1.0 DESCRIPTION 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997). (a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although “proposal? and “offeror? are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. (c) This solicitation is issued for (see 1.1 below). 1.1 PURPOSE This is a Request for Information (RFI) and NOT a solicitation. NAVSEA is seeking Smart Voyage Planning (SVP) technologies suitable to improve upon current Navy Optimum Track Ship Routing (OTSR) processes in order to improve Fleet fuel efficiency while continuing to mitigate weather related hazards to safe navigation. Specifically, this RFI documents a Government request to industry and academia for information on architectures, approaches, products, technologies, and/or solutions for a Smart Voyage Planning Decision Aid (SVPDA). This includes information on algorithms, baseline navigation information, and sensor technologies which have the potential to meet or exceed the requirements herein. All interested sources are encouraged to respond. 1.2 BACKGROUND SVPDA solutions must be able to exceed current OTSR capabilities using U. S. Government furnished hydrodynamic and environmental models, Digital Nautical Charts (DNC) as well as authorized electronic navigational charts (ENC). Routes must be capable of being developed ashore and imported into shipboard Electronic Chart Display and Information System – Navy (ECDIS-N) or ECDIS. Initial Operation Capability (IOC) is envisioned in the FY12 timeframe. 1.3 CURRENT OTSR CAPABILITIES OTSR provides recommendations for minimum time loss and circumnavigation of environmental conditions that could cause excessive pounding, rolling, pitching, crew discomfort, cargo damage or hull fatigue. Recommendations may also provide favorable areas for conducting sea-sensitive operations. OTSR also provides: 1) Recommendations for assistance/avoidance when operating in the vicinity of strong ocean currents, such as the Kuroshio and the Gulf Stream. 2) Route surveillance and recommendations for damage avoidance for voyages in more restricted waters such as the Sea of Japan, South and East China Seas, or U.S. coastal routes when the ship has selected the route. The routing system provides the following at a minimum, today: 1) Route request receipt and handling. 2) Optimal route determination. 3) Ship movement monitoring and weather forecasting. 4) Generation of high winds and seas warning. 5) SURVEILLANCE, ADVISORY, and RECOMMENDATION Message formatting and transmission. 6) Management and access to ship platform information. 7) Display of situational awareness information. 1.4 SMART VOYAGE PLANNING OPEN ARCHITECTURE CONSIDERATIONS The SVP solution architecture will be required to align and comply with the Naval Oceanography Enterprise (NOe) Enterprise Architecture (EA). The NOe EA will assure alignment to the DON EA Hierarchy and with the priorities, principles, rules, and activities defined in the DOD Information Enterprise Architecture (DOD IEA) specification in order to assure movement to an effective net-centric solutions environment. Where the NOe EA does not provide adequate guidance, higher level architecture guidance specified by the DON EA Capstone and Reference Architecture Layers will need to be considered. In addition, compliance to DOD IEA “constraints and mechanisms? will need to be demonstrated where interactions with the net-centric environment are indicated in the solution. Specifically, solution architecture will need to be created that is expressed in DODAF 2.0 constructs and UML2 modeling conventions. Vendors should review and understand the DODAF 2 Data Model (DM2) and indicate willingness to document architecture products in compliance with this model. 2.0 DISCUSSION 2.1 TECHNICAL DISCUSSION The output of the SVPDA is a planned route that meets all Navy ship safety requirements, including known/charted hazards to navigation in addition to mitigating environmental hazards, and maximizes fuel efficiency while ensuring that the ship reaches its destination on or ahead of time. The SVPDA will be required to provide for both unclassified and classified route planning. It must be able to accept and automatically parse MOVEREPS, identifying the intended route, date/time of arrival, and the ship class. The ship class hull form and safety threshold values will be considered in route development as well as real time, authoritative environmental predictions for the intended route. Additional route optimization criteria such as “minimal hull stress? or “minimal ship motion? are also desirable features. The SVPDA will have the ability to quantify the savings from the optimized route, to include time, fuel, and risk from environmental hazards. This route will be developed ashore and a Navy “forecaster? will have the ability to re-run this optimization based on additional information and/or risk tolerances. The format of this route will be such that, once satisfied that the route meets all requirements, the ashore component can export the optimized route in a format compatible for import into ECDIS/ECDIS-N. Shipboard sensors and tools that can monitor onboard fuel consumption and sense the physical environment in real time would enhance the performance of a SVPDA and will be examined as part of a solution. 2.2 INFORMATION REQUESTED NAVSEA is requesting that the following items (where applicable) be provided: 1. A company description and discussion of company capabilities with respect to fulfilling the objectives outlined in this RFI. 2. A description of previous experience in the development of SVP systems. 3. A discussion of a SVPDA or SVP concept which has the potential to meet the performance requirements including a discussion of previous experience/accomplishments with the identified concepts and system error budgets. Available data collected on representative system platforms is also requested for analysis. 4. A description of the proposed technology, including a discussion of the proposed concept of operations, the input hydrodynamic and environmental parameter data needed, present and future users, production quantities, and present and predicted reliability. 5. An identification of shortfalls in the proposed solution relative to the performance requirements and an approach to improving the performance to meet requirements. 6. Provide any additional information that will assist in understanding your responses to the RFI. 3.0 STRUCTURE FOR RESPONSES Responses to this RFI should be in writing and should be in electronic copy form. Limit responses to a maximum of 30 pages. Respondents shall submit an electronic copy of the response in PDF. The entire submission must be received by 08 April 2011. The electronic copy must be formatted to print as typewritten on single-sided paper with one-inch margins on all sides and 1.5-spaced text. Use 12-point font with normal (uncondensed) spacing. The Navy may choose to meet with respondents to this RFI. A meeting would be intended to obtain further clarification of respondent capabilities and technical details. Submissions should identify a point of contact in case meetings are requested. Please submit information via e-mail to Timothy Schuler at
contact@example.gov, phone
+1 (555) 000-0000. 4.0 PROPOSAL INFORMATION, TECHNICAL DATA, AND OTHER INFORMATION NAVSEA Carderock will disclose respondent's information to only authorized government and non-government third-parties for purposes of evaluation. Information submitted in response to this RFI constitutes the respondent's written consent to such disclosure. Non-government third-parties will be required by the Government to sign a certificate of non-disclosure prior to their gaining access to the respondent's information. In accordance with FAR Part 15.201(e), this RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a solicitation and should not be viewed as a request for proposal. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked “Proprietary? will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. The responses will not be considered offers and will not be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for their expenses associated with responding to this RFI. NAVSEA Carderock reserves the right to accept, reject, or use without obligation or compensation, any information submitted in response to this RFI that is not proprietary. The Government does not commit to providing a response to any comment or questions.
