Virtual Aerial Systems Trainer (VAST)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Project Director Sensors-Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) is seeking information from industry on services and supplies to deliver comprehensive and detail-oriented virtual training for flight crew, sensor operators, and Mission Equipment Package (MEP) maintainers. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) NOTICE ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP). NO SOLICITATION ARE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. Overview/Purpose/Description of Procurement Project Director Sensors-Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) is responsible for enduring requirements to develop, acquire, field and provide life-cycle support to operationally relevant Aerial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (AISR) sensors and integrated systems across a broad spectrum of Multiple Intelligence (MULTI-INT) capabilities, including but not limited to: Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR), Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicators (SAR/GMTI), Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), and Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT). In addition, auxiliary support of these capabilities including, but not limited to air, ground, networking, data transfer, satellite communications, and simulated training is required. Traditional modes of training including Operational Procedural Trainers (OPTs) are limited by factors such as equipment durability and availability, classroom size, qualified instructors, and safety considerations. They are also cost and time prohibitive. To supplement classroom training, a more modern approach is required. Therefore, PD SAI is interested in a training solution that emulates aircraft and sensors in high fidelity, digitizes the training environment, and facilitates multi-trainee and instructor collaboration in a virtual environment that can be conducted from classrooms anywhere in the world. PD SAI is interested in products that enable the Army to obtain training technology to enable greater agility in support of complex maintenance, inspection, and crew coordination tasks. The desired technical solution will be used to prove out a modernized training as capabilities and program requirements evolve. This RFI is intended purely for market research purposes. The Government wishes to better understand current industry capabilities regarding their ability to provide necessary services and supplies to deliver comprehensive and detail-oriented virtual training. Scope of Effort/Request In response to this RFI, PD SAI is seeking industry information regarding commercial or government off-the-shelf (COTS/GOTS) product solutions to validate industry capabilities for Virtual Aerial Systems Trainer (VAST) to support the Airframe, Pilot Tasks, Crew Drill Tasks, and Back of Plane with sensor Non-Rated Crew Members (NRCM) tasks. The intent of this RFI is to gather information on state-of-the art virtual training capabilities which allow for the creation of several environments, scenarios, decision points, and rally points that could be developed virtually to apply to multiple aircraft platforms. Required tasks may involve coordination between cockpit and cabin crewmembers. The environment will provide Soldiers, leaders, staffs, and units the ability to train on mission critical tasks and exercise cognitive skills required to operate in the Operational Environment (OE). Interested virtual training procedures include: 1) Crew-Level Emergency Procedures IAW BBD-700 2) Aviation Life Support Equipment (ALSE) - Pre-flight (ALSE expirations, flashlights, fire extinguisher pressures, O2 pressure check, etc.) 3) Other Pre-flight inspections. 4) Intel Sensors operation and maintenance tasks The virtual training should start with standardized aircrew procedures like crew briefings, ICS check-in (after entering the Immersive VR environment), etc. Some of those would be done outside of the VR, while some would be performed inside to support mission planning and mission rehearsals. The steps to be performed by aircrew (Pilots & NRCM) in each training module would need to be built, verified, and validated by applicable regulation or standardization documents and procedures to ensure the products correctness. The results of the training environment shall enhance and reinforce both Soldier and leader Warfighter skills with practical experience. The Government is particularly interested in capabilities and specific requirements of the Virtual Training Prototype which include: Leveraging existing technology and Government Furnished Information (GFI) / Government Furnished Software (GFS) to create a virtual environment Use of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) or non-proprietary hardware and software as much as possible Ability to collaborate between instructors and students in a virtual environment both guided and unguided Ability to train individual and collective tasks Ability to train crew drills procedures in multiple environments both guided and unguided Cockpit and Sensor orientation with start-up procedures Crew coordination/emergency procedures for Pilot & Sensor NRCM Virtual environment must have major system, aircraft and sensor details Guided and unguided (graded) collection operations for each sensor workstations Sensor Operator and Maintenance task demonstration Guided/unguided (graded) MEP pre-flight startup/shutdown and troubleshooting procedures Provide means to offload data to Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) operators for a true end-to-end training experience Ability to process and transmit High Payoff Target List (HPTL)/ High Value Target List (HVTL) Ability to link with PED/Sensor operators for remote tasking and processing and Exercise Control (EXCON) random