Sensors with Embedded Aided Target Recognition (AiTR)

The purpose of Amendment 0001 is to publish Answers to Questions received during the eligible Questions and Answers time period. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) RFI Number: W909MY-21-0-R-C003 Sensors with Embedded Aided Target Recognition (AiDTR) 1. General Information: a) THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION: No award will be made as a result of this request. This RFI is for informational purposes only. This will NOT result in an Invitation for Bid (IFB), a Request for Proposal (RFP), or Request for Quotation (RFQ). No solicitation document exists nor will a formal solicitation be issued by the Government as a result of the responses to this RFI. Follow up inquires requesting status of any related Solicitation in regards to this RFI will not be entertained; please monitor beta.SAM.gov for any updates. Any updates to this RFI will be published on beta.SAM.gov under this same notice (W909MY-21-R-C003) as an Amendment. The Government will not be liable for payment of any response preparation expenses and is in no way obligated by the information received. Any costs incurred by interested companies in response to this announcement will NOT be reimbursed. b) The information presented through this request will be discussed and assessed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC); Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center; Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD), its SETA contractors, and other Government agencies. All proprietary or competition sensitive information should be clearly marked for proper protection. The information provided may be used by the Army in developing a future Performance Work Statement, Statement of Objectives and/or Performance Based Specification(s). c) The purpose of this notice is to encourage competition and exchanges of information. Additionally, response to this notice will be used to gather Market Research in order to identify potential offerors having an interest in and the resources to support a potential requirement, as well as whether or not a potential requirement can successfully be solicited as a total Small Business set-aside. Small businesses are highly encouraged to respond to this notice. 2. Background and Description a) Since the inception of night vision devices, C5ISR NVESD has been a leader in developing and fielding technologies for U.S. Army combat vehicle applications. C5ISR NVESD is currently conducting market research and trade studies of aided target recognition (AiTR) technologies to defeat threat vehicles and personnel. The purpose of AiTR is to increase the Soldier's ability to detect, classify, and identify as well as assist in some forms of tracking mounted and dismounted threats and give the vehicle commander options to increase the lethality of an individual tank or infantry fighting vehicle. b) C5ISR NVESD is seeking input from industry on AiTR solutions that will significantly reduce operator workload while maintaining or exceeding the probability of detection and maintaining or lowering the false alarm rate of threat vehicles and personnel by trained operators. This RFI will specifically address AiTR technologies that provide a Soldier with threat information. Although no specific threshold or objective specifications related to compatibility with existing ground combat equipment are included in this RFI (such as size, weight and power), technology solutions shall either accommodate, augment, or integrate existing U.S. Army equipment or demonstrate how the proposed solution(s) will supplant such equipment. 3. Definitions: a) Aided Target Recognition (AiTR): A capability which enhances the human functions of target detection, classification, and identification and assists some forms of tracking. b) Threat representative vehicles: Includes real or surrogate targets that represent enemy main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, or armored personnel carriers. c) Threat personnel: Enemy dismounted personnel either in a defensive fighting position or acting as a dismounted mechanized force with representative weapons. 4. Information Requested a) Sources able to provide the requested information are invited to submit a White Paper limited to 15 pages (10 pages for Technical Capability Narrative and 5 pages for Collection Event details). Additional materials can be placed in an appendix with no page limit. The White Paper shall be organized as listed below and include the following information: Cover letter providing: 1. Company Information (a) Company Information (b) Date of Incorporation, if applicable (c) Country of Incorporation, if applicable (d) Number of years in business (e) Number of employees (f) Primary location(s) where work would be performed (g) Mailing address (h) Company website 2. Company Point of Contact (a) Name (b) Title (c) Mailing address (d) E-mail address (e) Phone number (3) Please identify your company's business size status based on the primary North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code of 541715 and its small business size standard of 1,000 employees. Provide a statement as to whether or not your company is considered a small or other-than small business. Please also indicate any socioeconomic classification that applies (Small Disadvantaged Business, Woman-Owned Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, or HUB-Zone Small Business). For more information, refer to http://www.sba.gov/. (4) CAGE Code and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Questions (5a-5e) only apply to the Small Business (SB) Respondents and are to be included in the cover letter. (5) If you identify your company as a Small Business: (a) Would your company potentially propose on an effort related to Sensors with Embedded AiTR and/or algorithms? Yes or No? i. If yes: Indicate if your company will propose as a Prime or Subcontractor. If your company will propose as a Prime, state affirmatively if you plan to self-perform entirely or team with subcontractors. ii. If yes: Indicate if your company would be capable and intend for at least 50 percent of the amount paid by the Government for contract performance to be performed by your company and any similarly situated subcontractors (See FAR 52.219-14 (DEVIATION 2020-O0008)). iii. If yes: Under the current small business recertification regulations, do you anticipate your company remaining a small business under primary NAICS 541715 and the small business size standard of 1,000 employees? iv If yes: How long would you need to submit a proposal (e.g. 14, 21, 30, 45 days)? v. If no: Please provide as justification as to why you decided