Notice of Sources Sought for NOAA Vessels Dry Dock Repairs, Dockside Repairs, and Lifecycle Management Data.

Background: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operate a wide assortment of hydrographic survey, oceanographic research, and fisheries survey vessels. These vessels are operated by NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). Ships operate globally while home ported in locations across the United States, including the Atlantic, Gulf and West Coasts, as well as Hawaii and Alaska. Maintenance operations are planned and coordinated through a main office, The Marine Operations Directorate located in Newport, Oregon. The ships are run by a combination of NOAA Commissioned Officers and wage marine civilians. The wage marine personnel include licensed masters, mates and engineers, and unlicensed members of the engine, steward, and deck departments. In addition, survey and electronic technicians operate and/or maintain the ship's mission, communication and navigation equipment. The ship's officers and crew provide mission support and assistance to embarked scientists from various NOAA laboratories as well as the academic community. NOAA's Western Acquisition Division (WAD) is responsible for acquiring services and supplies to support seven of OMAO's fleet of sixteen vessels that are located in the Western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii and fall under OMAO's Marine Operations Center-Pacific (MOC-P). Current Situation: NOAA currently has multiple-award dockside and dry dock ship repair indefinite-delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts that are used to compete individual repair requirements amongst the IDIQ contract holders. Since various contractors work on NOAA vessels, there are limited resources to administer multiple award IDIQs, and NOAA's Marine Operations Center - Pacific (MOC-P) & Pacific Islands (PI) are short on Port Engineers for vessels, NOAA is unable to gather, compile, and analyze repair data from its repairs to spot trends that could inform its specifications with greater detail, nor is there a single contractor for ship repairs that could provide this information and a more streamlined acquisition process. Desired End State NOAA would like to form contractual relationships with firms capable of providing data for modeling of life cycle / operations & support costs, dry dock ship repairs, and dockside ship repairs, planned and unplanned, of NOAA vessels or a class of vessels on the West Coast. For general descrition of vessels see: http://www.moc.noaa.gov/MOC-P/. The successful contractor must be able to provide repairs to its awarded vessels at the same time and be able to provide dockside repairs not only at its facility, but also other geographical locations as required. As part of the relationship, the contractor would keep detailed repair records for each ship and recommend and assist in preparing detailed specifications based on the recorded data to lower the cost and duration of repairs in due course, and minimize mission disruptions. This could also include working in concert with a marine engineering/naval A&E firm to develop specifications and share repair data. The Government contemplates awarding up to seven single award task order (SATOC) contracts, but will consider awarding less if the interested party can demonstrate its ability to provide the facility, supervision, and necessary personnel capable of providing all the dry dock and dockside repairs for a ship or ship(s) for planned and unplanned repairs simultaneously. NOAA is interested in hearing from industry on this idea and its merits or alternative approaches/best practices. The resulting contract(s) are expected to be awarded on or about November 2016. Also provided, is a questionnaire that will help determine the acquisition strategy based on the quality of answers provided along with the capability statements applicability to the requirements described herein. NOAA is conducting market research to determine potential sources for this requirement and to understand the marketplace for these types of equipment. The North American Industry Classification Code System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 336611 and the size standard is 1,250 employees. All responsible and fully responsive businesses may submit a capability statement which will be considered by the agency in developing the acquisition strategy by June, 29 2016, 2:00 PM Pacific time. Any resulting contract will be awarded as a fixed-price single-award task-order contract or SATOC. Solicitation documents will be made available for download on or about July 1, 2016 at http://www.fedbizopps.gov/ . Paper copies of this solicitation will not be issued. Interested parties should use the FedBizOpps ["Add To Watchlist"] and ["Add Me To Interested Vendors"] features which provide a notification when the Request for Proposal (RFP) becomes available for download. These features also inform interested parties of all postings of information associated with this solicitation, thereafter. Each potential offeror is responsible for checking the FedBizOpps website to gain all current information related to the solicitation. The solicitation and any further announcements regarding the solicitation will be posted only at http://www.fedbizopps.gov/ . The estimated response due date is July 15, 2016; however, the actual date proposals are due will be stated within the solicitation documents. Prospective offerors are urged to submit any questions they may have, in advance and in writing, to contract specialist John Venaglia (john.venaglia@noaa.gov). Telephonic requests for the solicitation will not be honored. This is not a request for technical or cost proposals. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this notice or reimburse for costs incurred by interested parties providing the information requested herein. Responses to the Sources Sought announcement are not offers and cannot be accepted by NOAA to form a binding contract. Capability Statements will not be returned. Information received will be considered solely to make an informed decision regarding a potential acquisition strategy. Firms offering a response to this notice shall ensure that they are registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), www.sam.gov, prior to submission of proposals. All vendors doing business with the Government are required to be registered with the SAM. NO award shall be made unless the vendor is registered in SAM. For additional information and to register in SAM, please access the following web site: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/. In order to register with the SAM and be eligible to receive an award from this acquisition office, all offerors shall also have a Dun & Bradstreet Number. A Dun & Bradstreet number may be acquired free of charge by contacting Dun & Bradstreet on-line at: http://www.dnb.com/ or by phone at (800) 333-0505. This procurement also requires offerors to file veteran employment reports at: http://www.dol.gov/vets/vets4212.htm.