Task Force Littoral Small Ship Technologies

Classification Code: A (R&D) This Special Notice is issued to notify interested parties of the availability of draft statements of work (SOWs) for review. Input, comments and Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are solicited. The International Cooperation Opportunities Group (ICOG) (briefly described below) has identified nine (9) areas/tasks of potential international cooperation in development and application of technology to Littoral Ships. Each of these tasks will have oversight from all participating Five Power Nations (France, Italy, Germany, U.K. and U.S.), but will be led by a "Lead Nation" that will develop final Statements of Work (SOWs) and provide pertinent funds for a 1 to 1-1/2 year project. The Procurement Agencies of the Five Power Nations intend to award purchase orders / contracts to support these initiatives. The final SOWs will be based on the draft SOWs and inputs from expressions of interest received in response to this Special Notice. EOI (comments, inputs) must be received by COB, EST on December 1, 2003. All SOWs will be combined into an "ICO" (International Cooperation Opportunity) that will be presented to the national Armaments Directors (NADS) for approval in Oct 29, 2003. Work is planned to start in January 2004 and will continue for a period of 12-18 months. This scope of work will constitute Phase I, which is explained in more detail below. Continuation into Phase II activities will be determined by Phase I outcomes. All 5 countries will participate in the oversight of all 9 tasks. A future selection will be made on which of the 9 initiatives will be further developed and become available for international support and use on any of the five nation's Littoral Ship Programs. The ICOG-led projects (Phase I) ("Task s of the ICO") are listed below and Points of Contact (POCs) are provided for industry members interested in participating in meetings or other activities. These tasks are broken into platform and mission modules as follows: 1. Platform Task, Future Propulsion and Power Generation Technologies and Fuel Cell System Implementation, Lead Nation: Germany. 2. Mission Module Task, Littoral Combat System Mission Module Concepts, Lead Nation: UK. 3. Mission Module Task, Integrated Antenna Systems (IAS), Lead Nation: France. 4. Mission Module Task, Gun Modules and Extended Capability, Lead Nation: Italy. 5. Mission Module Task, Common Opto-Electric Laser Detection Systems (COLDS), Lead Nation: Germany. 6. Mission Module Task, UAV Recovery Underway, Lead Nation: France. 7. Mission Module Task, Interfaces, Standards and Interoperability and Open Architecture, Lead Natio n: U.S. 8. Mission Module Task, Rules, Regulations and Standards for Composite Materials and High Speed Structures, Lead Nation: U.S. 9. Mission Module Task, Damage Control vs. Manpower Requirements, Lead Nation: Italy. The Lead Nation Point(s) of Contact are: Germany: MinRat Karlheinz Lippitz, FMOD, GE (Chairman), Email: contact@example.gov; US: Dr. Paris Genalis, OSD ATL, U.S., Email: contact@example.gov; UK: Mr. John Ardis, DPA (FCS), U.K., Email: contact@example.gov; France: IGA Francis Jouanjean, DGA, France, Email: contact@example.gov; Italy: CDR Alessio Carta, NAVARM, Italy, Email: contact@example.gov. Expression of Interest (EOI) should be forwarded to: 1) The Lead Nation POC; 2) Mr. Lippitz, Head, ICOG Task Force and 3) All other POC's of the participating nations. The draft SOWs associated with these tasks will be available for review at http://www.lcsship.com. This is a public Web site. Click on "References" and find the title of document: "SEA-ICOG-LSST-Statements of Work". Further information: The ICOG Project was initiated in 1996 by the United States, Italy, Germany, U.K. and France, with an initial goal for cooperation on common mission problems focused on coalition security needs to include: Extended air defense; Combat identification; Coordinated logistics and Interoperable communications. Approach: Initiate concurrent governmental and industrial activities to match promising innovative technologies with upcoming national requirements; establish ICOs (international cooperation opportunities); report results. The ICOG initiative has distributed its efforts into several task forces, one of which is the LSST task force. The main areas of technologies and cooperation inc lude: Hull and propulsion, signatures, offensive and defensive weapons systems, command & control components, communications and data link, networking and combat system integration. The other task forces are: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles; Chemical-Biological/WMD Defense; Training and Exercises; Combat Identification; Land Mine Countermeasures; Sea Mine Countermeasures; Air Refueling Technologies; Interoperable Tactical Communications. The current ICOG LSST task force website is: http://www.bwb.org/ICOG/news.htm.