RF Amp Chain Replacement

TACAN Radio Frequency Amplifier Chain Modification RFI 1. The 558 ACSS, Air Traffic Control & Landing Systems (ATCALS) program office located at Tinker AFB is requesting information from industry to perform a study to modify the Radio Frequency Amplifier (RFA) Chain within the existing AN/FRN-45 Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) system. The objective of this study is to determine a viable solution to replace the existing 100 Watt, 400 Watt and the eight 700 Watt RFAs within the TACAN Transponder Group (P/N 105320G1) with new, state of the art equipment. This modification shall in no way degrade the current capabilities of the existing systems and shall improve its reliability. 2. See the draft Statement of Objective (SOO) for additional details on this effort. 3. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. It is not a Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a solicitation, or an indication the US Air Force (USAF) or ATCALS will contract for the items contained in the RFI. ATCALS will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI. 4. This RFI is part of a Government market research effort to determine industry capabilities to perform this study as required by the draft SOO. Please provide your responses to the tasks listed below. Address your capabilities to accomplish the below tasks and provide highlights of successful past experience on similar government contracts within the past 5 years. a. Describe your capability to manufacture or integrate TACAN equipment or end-items. Description of capabilities should include your experience developing and fielding TACAN as well as other tactical and fixed-base navigational aids. b. Describe your anticipated methodology to perform this study. c. Describe your anticipated solution and the major equipment that would be used to support this solution. Include how the anticipated solution will meet the known requirements. d. Describe any significant risks or hazards to the TACAN that you anticipate with implementing your solution. e. To stay operational, the TACAN system requires a minimum output of 1500 Watts to the transponder beacon. Describe how you would use redundancy to ensure that this minimum is maintained in the event of failures within the RFA Chain. f. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations of potential methods of performing this effort that fall outside of the scope of this RFI? g. Describe the anticipated testing that would be performed. h. What are your anticipated timelines for the major events of this effort? i. Request a no cost incurred Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) for performing this study? Provide a breakdown of the costs between the services and the equipment you anticipate will be required. 5. Please provide your response electronically on no more than ten single-sided, single-spaced pages using 12-point, Times New Roman font, and minimum one-inch margins, in Microsoft Word or compatible format. Brochures or other technical information that helps to address this RFI will be accepted as attachments and will not count toward the page count. Responses to this RFI are requested by close of business on 1 Jun 2010. All responses shall be unclassified and reviewed to ensure consideration of operational sensitivities. All RFI responses, questions and other correspondence related to this matter should be addressed to the Contracting Officer, Mr. David Hancock, at: E-Mail (preferred): david.hancock@tinker.af.mil Mail: 747 ACSG/PKB, 3001 Staff Drive, Suite 2AC-81A, Tinker AFB, OK 73145 Phone: (405) 739-2634