Rapid Autonomy Integration Lab (RAIL) Request for Information

01042021: The RFI Document and due date was updated with this revision. The TOU has been added as a PDF document. ** NOTICE This Request for Information (RFI) is issued by the Government for the purpose of conducting market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10. This notice does NOT constitute a request for proposal. This notice shall not be construed as a contract, a promise to contract, or as a commitment of any kind by the Government. The Government is NOT seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. DESCRIPTION The Naval Sea Systems Command intends to expand its vision for development and deployment of unmanned system capability through the the Rapid Autonomy Integration Lab (RAIL). NAVSEA issues this RFI to obtain industry input to support the Navy's Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406) within Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants on the continuing development of its acquisition approach. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS The desired format for submissions is a white paper or similar narrative in the contractor's format. The response should be in 12-point font with no less than 1-inch margins. Submissions shall be in Microsoft Word 2016 or searchable Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). In order to be considered in this market survey, your response shall be submitted electronically and must be received on or before May 04, 2021 at 11:59pm EDT to the following addresses: TO: Mr. Kevin Seger - kevin.seger@navy.mil CC: Ms. Cristina Vega - cristina.a.vega@navy.mil SUBJECT LINE: RAIL RFI Response (insert name of company) Offerors are encouraged to submit prior to the closing date. Inclusion of a delivery receipt with an email submission will be the only indication of successful receipt of RFI Response. File size is limited to 12MB per email. Vendors are responsible for ensuring their email size does not exceed the 12MB limitation. File sizes larger than 12MB and .zip file extensions will be stripped by the Navy email system. Modifications, amendments, or withdrawal of RFI Response should also be made to the above email addresses. One email is acceptable as long as it does not exceed 12MB. If it exceeds 12MB, Offerors may separate their submission among multiple emails and should number them email 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc. NO CLASSIFIED MATERIAL SHALL BE SUBMITTED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Proprietary information, if any, must be clearly marked. To aid the Government in its review and evaluation, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Respondents shall mark any data included in its submissions that they do not want disclosed to the public for any purpose. DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES: Respondents are advised that Booz Allen Hamilton, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Penn State Applied Research Laboratory may assist the Government in its review of responses received under this notice. Respondents shall provide notification on its cover page if the respondent does not consent to the use of the aforementioned contractors. Unless otherwise stated by the respondent, a submission received to this notice constitutes consent that the abovementioned contractors can have access to all information provided in the respondent's submission. This notice is not a request for proposals and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. Sources choosing to respond to this notice are wholly responsible for any costs/expenses associated with submitting a response. Therefore, any cost associated with the market survey submission is solely at the interested vendor's expense. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this notice. The information obtained from submitted responses may be used in development of an acquisition strategy and a future solicitation. Submissions will not be returned. RFI DOCUMENT ACCESS The RAIL RFI documents (including draft release of documents), and communications with industry (including Industry engagement) will contain controlled information. The Navy is providing additional documentation on Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) to support of the RFI (see RAIL_RFI.doc). STEPS FOR ACCESS TO PMS406 DI2E AAC SITES 1) If you have a DI2E account, but are not part of the "atlassian-confluence-group", request that access under the 'Application Licenses' section of the following website: https://dpam.di2e.net. Access to the top level public pages are available to all registered DI2E Users who belong to the group "atlassian-confluence-group" subject to the provisions of steps 3 & 4 below. For a refresh of accounts that have gone stale, email the DI2E help desk at helpdesk@di2e.net. 2) If you do not have a DI2E account, apply for an account at https://www.di2e.net/display/DI2E/Accounts, for this you will need the following sponsor information: Sponsor: CDR Jeremiah Anderson Title: PMS406 Advanced Autonomous Capabilities PAPM Phone: (202)781-1557 Email: jeremiah.p.anderson@navy.mil You will need the project key which is 'UMAAPUBLIC'. In addition, you must request inclusion to the "atlassian-confluence-group". (Note that this web site is maintained by the Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise which is an independent organization of which UMAA/RAIL are simply "users" so any questions regarding account setup should go to DI2E IT support and not UMAA/RAIL project personnel) 3) For non-government employees (not .mil email address) 3.1) The RAIL RFI and supporting detailed information require the completion of a TOU (attached Beta.SAM ) for full access. In parallel to (1 and 2), submit the TOU form to Cristina Vega (cristina.a.vega@navy.mil). Please note that a revised TOU was released in January 2021 and personnel access granted under prior TOUs is limited only to UMAAPUBLIC. In order to gain access to RAILPUBLIC, a revised TOU must be sent to PMS 406 contracts. An authorized individual from your company must submit the TOU containing a cover letter (on company letterhead) identifying the individuals requesting access including: The individual's name and title Email address Telephone number An updated cover letter must be received to add new individuals for a company that already has a TOU signed and approved. 3.2) If you have a DI2E account, then when approved by PMS 406 contracts personnel, the UMAA team will receive an approval email and will automatically add your access to PMS 406 AAC sites which contain industry information at: UMAA Home and RAIL Home if you have a DI2E account. 3.3) If the UMAA/RAIL team receives approval notification from PMS 406 contracts prior to your DI2E account being active, you cannot be added by the UMAA team when approved. In this case, the individual must send an email to umaaboard@arl.psu.edu to request access once your DI2E account is set up and then you will be given full access to UMAAPUBLIC and RAILPUBLIC. 4) For Government employees and SETA contractors (.mil email address) 4.1) Once you have a DI2E account, you will need to send an email to umaaboard@arl.psu.edu or request access via THIS LINK (project is UMAAPUBLIC, project group is UMAAPUBLIC-AACRead) and then you will be given access to UMAAPUBLIC and RAILPUBLIC. Trouble-shooting your PMS 406 AAC site access if your DI2E account is active DI2E does not always set up the correct group accesses when accounts are set up. You can check your group accesses by entering the query: https://jira.di2e.net/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=* where * is your DI2E username You should see listed: "Atlassian-Confluence Users" and "UMAAPUBLIC-AACRead". If you do not, you should request these access via the instructions above. If the above instructions do not resolve the access issues, please contact the DI2E help desk at helpdesk@di2e.net. You will not automatically have access to the reference implementation code base(s) in Bitbucket. If you want to access to the code base(s), you will also need to request "Atlassian-Bitbucket Users" access via the DI2E help desk. You will also need to request UMAAPUBLIC-Stash-Read access through the following link which will inform our UMAA admin team to add you: https://dpam.di2e.net/addmetoproject (project is UMAAPUBLIC, project group is UMAAPUBLIC-Stash-Read) Trouble-shooting DI2E account access For a refresh of accounts that have gone stale, email the DI2E help desk at helpdesk@di2e.net.