Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) Engineering Support Services (SESS II). These services include Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) processing, exploitation, data management, analysis, dissemination and reporting

Solicitation Notice Mod 07 -- This solicitation notice is modified to provide answers to vendor questions 8 - 25. The answer to Question 1, regarding Section M multiple award wording, was provided in the previous solicitation Mod 05. The answers to vendor questions 2 - 7, were provided in the previous solicitation Mod 06. Solicitation Sections B and L have been revised in response to some of these questions and are attached. These sections also contain additional edits to provide clarification. All edits are shown in BLUE text. Offerors are reminded to acknowledge receipt of all solicitation modifications when submitting their proposals. QUESTIONS 8 - Reference Section L.22 Subcontracting Plan, pages L-18 of 21 and Section M2, page M - 3 of 9. Should the Small Business Subcontracting Plan be included as an Appendix to Part 1 - Business and Technical Capability? Please confirm the Plan is part of the "Page Limitation Exceptions" addressed in Section L.6, page 14 of 21. ANSWER 8 - The Subcontracting Plan is not included in the proposal page limitation and is hereby added to the list of items included in the "Page Limitation Exceptions" in Paragraph L.6.The Subcontracting Plan can be included as an Appendix to Part 1 or submitted as a stand-alone document. QUESTIONS 9 - Reference Section J, Attachment 1. What is the purpose of including the Sample Task Orders/TAGS in Section J Reference Section Are these documents for information use only, or should contractors address these documents as part of our technical response in Part 1 of our proposal? ANSWER 9 - These samples are for information only and are not to be addressed in the proposal. Interested vendors can use these samples to see the type of work that will be performed under this contract and this information may factor into their decision to submit a proposal. QUESTIONS 10 - Reference Section C - Section 8 Government Furnished Items - Facilities, page C - 33 of 38. Please clarify how we should interpret the following text for pricing purposes: "For proposal purposes, only, the Contractor should plan for 10 workstations on base". We'll be providing personnel pricing in Section B. Will only 10 FTE be on base during the life of the contract? ANSWER 10 - The Contractor should plan for 10 workstations on base. Since some tasks will require work on a 24 hour a day basis (see the answer to Question 16) there is the potential for up to 30 on-site FTEs at any given time. See the answer to Question 13, which addresses on-site and off-site FTE pricing for the proposal. QUESTIONS 11- Reference Section L - Part 3, Price Proposal Labor Category Cross - Referencing, page L - 11 of 21. Please clarify: Should contractors map proposed labor category pricing to a GSA Schedule? ANSWER 11 - This is an open market procurement and it is in no way connected to GSA Federal Supply Schedules or GSA Schedule pricing. The cross-referencing referred to in Section L, Part 3 has to do with the generic labor category names used in Section B of this solicitation and the labor category names customarily used by the offering vendor. The Government will accept a proposed item and price schedule using an offeror's customary labor category nomenclature provided that the vendor names are cross-referenced to those shown in the solicitation Section B. The cross-referencing has nothing to do with relating the offeror's proposed prices to some other commercial or government price table. QUESTIONS 12 - Reference Section Reference Section L - Part 3, Price Proposal Labor Category Cross - Referencing, page L - 11 of 21. Will this contract be awarded as an IDIQ based on a GSA Schedule contract? Does the government expect IFF payments from the contractor? ANSWER 12 - This is an open market procurement and it is in no way connected to GSA Federal Supply Schedules or Schedule pricing. There will be no IFF payments under this contract. QUESTIONS 13 - Reference Section B.5 Schedule of Items/Services and Prices, page B - 3 of 8 and Section L - Part 3 Price Proposal - Sub Sections Open Market Pricing and Pricing Assumptions, pages L - 11 of 21, L - 12 of 21. For pricing purposes, should the offeror propose two (2) sets of labor rates, one (1) for Contractor site [off-site] and one (1) for Government site [on-site] since work may be performed either on-site or off-site? ANSWER 13 -Yes. Proposals should include Government on-site labor rates and Contractor off-site labor rates for all labor categories for all contract periods of performance. For proposal evaluation purposes, the Government will use the mean average of the total "on-site" and "off-site" rate tables. Section B has been amended to provide pricing tables for both "on-site" and "off-site" labor rates and a revised summary table for calculating the average total estimated price for labor. Section L, Paragraph L.5, Part 3 - Proposal Pricing has been amended to provide updated instructions for submitting proposed labor rates. The updated Sections B and L are provided as attachments to this solicitation announcement modification. QUESTIONS 14 - Reference Section L.3 (c) Submission, modification, revision and withdrawal of proposals, pages FBO Announcement and L - 5 of 21. The FBO GSA Announcement for Solicitation #5TP57100280 listed the due date time as 11:00 p.m. Section L.3 (c)(3)(i) states, "If