Munitions Testing & Failure Analysis

MUNITIONS AGING AND SURVEILLENCE PROGRAM The Government is performing market research to identify potential contractors who have the skills, experience, and knowledge required to successfully complete the requirement as listed below. This does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that a procurement will be accomplished and is not a Request for Proposal or an Invitation for Bid. Responding to this Sources Sought Synopsis in no manner guarantees a contract will be awarded. All responses to this Sources Sought Synopsis must be submitted to the Points of Contact listed in this notice. The Government requires engineering support and services for testing of munition items. The effort will require the contractor to have access to a full-service facility with in-house engineering expertise/support capable of storing, transporting, handling, and testing of different munition items including energetic materials, energetic mixtures, and energetic constituent's compositions. The goal of this effort is to find either mechanical and/or chemical methodologies of predicting performance of munitions within Air Force inventory as a function of age and various storage conditions. In order to accomplish this, the potential contractor must have the ability to safely disassemble and dissect munitions end items, assemblies and subassemblies, components, and associated energetic assemblies/components to gain access to the energetic materials. Test articles range in size and type from BBU-35 Impulse Cartridges, up to 2000 lb MK-84 series Tritonal Bombs. The contractor must also have the ability to perform munitions failure/engineering investigations utilizing tools and tests such as: Non Destructive Testing (NDT) Mechanical Testing Surface Analysis Testing Micro/Macroscopic examination of surfaces Metallographic Examination Stress Analysis Chemical Analysis Material Identification Chemical Reactivity/Compatibility Testing Moisture Diffusion/Leakage Testing Accelerated Aging Conditions Ballistic/Static/Performance ground firing capabilities Aging & Stabilizer Tests