, anticipated technology rate of change, the requirement for an 'open' system design, system upgradeability to allow for system capability expansion and/or emerging technology insertion, and or to refresh its technology to maintain its capability and supportability. The Government desires this dialog with Industry to review and comment on the System Architecture Concepts to insure that, if imposed, the System Architecture Concepts would result in an effective and long term supportable/upgradeable CREW 3.3 system. It is a! lso desired that this Architecture dialog with Industry would result in maximum participation from Industry during any subsequent solicitations, should they arise, to develop and maintain such a system. Process: The documents describing the Government's CREW 3.3 System Architecture Concepts will be shared with Industry via a posting of those documents at the JCREW Clearinghouse site. Interested vendors must appropriately register with the JCREW Clearinghouse site as described below to participate in this process. In order to obtain the most candid dialog with Industry, the Government's reference documentation will be available to everyone at the JCREW Clearinghouse site. Individual vendor comments on those documents and the subsequent responses to the particular vendor comments will not be released; however, the Government will assess all the interactions with Industry and may revise the reference documentation if the results of the Industry interaction warrant doing so. Furthermore, to foster complete and honest feedback, the Government will properly protect and not disclose any appropriately marked proprietary information. If changes are made, the new edition of the reference! documentation will again be publicly posted at the JCREW Clearinghouse site for a second round of comments from Industry which will be handled using the same process as was done for the first round. Registering with JCREW Clearinghouse: To register with the JCREW Clearinghouse, the user must have either a DoD Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate or an External Certification Authority (ECA). If you do not have either a PKI or ECA certificate, information to obtain the certificate can be found here: http://iase.disa.mil/pki/eca/. To register with the JCREW Clearinghouse, go to: https://jcrew.muwinfodesk.navy.mil and click on the - New User button. Follow the instructions that are included in the on line form. When registering, indicate that you would like access to the JCREW Clearinghouse as a - Contractor. Any access other than - Contractor requires a government sponsor and additional validation. Your email address will be validated, and your request verified by JCREW Clearinghouse personnel. Your user name and password will be mailed to you upon approval within 48 hours.