no time is specified in the solicitation, the time for receipt is 4:30 p.m., local time, for the designated Government office on the date that proposal or revision is due." Please confirm due date time as 4:30 p.m. ANSWER 14 - Proposal are currently due by 11:00 pm Eastern time, 28 April 2011. QUESTIONS 15 - Reference Section L.5 Proposal Contents, pages L-10,11. Is the Past Performance information to be provided in the exact order listed in Section L.5? For ease of evaluation, we suggest that we provide Project Name, Name of Client, Contract Number, Contract Period of Performance, and current Client Point of Contact (including name, title, phone number, and e-mail address) at the beginning of each Past Performance reference, followed by a description of the project and a description of any significant problems or challenges and how they were overcome. ANSWER 15 - No. Past Performance information does not need to be provided in the exact order listed in Section L.5. The order suggested in this question is acceptable. QUESTIONS 16 - Reference Section C - Time of Work - Normal Hours, page C - 18 of 38. Page C-18 says the contractor is to perform tasks at the specified Government furnished facilities on a 24-hour basis, divided into three shifts, seven days a week. Does this requirement apply to all tasks or only some tasks? Or is this statement in error? ANSWER 16 - Twenty-four hour ('round the clock) work will be required for some tasks, but not all. QUESTIONS 17 - Reference Sections C - Objective 1 - SESS-II Documentation and Presentation Support, page C - 8 of 38. Can tasks and subtasks falling under Objective 1 - SESS-II Documentation and Presentation Support be performed on-site as well as off-site (e.g., contractor facility)? On-site/Off-site is explicitly allowed for Objectives 2, 3, and 4, but it is not referenced in Objective 1. ANSWER 17 - Documentation and Presentation Support may be performed either On-site or Off-site. QUESTIONS 18 - Reference Section C and H, Objective 1 - Kickoff Meeting; H.2 Kickoff, pages C - 14 of 38, H - 2 of 19. On page C - 14 of 38 the paragraph titled Objective 1 - Kickoff Meeting states contractor and government personnel shall meet within five (5) days of contract/task order award date. However, on page H - 2 of 19, paragraph H.2., Kick-off Meeting, states there will be a kick-off within 14 calendar days after contract award. Please clarify. ANSWER 18 - The Section C language is correct. Paragraph H.2 is corrected to read, "There will be a kick-off meeting / conference call for this contract within 5 business days after award of the contract or at other such time as mutually agreed upon by the parties." QUESTIONS 19 - Reference Section C, page C - 22 of 38. The Personnel Qualifications paragraph states "Relevant experience may be substituted for formal education." Please provide guidance regarding how many years experience can be substituted for a Bachelors degree, Masters degree, and PhD. ANSWER 19 - Experience of the maximum relevance of 4 years for a bachelors degree, 6 years for a masters degree, and 8 years for a PhD. QUESTIONS 20 - Reference Section C, pages C - 22 of 38 through C - 26 of 38. Several labor categories call for a "Bachelors degree or equivalent". Other labor categories exclude this statement. Should the "experience in lieu of a Bachelors degree" guidance apply to all labor category requirements? ANSWER 20 - Yes. As stated in Section C, page 22 "Relevant experience may be substituted for formal education. Waiver will be granted by the Government on a case-by-case basis at its sole discretion." QUESTIONS 21 - Reference Sections B.2 Contract Term and C-11 Period of Performance, pages B - 1 of 8 and C - 38. For pricing purposes, what dates should be used for the overall period of performance, i.e., start date and end date? ANSWER 21 - For proposal pricing purposes, assume a start date of 1 July 2011 and an end date of 30 June 2016. QUESTIONS 22 - Reference Section C4, Sub-Objective 2.4, page C 11 of 38. Would the Government provide a hardware and software inventory including version levels for the software? ANSWER 22 - The major hardware and software components of the squadron's signals processing system include: SERVERS HP Proliant DL series servers HP Blade System c7000 HP Proliant BL series server blade IBM x3550 series STORAGE HP Modular Storage Array 60 (MSA 60) Sun Oracle 6500 series HP Enterprise Virtual Array 5000 IBM DS5300 Storage Controller IBM EXP5000 storage array ADIC Scalar i2000 Tape Library SOFTWARE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 & 5 Microsoft Windows XP, 7, 2003 & 2008 Solaris 8 & 10 IBM General Parallel File System v4.x VMWare 4.5 Citrix 4.5 X-Midas 4.x Martes 2011 Individual task orders will identify specific hardware and software the contractor is to work with. QUESTIONS 23 - Reference Section B.4 Quantities, page B - 2 of 8. Previous Government Pre-RFP notices indicated a contract ceiling of $24M. Will the Government disclose the final RFP contract ceiling price? ANSWER 23 - The answer to Question 7 provided the approximate value of the current contract. The estimate for this new contract is similar but the Government has not determined an exact price ceiling. Final contract ceilings will be established at the time of contract award based on the total price of the quotes received and the number of IDIQ contracts awarded. QUESTIONS 24 - Reference Section M.3 Step 2 Evaluation of Past/Present, page M - 5 of 9. Are past performance submissions of subcontractors on a team optional or is the Government