Synopsis for ACI Contract to Support Nett Warrior Program
Added: Mar 18, 2015 7:37 am
This notice is being published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 5.101(a)(1) requiring the dissemination of information on proposed contract actions. This is a notice of intent to award a sole-source contract, and is not a request for competitive proposals. The statutory authority for this sole-source procurement is 10 USC 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The Army Contracting Command (ACC) intends to award a sole source contract to Augustine Consulting, Inc. (ACI) for a five year, Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee (CPFF), contract for software development, system integration, and production technical assistance services to support the Nett Warrior (NW) Acquisition Category (ACAT) II program. ACI, as a support contractor to the Government, is the current NW software developer, software integrator / system integrator and software configuration manager for U.S. Army Product Manager Ground Soldier System (PdM GSS) NW program. The products and services to be provided under this contract for the NW program include; software engineering; software coding; software configuration management; software development; software integration; software testing; software and hardware accreditation for secret use; NW specific system engineering, integration, testing; and NW related end user device and mission planning production software builds and software loading in support of NW production and fielding. The NW is an ACAT II program that is different from typical Department of Defense (DoD) secret high weapons systems in that there is no prime contractor and NW is significantly impacted by Moore's Law due to NW's heavy reliance on commercial electronics. The NW provides the dismounted leader with improved battlefield visibility through increased lethality, command, control, communications and information sharing across various echelons. The integrated NW facilitates dynamic transmission of battlefield information and actively supports integration into the digitized battlefield. The NW program utilizes components available from other Government agencies and commercial sources. With this approach, the program minimizes the use of unique hardware and software and uses an open system architecture, which provides greater flexibility to incorporate technology upgrades, while reducing developmental and support costs. PdM GSS plans to implement a strategy of yearly technology insertions into the NW program to leverage evolving mature technology and the significant investment of the ever changing commercial marketplace. One of the benefits of the NW having no prime contractor (Government is the prime) is the ability to react quickly to integrating new technologies and software functionality (including 3rd party application integration) by leveraging Government contractor support for the majority of the program's supporting personnel. The NW software, system integration and production software provisioning of End User Devices (currently Samsung Galaxy Note II) and NW Mission Planner (NMPs) computers is accomplished by ACI at the ACI run NW System Integration Lab (NW SIL), located in Eatontown, NJ which will continue under this contract. The NW software includes Android Operating System (OS) modifications, stand-alone applications software developer kit (SDK), mission planning software and user applications that provide the Graphical User Interface (GUI), system controls, Situational Awareness/ Command & Control (SA/C2) user menus and functions such as mapping engine, position location calculations and digital message processing. The NW also maintains Army Common Operating Environment (COE) compliance to the Mobile Handheld Computing Environment standards. The NW, under this contract, will use the agile software development model, leverage mobile application development languages and tools and meet short capability release windows. On a semi-annual basis, for the purposes of prioritizing / managing fixed levels of funding and schedule timelines, PdM GSS will re-prioritize the support contractor software development, integration, and post deployment software support efforts to proactively re-align with changing Army needs at the dismounted Soldier tactical environment. NW integrates networking with self-contained data processing to provide the following functions, whose development, integration, testing, production, sustainment and management, will be executed under this contract: (1) Application Software. a. NW has a software application suite that integrates all digital electronics components. This includes a secure, certified computer operating system, graphical user interface, database, mapping and navigation, user authentication, and digital voice/data transmissions. Software development is expected to be evolutionary, building more complex functionality once the basic software package is developed and tested. The remaining NW core development effort is mainly adding in additional Variable Message Format (VMF) messages, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Standardization Agreement ( STANAG) messaging implementation, information assurance functionality, reducing password complexities by leveraging Near Field Communication (NFC) transports, integrating dual tunnel Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) into the EUD, completing initial release of the NW Software Developer Kit (SDK), integrating Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) transapps, migrating to new mapping engine (this is a recurring task every two years), expand Cursor-On-Target (COT) messages (tied to special force requirement), executing against Technical Transition Agreements (TTA) and Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs), improvements based on field feedback, support 3rd party software integration efforts (yearly activity), establish compliance with Common Operating Environment (COE) 2.0, 3.0 and future baselines and correcting remaining Problem Change Reports (PCRs) level 3, 4 and 5 on V2.0.7 and subsequent baselines. Software development support with expert knowledge in C, C++, C#, JAVA, Linux, .NET and Android focused on the development of products for the dismounted Soldier is required. The contractor shall also be responsible to maintain NW software baselines that are currently in the field (2 NW baselines and 2 NMP baselines). b. The NW system is designed to be interoperable with Army and Joint mission command systems. Interoperable messages follow MIL STD 6017 and 6017A VMF with MIL STD 2045-47001C Connectionless Data Transfer Application Layer Standard. The support contractor is required to be resident experts with these standards as well as future standards/formats required by COE. c. The approximate amount of files and source code currently required to be managed and maintained under this procurement for NW applications are 7,212 files and approximately 1.1 million lines source code. These numbers do not included any additional code required to support 3rd party application integration with NW which is part of the support