factor insertion for procedural training Module integration into a Learning Management System (LMS) to track training efficiency and student progression. Requested Information The Government requests that interested parties provide the following: White Paper Response For the government to understand your current training capability, please respond with a white paper outlining current abilities and answering the following questions (elaborate all answers): What data formats do you use to represent 3D equipment models? (e.g., FBX, OBJ and GLTF). What types of material data types are created/included in the - fbx deliverable to the government? What is your development and delivery time for each module on contract? Is delivery times (Period of Performance (PoP)) routinely within 8-12-month period? How do you structure the model hierarchy for virtualized equipment? How do you handle animation data for 3D equipment components? (e.g., physics-based animations versus timeline-based sequences, etc.). Do your virtualized equipment assets depend on any game engine systems, subsystems, plugins, or other external services to function? Do you use PBR materials, and if so, what specification? Do you currently support XR? If so, do you use OpenVR, OpenXR, or another API? How do you define interactions, behaviors, and states for virtualized equipment? What is your software approach to virtual training? What rending solution is utilized in your solution? Can your solution integrate with third party vendors? How many Soldiers can your solution train simultaneously? What capabilities does the instructor have in your solution? Please provide a block diagram / System description that includes hardware, computational devices, interfaces and describe your modularity/ open systems approach for dealing with the incorporation of new technology and/or components as they become available. What type of training scenarios are currently included and are they customizable in your solution? What freedom of movement does the trainees have inside the training scenarios? What Learning Management System (LMS) do you use, and what metrics are provided to the instructor for the purpose of evaluating trainees? Is your system accredited and/or certified? What subject matter experts reside within your team (no names, just titles) and what are their functional areas of expertise? What is your current hardware solution for instrumentation? What form of project management and planning methodologies do you utilize in your processes? What kind of data does your system capture during training sessions? If data is captured, is there a data analysis component to provide feedback to the trainees? How do you handle regular maintenance and SW updates for the system? Describe any major subcontracted components and describe your Subcontractor/Vendor management strategy. What separates your system from others? Does your system have interoperability with other simulations or operations systems? How does your solution address modularity and the ability to - plug and train with components, haptics, and peripheral devices? Provide projected cost estimates (Rough Orders of Magnitude (ROM)) What recent relevant performance (past five (5) years) and/ or current work experience does your company have performing similar work for the DoD/ Army? Please describe your effort and role. White Paper Response Collaboration (Discussions) If the Government finds after White Paper responses there is a need for discussions and/or hardware demonstration, PM SAI representatives may meet with potential interested parties and/or request one-on-one sample hardware demonstrations. Such discussions are only intended to obtain further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements and demonstration of product capabilities. Response Guidelines: Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with an Unclassified white paper. White paper submissions cannot exceed 5 pages, single spaced, 12-point type with at least one-inch margins on 8 1/2'x11 page size. The response should not exceed a 10 MB e-mail limit for all items associated with the RFI response. Responses must specifically describe the interested party's capability to meet the requirements outlined in this RFI. Oral communications are not permissible. Sam.gov will be the sole repository for all information related to this RFI. Interested parties who wish to respond to this RFI shall do so no later than 13 March 2025 at 1600 EST via email to Aaron Norton, aaron.j.norton3.civ@army.mil and Angel Acevedo, angel.r.acevedo10.civ@army.mil. To: Questions/Disclaimers: The Government will not entertain and will not address any questions from Industry at this time. The Government will not reimburse companies for any costs associated with the submissions of their responses or the participation in demonstrations. Disclaimer: This RFI is not an RFP and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals, nor will any award be made as a result of this synopsis. All information contained in the RFI is preliminary as well as subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. FAR clause 52.215-3, - Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes, is incorporated by reference in this RFI. The Government does not intend to pay for information received in response to this RFI. Responders to this invitation are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. This RFI will be the basis for collecting information on capabilities available. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received in this RFI that is marked - Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all paper submissions become Government property and will not be returned nor will receipt be confirmed. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Product Service Code: 6910 - TRAINING AIDS NAICS Code: 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)