Warfighter Sustainment and Optimization OTA

1.0 NOTICE: The NSRDEC in conjunction with the Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground Natick Division (ACC-APG-Natick) is releasing this special notice to inform interested parties about the Government's interest to establish an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreement under 10 U.S.C. 2371 Section 815 with an eligible entity or group of entities, to include industry, academic, non-profit, and not-for-profit partners, for advanced development efforts to support the NSRDECs technology objectives in enhancing the mission effectiveness of the ARMY Warfighter. An OTA will provide the NSRDEC with a faster and more flexible way of obtaining leading-edge Research and Development (R&D) prototypes from commercial sources, which would include non-traditional contractors who are unwilling or unable to comply with the Government's procurement regulations, as the Federal/Defense/Army Acquisition Regulations FAR/DFAR/AFAR are not applicable to OTA's. 2.0 TECHNOLOGY OBJECTIVES: The Army's Modernization Approach for Force 2025 and beyond requires Soldiers and Small units to be more expeditionary, have increased forced entry capability, reduce the logistics tail, and reduce Soldier load. As part of this campaign, the below objectives are described as the strategic direction for any future NSRDEC investments. 2.1 Aerial Delivery Technology Objectives: To develop, demonstrate, and transition technologies that improve safety, durability, reliability, payload capacity, accuracy, speed, effectiveness, or survivability of personnel and cargo aerial delivery systems and reduce the manpower, fuel, time, cost, weight, volume, environmental footprint, or logistics footprint associated with sustaining the Warfighter through aerial delivery. Applicable areas of interest include, but are not limited to technologies or materials that: provide aerial delivery capabilities up to 80K payload; rapidly rig and de-rig airdrop systems; reduce or prevent injuries or other harm to parachutists; minimize delivery system signatures in air and/or on the ground; promote degradable disposal of parachutes and improve extraction/exfiltration systems, integration with GOTS communication systems, precision guidance systems, oxygen supply systems, delivery platforms, Para foils, parachute systems, parachute automatic opening devices and other auxiliary systems, Helicopter Sling Load (HSL), and External Airlift Transportation (EAT). Research and development of technologies that are directly relevant to weapon systems proposed to be utilized by the DOD are encouraged. 2.2 Expeditionary Basing and Collective Protection Technology Objectives: To develop, demonstrate, and transition technologies that reduce or improve the energy, manpower, water, fuel, solid waste, packaging, cost, weight, volume, environmental footprint, or logistics footprint associated with sustaining and protecting the Small Unit. Applicable areas of interest include, but are not limited to technologies or materials integrated into shelter systems that: reduce fuel and water requirements, reduce and safely dispose of solid waste; convert waste to energy; reduce energy consumption for environmental control and lighting. Also to reduce expeditionary base camp detection signatures; or improve protection of expeditionary base camps from environmental hazards and threats from ballistic/blast, Chemical/biological events, and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic pulses, materials to improve strength and integrity of shelter systems; enable rapid deployment or self-erecting shelters; or reduce manpower required for systems set-up, operation and maintenance. Research and development of technologies that are directly relevant to weapon systems proposed to be utilized by the DoD are encouraged 2.3 Combat Feeding Technology Objectives: To develop, demonstrate, and transition technologies that improve safety, suitability, reliability, or effectiveness of the nutrition, production, packaging, storage, preservation, sanitation, transportation, distribution, or preparation of sustenance for the military services across all operational scenarios. Also, to develop, demonstrate, and transition technologies that reduce the energy, manpower, water, fuel, solid waste, packaging, cost, weight, volume, or logistics footprint associated with ration and equipment technologies that provide sustenance to the military services across all operational scenarios. 2.4 Soldier & Small Unit Protective Equipment & Mission Enhancement Systems: To develop, demonstrate, and transition technologies that protect or enhance the mission effectiveness of the Soldier & Small Unit. Applicable areas of interest include, but are not limited to ballistic & modular personal Protective equipment, wearable devices designed to augment Soldier performance (e.g., reduce metabolic cost of load carriage, enhance mobility, increase strength, etc.). Chemical/biological protective equipment, flame and thermal protection, Biological sensors and Power and data management solutions. Research and development of technologies that are directly relevant to weapon systems proposed to be utilized by the DoD are encouraged 3.0 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: The Government requests submissions from interested parties. An eligible party or group of parties, may include; industry, academic, non-profit, and not-for-profit partners, for research and development efforts to support NSRDEC mission technical objectives. Responses can be sent via email to adin.e.morales.civ@mail.mil with the subject NSRDEC OTA RESPONSE - Entity Name. NO TELEPHONE INQUIRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED. Responses should contain the interested parties' experience and capability information. Electronic responses are to be in Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word format using a size 12 font with one inch margins. Adobe PDF format is preferred. Responses should include a cover letter and at a minimum, provide the following: 3.1 A cover page labeled with the heading, NSRDEC OTA RESPONSE, name of company, name of corporate point of contact (POC), name of technical POC, telephone number for each POC, full mailing address, e-mail addresses for each POC, CAGE Code, and any other pertinent information. 3.2 Responses to the below questions: (No more than five pages) 3.2.1 Under what conditions/circumstances would industry participate in an OTA consortium? What incentives would industry like to see included as part of an OTA consortium strategy? (E.g. investment needed from Government/number and $ value of projects?) 3.2.2 List any relevant experience your firm has in managing/forming a consortium? (E.g. Capabilities of Members/Cost structure of Agreement?) 3.2.3 What barriers does your firm see in working with the DOD in an OTA consortium strategy? (E.g. legal, intellectual property rights, royalties, inclusion of DoD Advance Development & Manufacturing Capability, membership rules, FAR applicability, and Government expectation of use of ADM). 3.3 Please submit all pages as a single (.doc or .pdf) file. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Responses and technical questions should be provided via electronic submission to Adin Morales at adin.e.morales.civ@mail.mil no later than 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Friday, 23 December 2016. Telephone requests for additional information will not be honored. This is a market survey requesting information only. The submission of this information is for planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to procure any items/services, or for the Government to pay for the information received. The U.S. Government implies no intention or opportunity to acquire funding to support current or future efforts. If a formal solicitation is generated at a later date, a solicitation notice will be published. No award will be made as a result of this market survey. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any private sector input as a result of the market survey. The U.S. Government is not obligated to notify respondents of the results of this survey. Any documentation provided will not be returned. Contracting Office Address: ACC-APG - Natick Division ATTN: CCAP-SCN, 10 General Green Avenue Natick, Massachusetts 01760 United States