Range Support Services

THE SOLICITATION NUMBER FOR THE SUBJECT NOTICE HAS CHANGED FROM W911QX-16-R-0011 TO W911QX-17-R-0005 TO COINCIDE WITH THE CHANGE FROM FISCAL YEAR 2016 TO FISCAL YEAR 2017. The Government intends to release a solicitation to 8(a) small business concerns who exhibit the required technical capabilities, limited production capacity, prior experience, and cost in providing experimental facilities technician support services. As part of its mission, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has a continuing need for the conduct of experiments in support of basic research, applied research, and analyses as related to weapons, munitions, materials, manufacturing processes, and survivability/lethality of Army personnel and materiel. It is necessary to obtain a wide variety of technical data on both new concepts and improvements to existing systems. It is also necessary to efficiently obtain critical technical data in support of efforts to solve identified problems with fielded systems. Additionally, data is required to support ARL's mission of advancing and validating predictive capabilities in support of both survivability/lethality analyses and physics-based weapons performance simulations. To obtain this data, ARL is required to conduct both traditional standard tests and state-of-the-art non-standard experiments to include developing new techniques for measuring critical data. Techniques vary in scale from laboratory microscopy at the molecular dimensions to field experiments on full-up systems. Experimental programs and support requirements may extend for years in duration or may only last for days. The objective of this contract is to provide support for various programs conducted by ARL. Specific efforts may include: experimental facility preparation; work scheduling; hardware fabrication, installation, and setup; test/experiment execution; equipment repair, inventory, and maintenance; instrumentation development and use; sample preparation and mechanical testing; data recording, reduction, and interpretation; as well as, preparation and maintenance of data bases and archival systems. Some contractual work may take place in support of ARL experiments conducted at facilities not located at APG but which support the ARL mission. Support to Experimental Facilities is in the following areas: energetic materials, ballistic ranges, electronic circuitry and instrumentation, laboratory flight simulation, machine shop, armor targets, advanced munitions, survivability/lethality experimental facilities, robotics research support, vehicle performance support, full-scale penetrator testing, and materials research support. The anticipated contract type is cost plus fixed fee (CPFF). The following labor categories shall utilized for this effort: Laborer/Engineering Aide, Engineering Technician I, Engineering Technician IB, Engineering Technician II, Engineering Technician IIB, Engineering Technician III, Engineering Technician IIIB, Engineering Technician IIID, Engineering Technician IV (the aforementioned labor categories are labor categories from the Department of Labor Directory of Occupations). Within these Department of Labor categories there are multiple areas of specialized skills required. The period of performance (PoP) for this contract is one (1) year (basic contract) plus two (2) one (1) year options. It is estimated that over the three (3) year period of performance the contractor will be required to deliver 743,424 labor hours; of which approximately 10% represents overtime hours. This is a follow-on to Contract W911QX-09-C-0044 with Bowhead Science and Technology, LLC of Alexandria, VA. This acquisition is a competitive Section 8(a) Set-Aside. To the greatest extent possible, ARL intends to fulfill multiple Small Business Program Goals through this requirement. Interested parties are advised that there will be no paper copies of the solicitation issued. The solicitation will be made available on-line at http://www.fbo.gov, and solicitation amendments, if any, will also be found at the same location. Offerors are responsible for reviewing the website to ensure they have the latest information available concerning this acquisition. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) number for this acquisition is 541330 - Engineering Services with a size standard of $15,000,000 in annual receipts. Offerors must register in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov prior to submission of proposals Only 8(a) sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. The Government does not intend to use FAR Part 12 for this acquisition. The ARL will host an Industry Day on 17 August 2016 - 18 August 2016 at the U.S. ARL, Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD, 21005-5001 to present an overview of the requirement and field initial questions from vendors. The schedule is subject to change. The Industry Day will also be an opportunity for interested parties to provide feedback, comments, or questions to the technical and contracting offices prior to the release of the formal solicitation. This period will also be used to develop an "Interested Parties List" to be used in the development of this acquisition. All interested offerors should reference the ATTACHED PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS) for additional information on this requirement. If you wish to attend the Industry Day, please provide the following information in your response: Company Name: First and Last Name of Attendee(s) (Limit of three (3) attendees per company): Secret Clearance or Higher(Y/N): Will you be attending the Industry Day(Y/N)? Will you be presenting(Y/N): All attendees must have a valid SECRET security clearance. Upon receipt of response, a detailed agenda and visitor information will be provided. Due to security requirements, responses after the due date and time will not be honored. Note - Interested parties will be afforded the opportunity to present to the Government technical staff (Not to exceed 20 minutes). Upon receipt of submission, a detailed agenda will be e-mailed to all interested vendors.