RFI: DMSP C2 Into NOAA and/or NSA Ground Systems

Request for Information (RFI) The purpose of this RFI is to determine the feasibility and associated cost estimates for incorporating the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) command and control (C2) capability within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and/or National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite ground system architectures located at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland (NSOF), MD and applicable backup facilities, as appropriate. The Government is interested in identifying innovative Ideas from industry that enable continued ground system support of the operational mission through End-of Life (EOL) (mid 2020's) while simultaneously reducing the cost to operate and maintain the C2 capability. The Government expects to receive comments and suggestions which will assist in improving draft acquisition documents needed to affect this change. Specifically, suggestions that may improve pre-award planning, timelines, as well as any additional pertinent information industry deems necessary to improve the quality of the entire Request For Proposal (RFP) package. BACKGROUND DMSP provides an enduring and survivable capability to collect and disseminate global visible and infrared cloud data to support worldwide Department of Defense (DoD) operations and high priority programs. The DMSP mission was to be subsumed by the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The NPOESS program, suffering delays and cost-overruns due to issues with sensor developments, was dissolved effective 29 Sep 2010. Ownership of the DMSP Command, Control, and Communications (C3) Ground System (GS), known as DC3GS, was transferred from NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) to the United States Air Force, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in June 2010. SMC/WML (Colorado Springs) is the DC3GS Program Management Office (PMO). NOAA continues to operate the system on behalf of the Air Force. The GS is an earth based command, telemetry and data processing system providing all functions for the state-of-health maintenance, communications, sensor payload data retrieval and dissemination, and launch and early orbit support for the DMSP constellation. The DMSP operation centers that command and control the DMSP constellation have not been technically refreshed in over twenty years. Major components of the system were reused from legacy control centers and in some cases are beyond their end of life expectancy. The ground system is operating under an Authority-to-Operate which is at risk due to system equipment being incapable of supporting current security postures. Primary DMSP C2 satellite operations is conducted at NSOF's Space Operation Center, Suitland, MD and backup at the Environmental Satellite Operations Center (ESOC), operated by the, 6th Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base (AFB) CO. Five crews each of five personnel support satellite operations. Satellite contact is made through the Fairbanks Satellite Operations Facility, Fairbanks, AK; Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) ground stations worldwide; and McMurdo GS, Antarctic. Command and/or data recovery at the higher latitude, polar locations are particularly advantageous due to access nearly every orbit. Principle DMSP users are the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), Omaha, NE; and the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), at Monterey, CA. Statement of Need The purpose of this effort is to sustain the DMSP C3 capability through the projected EOL. Particular interest is to reduce long term operations and maintenance costs through leveraging existing NOAA or NASA infrastructure; increasing automation; use of commercial satellite ground link antennas or services; and minimalizing use of AFSCN. Trade space: - Use of AFSCN / NOAA / NASA / commercial antenna assets should be considered for commanding, up/downlinks, and data distribution o Via cost effective and industry standard best practices - Use of automation to minimize operations costs - Change of operations concepts to reduce crew size - Investments, if any, needed to enable operational migration - Other relevant options the industry partner thinks is appropriate Constraints: - Central user (AFWA / FNMOC) interfaces must be maIntained - Interfaces for space segment assets/equipment located at the NSOF must be maintained o Primary Display System (Northrup Grumman) o Advanced Flight Vehicle Simulation Facility (AFVSF) (Lockheed Martin) - Interfaces for the McMurdo Data Transfer Station (JPSS) must be maintained - DMSP SORD Reliability, Availability, Maintainability metric requirements must be met - Central user data delivery rate and latency requirements must be met The following services are expected to be included in the RFI response: - Activities necessary to sustain the GS's ability to command and control DMSP assets - Components, if any, needed to be procured to enable an operational migration onto NOAA/NASA ground systems and their cost estimates. - Commercial services, if any, needed to be procured and their cost estimates - Activities necessary to receive, process, analyze, and disseminate telemetry and mission data to central users - Activities necessary to identify and resolve ground, space, and user segment anomalies / deficiencies - Activities necessary to obtain / maintain compliance with applicable US Government Information Assurance issuances or requirements - Life cycle costs estimates, to included projected O&M savings, and methodology used Access to Important Documents All documents related to DMSP are considered to be sensitive but unclassified; therefore the Government has created a CD which will contain all applicable procurement documents. Below are instructions on how to get a copy of the CD: Vendors need to fill out a nondisclosure form (please see attachment) and attach it in an email to Felicia.brown@us.af.mil requesting access to the site. Along with the NDA, please insert in the email the address where the CD shall be mailed to. Due to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) requirements, only US citizens will be granted access IAW the Arms Export Control Act. In addition, documents shall only be released IAW DoD Instruction (DoDI) 5230.24. The email should contain the following information: - Name of user - Company/Organization - Email Address Physical Address where the CD shall be mailed to - Phone RFI Response There is a 25 page limit for all submissions. If a submission is printed using front and back, then each side is considered a page. The page limitation includes all graphs, tables, etc.. Contracting Office Address: SMC/WMK Los Angeles Air Force Base El Segundo, CA 90245-2808 Primary Point of Contact: Felicia Brown Contracting Officer Felicia.brown@us.af.mil Phone: 310/653-3515 Technical Point of Contacts: John Tanaiweski, SMC/WMLM 1050 E. Stewart Ave. Peterson AFB, CO 80914 (719) 556-2495 DSN 834-2495 Or Carrie Kwiatkowski, SMC/WML 1050 E. Stewart Ave. Peterson AFB, CO 80914 (719) 556-2209 DSN 834-2209 Industry partners are requested to submit responses to the CONTRACTING office POC above. All responses should be based on the information contained in this RFI and any other relevant information the industry partner thinks is appropriate. Small Business participation is highly encourraged. Industry Partners who do not respond to this RFI will not be excluded from any resulting solicitation(s).