Technologies for the Interdiction of CBRNE Material

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE; there is no solicitation available at this time. No response will be provided to requests for a solicitation. THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE IS PUBLISHED FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. Background: The Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) mission is to safeguard America and its allies from Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and mitigate its effects. DTRA's Research and Development (RD) Enterprise, Innovation and Systems Engineering (IS) Office fosters a portfolio of high-risk, potentially high-payoff technologies that provide increased situational awareness of, protection from, and defeat capabilities against CBRNE threats to support the nation's weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related counterforce, consequence assessment, defeat, and arms control objectives. In support of this mission, the IS Office is seeking a capability for performing research, technology development; technical, scientific and program analyses; and systems integration efforts that will provide scientific and technological solutions to meet the Department of Defense (DoD) nonproliferation, counterproliferation, consequence management, and warfighter mission objectives. In the Secretary of Defense Memorandum, Science and Technology (S&T) Priorities for Fiscal Years 2013-2017 Planning, dated April 19, 2011, the Secretary of Defense established the Department's S&T investment priorities for Fiscal Year 2013 through 2017. One of the priorities is Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (C-WMD), and is articulated as follows: Invest in advances in DoD's ability to locate, secure, monitor, tag, track, interdict, eliminate and attribute WMD weapons and materials. In support of this, RD's emphasis will target the effective pursuit of new concepts and technology for near real-time and reliable CBRNE indications and warning, detection, characterization, tagging, tracking, interdiction, elimination, forensics, and attribution support capabilities operable in all domains and critically concentrated on the global commons. RD-IS has an accelerated mission space, with the goal that projects developed through the office are ready for transition in a two year period. RD-IS's mission is to ensure that innovative, game-changing, higher risk technologies develop into products that are essential in addressing the needs of U.S. forces. Scope: The scope of this requirement includes accomplishing research and technology development; technical, scientific and program analyses; systems integration; technology transfer tasks and delivering products encompassing theoretical and experimental research, test and evaluation, prototype development and demonstration and exercise that directly achieve objectives in those areas or provide supporting technology information analysis tools and/or infrastructure. The scope also includes providing scientific and technical subject matter expertise capable of providing support in answering scientific and technical questions, with respect to the CWMD threats and mission space described above. The scope encompasses science and technology efforts at technology readiness levels required for transition to advanced development, with a constant focus on improving operational capabilities critical to combating WMD, not limited solely to DoD applications. Increased availability of situational awareness, protection, and defeat technologies against CBRNE threats will reduce the vulnerability of U.S. forces, as well as the civilian population. Previous RD-IS efforts in this area have leveraged those of the Components and other Federal agencies (civilian and DoD) with practical implications in support of the civilian population. Objectives: The contractor shall conduct research and development resulting in delivery of data, hardware, software, equipment, and documentation across the scope of activities defined above. Task orders will be used to further define the technical objectives, schedule and deliverables, including compliance with appropriate policies, standards, and commercial processes, to meet requirements in the following broad functional areas: 1. CBRNE Detection: Assess, develop, demonstrate, evaluate, and transition capabilities and technologies to improve the ability to detect CBRNE threats more effectively, at increasing standoff distances. Infuse emerging advanced and multi-functional materials, nanoscale, micro electro-mechanical systems, and cognitive sciences into CWMD technologies. Exploit biology in new ways through bio-inspired/mimicking sensors and materials. Integrate passive, active, and alternative signature approaches across the detection spectrum with emphasis on "detect-to-warn" capabilities. The developed capabilities and technologies may have important implications in CBRNE forensic capabilities as well. 2. Develop advanced C-WMD concepts: Conduct research, development and engineering to develop advanced concept technology for the C-WMD mission. Work includes the initial design of advanced concept technologies, interactions with key operational stakeholders to understand and assess requirements and current operational shortfalls, and ultimately the initial fabrication of advanced concept technical kit for evaluation. Aspects of advanced concept development include, but are not limited to: advanced material development and evaluation for usability, development and execution of advanced modeling and simulation techniques that incorporate sophisticated transport physics phenomenology, sensor development and engineering, advanced algorithm development, nuclear physics and chem.-bio agent science. 3. Technological Innovation Assessments: Conduct technology innovation assessments and analyses as dictated through requirements processes; conduct red-teaming efforts consisting of seminar war gaming, assessments and analyses; technology readiness assessments; and technology transition agreements; conduct advanced and joint concept technology demonstrations (ACTDs, JCTDs.) 4. CBRNE Physical Countermeasures: Assess, develop demonstrate, evaluate and transition approaches, capabilities, and technologies to mitigate and/or defeat CBRNE effects including, but not limited to, detection, identification, shielding, protection, avoidance, neutralization, decontamination, and related functions. 5. CBNRE Medical Countermeasures: Assess, develop demonstrate, evaluate, and transition approaches and technologies to mitigate and/or defeat WMD effects including, but not limited to, diagnostics, pre-treatments, therapeutics, and related functions. 