RFI - SOF Tactical Communications (STC) Next Generation ManPack (NGMP) Radio

RFI: SOF STC NGMP This request for information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this RFI shall be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement of the Government use of such information. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. Intent. The intent of this RFI is to 1) Identify non-developmental items that can satisfy the requirements stated in this RFI and the attached NGMP performance specification; 2) Identify companies that possess the technical, production, and support capabilities required to support proposed technical solutions over their lifecycle; 3) Determine technological feasibility, supportability and readiness levels of required threshold requirements; 4) Assist in formalizing requirements and the acquisition strategy for the SOF NGMP program. Concept. The base concept of the NGMP program is to provide the following simultaneous capabilities in a single manpack form factor: legacy single-channel narrow-band Type 1 encrypted LOS/BLOS communications; AES and Type 1 encrypted LOS wide-band Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) waveforms; and the ability to receive and distribute Type 1 encrypted video, imagery and telemetry from National and SOF- unique ISR assets as well as the ability to cross band waveforms from one channel to the other. The NGMP shall interface with an End User Device (EUD). The intent for the EUD is to provide the following capabilities: programming and control of the NGMP; viewing full motion video (FMV) in Standard and High Definition; integrating situational awareness/battle space awareness/common operating picture data received by the NGMP radio onto electronic map overlays; provide chatting/texting/white boarding via the STC radio; and IP data exchange/interface with the NGMP. Interested parties should review the attached NGMP Performance Specification, and within 45 days after release of this RFI, provide information regarding existing or near-term mature capabilities or products that meet all or a subset of the Threshold and Objective requirements. Requirement. Attachment 1 (NGMP Performance Specification) to this RFI depicts the Threshold and Objective requirements for the NGMP. Responding parties are encouraged to place special emphasis on those Threshold requirements not inherent in current production representative military tactical manpack radio systems that may require additional integration efforts, specifically in the areas of cost, schedule and performance. Interested parties are requested to identify their approach in meeting all of the NGMP Threshold requirements as described in the attachment. Any Threshold requirements that pose more than moderate risk with respect to schedule (Initial Fielding in FY 18) should be clearly identified in the response. Interested parties may make changes to the attached Performance Speciation to reflect their proposed material solution but should ensure that any changes are made utilizing the track changes features. All proposed solutions shall identify a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for all hardware/software. A Roadmap/Schedule showing when projected capabilities will achieveTRL-9 is also requested. All respondent capabilities should be based on what solutions, to include NSA approval, can be provided for potential full-rate production and deployment in Government Fiscal Year 2018. Please provide your comments electronically by 19 June 2015 to the following personnel: The Technical Point of Contact (POC) is Mr. Arthur Coon, 813-826-7262, and email arthur.coon@socom.mil