requesting one past performance for every subcontractor on a team? ANSWER 24 - The Government is requesting one past performance reference for each subcontractor on a team. QUESTIONS 25 - Are the additional 5 pages provided for a classified addendum (see the answer to Question 5) in addition to and not replacements for the five "bonus" pages allowed in Section L.5, Part 2, Past Performance? ANSWER 25 - Yes, the additional 5 pages for a classified addendum are in addition to the page limitation of the primary proposal. NASIC performs technical signal intelligence (SIGINT) activities to support operational war fighters, defense acquisition efforts and national policy and decision makers. SIGINT analysis is conducted by NASIC analysts to determine the performance characteristics of systems of interest. The results of this analysis are incorporated into all-source threat assessments, used to construct engineering models and provided directly to intelligence end-users. The vendor selected to fulfill this requirement will support this NASIC mission objective. The Government contemplates awarding multiple five- year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, with all work being placed through either fixed priced or time and material task orders. The following information is provided in compliance with FAR 5.207. (1) National Stock Number (NSN) if assigned: Not Applicable (2a) Specification: Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) Engineering Support Services (SESS II). The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) requires external assistance to support Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) processing, exploitation, data management, analysis, dissemination and reporting. NASIC's needs under this effort are focused on technical SIGINT (Tech SIGINT). NASIC needs to procure, integrate, upgrade and maintain hardware and software necessary to effectively exploit Tech SIGINT data. This includes maintaining and upgrading the systems' associated processing capability, maximizing architectural commonality, minimizing technical risks, ensuring security compliance and decreasing life cycle costs. In addition, NASIC needs assistance developing and implementing new SIGINT processing and analysis systems, methods, and associated training. Technical and engineering support related to the processing and analysis of Tech SIGINT data must be provided. Finally, assistance for SIGINT analysis and the integration of SIGINT information into multi-source and all-source intelligence products is required. This work shall primarily provide technical, engineering, and analysis support associated with the exploitation of air and space Technical SIGINT (Tech SIGINT) data by the Signals Analysis Squadron with an emphasis on Technical Electronic Intelligence (Tech ELINT), Foreign Instrumentation Signals (FISINT), and C3 Data Links. Experience in Measurement and Signatures Intelligence (MASINT), Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), Communications Intelligence (COMINT), or operational ELINT (Op ELINT) does not substitute for experience in Tech SIGINT. (2b) Special Eligibility Qualifications: Employees must have current security clearances as will be defined in the forth coming Performance Work Statement. (3) Manufacturer: Not Applicable (4) Size, dimensions, or other form, fit or functional description: Not Applicable (5) Predominant material of manufacture: Not Applicable (6) Quantity, including any options for additional quantities: Not Applicable (7) Unit of issue: Not Applicable (8) Destination information: End items shall be delivered to NASIC at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio (9) Delivery schedule: As prescribed on individual task orders. (10) Duration of the contract period: 5 years (11) Evaluation procedures: Proposals will be evaluated to determine the vendor offering the best value to the government, considering technical ability, past performance and price; (12) Architect-Engineer project Information: Not Applicable (13)(i) FAR clause at 52.225-3, Buy American Act-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act, or an equivalent agency clause: Not Applicable (ii) FAR clause at 52.225-5, Trade Agreements, or an equivalent agency clause: Not Applicable (iii) FAR clause at 52.225-11, Buy American Act-Construction Materials Under Trade Agreements, 52.225-23, Required Use of American Iron, Steel, and Other Manufactured Goods-Buy American Act-Construction Materials Under Trade Agreements, or an equivalent agency clause: Not Applicable (14) Non-Competitive Information: Not Applicable (15) Fair Opportunity/Award Consideration: All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency. (16) Solicitation Availability: The solicitation will be released in approximately 30 days. The solicitation will be released through this GPE portal. A written (hard copy) solicitation will not be issued. (17) Electronic Data Interchange: Not Applicable (18) Technical Data Source: Not Applicable OPENING STATEMENT: This is an announcement of the pending release of a solicitation requesting proposals for non-commercial signal intelligence engineering services. NO RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY INTERESTED VENDORS AT THIS TIME. The engineering services will be performed in support of the U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The solicitation will be released on or about the end of November 2010. The solicitation will be released through this GPE portal. A written (hard copy) solicitation will not be issued.