6. Treaty and Verification Technologies: Assess, develop, demonstrate, evaluate and transition approaches and technologies to enhance current and emerging on-site inspection, monitoring and verification requirements, and activities for arms control initiatives, agreements, understandings and treaties. 7. Predictive Modeling and Simulation (M&S), Integration, and Architecture for Hazard and System Performance Assessments: Encompasses M&S, software development, testing, integration, and the supporting architecture and infrastructure to provide products, services, and operational capability that predict collateral damage and effects, as well as physics-based system/sensor performance. This may include transport through the environment; protective measures for CBRNE weapons, accidents, and incidents; capitalizing on high performance computing and artificial intelligence to develop data-to-decision tools and the next generation of reach-back systems to support joint CWMD operations; computational mimicry of bio-systems to improve decision making cycles; and development of a platform to model the complex interplay between the radiation field, detection equipment and placement, and the behavior of individual personnel, vehicles, and other entities which determine the success or failure in a search or interdiction scenario. 8. Human Factors Engineering/Human-System Integration Engineering: The capability to assess the usability of a product and to develop metrics that monitor the human-in-the loop effects in addition to the technological implications of a new product. 9. Subject Matter Expertise: Expertise in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosive (CBRNE) programs to include operational assessment support, sensor and system technical evaluations, radiation transport modeling, nuclear detection, modeling and simulation and software engineering, specifically for the Joint Semi-Automated Force (JSAF) virtual environment, and the ability to upgrade JSAF models to include a wider array of detectors and neutron source configurations. Expertise in safe handling of radioactive materials (RAM) for measurement; expertise in health physics (HP) services; RAM source handling, placement for measurement, source packaging and transportation/shipping, radiation protection training, radiation survey, establishment of protection perimeters when necessary, dose monitoring and reporting, and dose control consistent with ALARA (as low as is reasonably achievable). Expertise in independent technical evaluation of nuclear treaty of verification technology to include assessment of radiometric measurement approaches as potential nuclear treaty verification tools. 10. Facilities: Specialized laboratory space and equipment available for research in imaging technologies; nanotechnology, nano-devices, and nano-scale materials; electron microscopy and micro-characterization, radiation hardened microelectronics, accelerator physics, particle physics, muon physics, and photon science, high-performance computing; advanced computer science, visualization, and data, computational analysis, design, and development of new and improved mathematical models, algorithmic designs, and software and system architectures for high-performance computing technologies, remote sensing and satellite systems, and research and development activities to enhance nuclear, chemical, and biological weapon proliferation detection capabilities to include prototype design, fabrication, development, training, and test/evaluation. Security: The highest level of classification required for this effort is TOP SECRET for facilities and TOP SECRET/SPECIAL COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION for personnel. The highest level of safeguarding required at the contractor's facility is TOP SECRET. Travel: The contractor's main facility is to be within a 60 mile radius of the DTRA facility located at Fort Belvoir, VA. General Instruction: Sources sought responses shall reflect corporate information and a capability summary reflecting experience related to the above areas. Responses shall indicate whether the above described services are available through an existing government contract and if so, identify the contract and provide contact data for the Government point of contact managing that contract. Responses are to be limited to no more than five (5) pages. Company information should include qualifications and experience in work of this nature, point of contact, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, CAGE code, DUNS Number, business size, and small business classification (8[a], HUBZone, etc.), if applicable. Any information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice is strictly voluntary. This synopsis is for information planning purposes and the Government will not pay or otherwise reimburse respondents for information submitted. Proprietary information in the responses, if any, must be clearly marked. The Government may use non-Government (contractor) support personnel as subject matter experts in the review of responses received, including the review of any marked or unmarked proprietary information provided. Appropriate non-disclosure agreements have been executed between the third party, non-Government (contractor) support personnel and the Government and are on file with the Government. A submission of a response to this Sources sought constitutes the respondent's acknowledgement and agreement that the information provided in the response, including any marked or unmarked proprietary or source selection information, may be disclosed to these third party, non-Government (contractor) support personnel. The non-Government support contractors are TASC, Inc (advisory and assistance services), and Suntiva Executive Consulting, and CACI employees (contract specialist support). Responses shall be submitted no later than 5 P.M. ET, Tuesday, 21 Aug 2012. Electronic responses are required and shall be submitted to Anne Behne, Contract Specialist, anne.behne@dtra.mil. All documentation shall become the property of the Government. Unless otherwise stated herein, no additional information is available. Requests for the same will be disregarded. There is no commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, to make award or awards, or to be responsible for any monies expended by any interested parties in support of any effort in response to this Sources Sought Notice. Information provided herein is subject to change and in no way binds the Government to solicit or award a contract.