to no-bid. (6) Provide details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances, or other business arrangements to satisfy the Government requirements. Provide each team member's name, CAGE code, and business size based upon the NAICS code of the work that the team member may be doing. (7) Has your company performed this type of effort or similar type of effort (to include size and complexity) at Project Convergence 20 (PC20) or in the past for another government agency or other non-government customer? If so, please provide contract number, point of contact, e-mail address, phone number, and a brief description of your support of the effort. (8) What are the core competencies of your company that would support the development of this technology? Also, provide the total number of individuals currently employed by your company that are capable of supporting this effort. Technical Capability Narrative: (1) Maximum 10 pages, Sans Serif, max 12-point font, 1 margins (2) The white paper should include a description of your company's capability to meeting the technological goals listed in Paragraph 2.b. The narrative should discuss current technology readiness level of the system and any environmental limitations to assessing and collecting data in a field environment. (3) Vendors with both a sensor and an algorithm are eligible to participate in the Collection Event (paragraph 5) and an on-site assessment if desired. Vendors with only an algorithm can participate in a lab-based algorithm assessment event (paragraph 6). Vendors can participate in only one event. 5) Collection Event: Vendors with both, a sensor and algorithm. a) NVESD is holding a collection event, tentatively scheduled for Q3 FY21, to allow for an early understanding of technical capabilities. To participate in this independent assessment of your AiTR system, please submit a white paper via e-mail NLT 01 February 2021 IAW instructions provided in paragraph 7. (1) Any participation in such an event will be at no cost to the Government. The collection event will tentatively take place in Q3 FY21 potentially at White Sands Missile Range, NM or Yuma Proving Ground, AZ. In addition to an independent assessment, NVESD will provide your company the opportunity to collect data on threat representative vehicle targets and allow personnel to make improvements to proposed systems under field conditions. The company's AiTR enabled sensor system must be self-supporting during the independent assessment under field conditions. Certain activities/companies may be restricted due to ITAR considerations. Additional information on this collection event will be provided at a later date. (2) Participants interested in the live sensor evaluation mentioned in paragraph 5(a)(1) will also submit answers to (5)(2) (a) - (e) as part of your RFI response. (Maximum 5 pages, Sans Serif, max 12-point font, 1 margins. The 5-page collection event detail limitation is exclusive of the 10-page Technical Capability Narrative): (a) A short description of the sensor system(s) (to include if you are proposing a UAS and/or a ground-based sensor) and algorithms your company plans to collect data with at the event. (b) Number and type of cameras your company plans to bring to the event. (c) Describe, in general, the algorithms that will be used to generate alarms in the data. Is the algorithm the result of supervised training? What, if any, training data was used? (d) Can you run your AiTR algorithms - real-time on the sensor data as it is being collected? If so, are you able to deliver the alarm files and sensor data files immediately after they are collected? If not, how long afterward can your AiTR algorithm be run on the sensor data and the alarm declaration files and sensor data be delivered? (e) Describe how you plan to operate your sensor system against targets in the field. For example, do you collect at a fixed azimuth with a specific Field of View (FOV) for a fixed amount of time, then rotate to the next FOV, or are you able to pan the sensor within the Field of Regard (FOR) until you detect an object of interest? 6) Algorithm Assessment Event: Vendors with only an algorithm. a) C5ISR NVESD will conduct a lab-based algorithm assessment in 2021. To participate in this independent assessment of your AiTR algorithm, please submit a white paper via e-mail NLT 01 February 2021 IAW instructions provided in paragraph 7. (1) Any participation in such an event will be at no cost to the Government. The assessment event will take place within a NVESD laboratory. Additional information on this assessment event will be provided at a later date. (2) Participants interested in the lab-based Algorithm Assessment mentioned in paragraph (6)(a)(1) will also submit applicable answers to (5)(2)(a) - (e) as part of your RFI response. (Maximum 5 pages, Sans Serif, max 12-point font, 1 margins. The 5-page collection event detail limitation is exclusive of the 10-page Technical Capability Narrative) a. A short description of the algorithm(s) your company is proposing. b. Describe, in general, the algorithms that will be used to generate alarms in the data. Is the algorithm the result of supervised training? What, if any, training data was used? 7) Submitting Questions and Responses to this RFI a) Questions to this notice should be submitted to the Contracting POCs and received no later than 21 December 2020. b) Note that the company Point of Contact identified in the response will receive all information pursuant to this RFI. All information marked as proprietary information will be safeguarded to prevent disclosures to non-government personnel and entities. c) Response to this notice should be received no later than 01 February 2021. Respondents are requested to submit one electronic copy of the responses to the Contracting POCs. Include - AiTR RFI W909MY-20-R-ADTR - YOUR COMPANY NAME in the subject line. All requests for further information must be in writing or via e-mail; telephonic requests for additional information will not be honored. POC: Kadi-Jah Sheridan Contract Specialist, Belvoir Division Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground 10205 Burbeck Road, Bldg 362, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060 E-mail: kadi-jah.l.sheridan.civ@mail.mil 8) Data Rights: The Government desires that data be received with unlimited rights. However, the Government recognizes that proprietary data may be included with the information provided. If so, it is the responsibility of the interested party submitting data to clearly mark such proprietary information and clearly separate it from the unrestricted information as an addendum. No Classified data shall be provided via e-mail.