services required under this procurement. (2) NW Software Developer Kit. The NW developed and maintained NW SDK allows content providers to extend existing core capabilities, develop new capabilities while minimizing integration costs (i.e., following the Android SDK model). The initial release of the NW SDK will occur in May 2015 and will include Application Programming Interfaces (API) for mapping services, and net services with full documentation and example programs. The NW SDK will be updated on a yearly basis to keep pace with changes in mapping engines, GUI and net services functionality through the life of the NW program. The approximate amount of files and source code currently required to be managed and maintained under this procurement for NW SDK are 2,374 files and approximately 394,000 lines of source code. (3) NW Tactical Marketplace. The NW program started fielding in FY13, it requires a way to provide a scaled down version of an Army tactical-level software marketplace type capability by FY17 in a tactical level environment in line with the release of the NW SDK and associated NW V2.0.6 software drop and beyond. The NW program, through this contract, is planning on establishing a NW tactical marketplace capability to provide a secure means for 3rd party applications to be vetted from an information assurance perspective (NW operates at the secret level) and from a NW interoperability and performance impact. This NW tactical marketplace requirement has software, hardware and configuration management infrastructure requirements that are required to be refined, documented and implemented under this contract. (4) NW Mission Planner. NW Mission Planner software (currently Windows 7 based), whose development, integration, testing, fielding and sustainment support under this procurement, functionality includes: NW mission planning, monitor local SA/C2 traffic as a node on the network, create, modify, convert and load various map formats onto the EUD, gather NW system and security data logs, generate, and edit orders and overlays, add validated non-NW applications from multiple Army organizations onto the EUD, allow platoons to complete after action report/simulations and load UTO changes onto the EUD. The approximate amount of files and source code currently required to be managed and maintained under this procurement for NW mission planner software are 694 files and approximately 84,000 lines of code. (5) Programming Description. The Nett Warrior system software is a compilation of multiple Java applications running on an Android Operating System. Nett Warrior uses the Android SDK and NW SDK to develop its application software. Other software modules are written using C / C++ programming language. The NW Mission Planning Tool, which is a Windows based support tool, uses the Microsoft Visual Studio with Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscription as well as the Government Off The Shelf (GOTS) mapping software package called Falconview. The software environment development support tools are all commercial-based and include Eclipse, Subversion, Bugzilla and Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements (DOORs) Management. The support contractor is required to be very familiar with these tools, operating systems, SDKs and software languages. (6) Software Development Environment. The support contractor maintained NW software development environment is required to be unclassified but must also comply with information assurance requirements as specified by AR 25-2 and DoD 8500.1. The NW SIL facility is required to be certified to handle up to at a minimum secret for both hardware and software since items returned from the field are considered secret. The NW source code is required to be maintained by the support contractor in a physically secured and network protected server with a secondary backup server located off-site from the NW SIL. Access to source code is limited to authorized personnel only. All NW software developers, engineers, testers, and management support personnel are required to maintain a minimum of SECRET clearance to support NW program. A few key employees are also required to have a TOP SECRET clearance in support of the NW program. The support contractor within the software development environment is required to: a. Establish, maintain, and update source code repositories for NW SDK, NW application software, NW Android Operating System and kernel and NW Mission Planner Computer (MPC) application software; b. Develop and maintain system images, developing build scripts, conducting daily software builds; c. Establish and maintain defect tracking database; d. Generate and maintain configuration management control of all software documentation. (7) Facility Support for the NW SIL. Provide services as required to support day to day operations of the NW SIL to include, but not limited to: a. Establish warehouse operations with capacity to ship, receive, handle, store at least a fiscal year's worth of NW equipment to support fielding and Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDTE) activities; b. Ensure capability to support shipping and receiving of hazardous material; c. Maintain property and inventory database; d. Conduct bulk property transfers through Property Book Unit Supply Enhanced (PBUSE) and Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) systems; e. Establish and maintain the field support & trouble tracking database; f. Establish Communication Security (COMSEC) account with capacity of storage and safe keeping of Secret material; g. Establish Key Data Processor Loading and Installation Facility (KLIF) account with US Air Force to ensure ability to ship, receive and store Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Global Positioning System (GPS) devices; h. Ensure appropriate security measures are in place to maintain secret facility clearance with secret storage capabilities. (8) Other Functions: The testing, production and supply support services, which will be occurring simultaneously with software development, include receiving inspection, integration support, NW EUD and mission planner software builds and retrofitting of NW system and associated components, and maintaining an inventory of unique repair parts at the supplier facility (e.g. NW SIL). Additionally, engineering, logistical and Post Deployment Software Support (PDSS) services are required for PdM GSS fielding/sustainment of the Nett Warrior multiple software baselines. The field support is limited to providing Field Service Representatives (FSR) to support NW related hardware and firmware field modifications based on Soldier feedback, evaluating hardware or software anomalies, coordinating with field and depot support, and assist in first and second echelon repair. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Please contact Ms. Kelly Doolittle with responses or questions regarding this requirement at kelly.l.doolittle.civ@mail.mil. No telephonic inquiries. This notice will close on 2 April 2015.
W91CRB-15-R-0022 Department of the Army Materiel Command Army Contracting Command Aberdeen Proving Ground
3/18/15, 7:37 AM