Next Generation Gertrude
This posting is related to the Sources Sought Synopsis N0025319R0016_rev1 The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Keyport is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to perform this requirement. This requirement is to source a functional replacement for the U.S. Navy’s AN/WQC-2A Underwater Communications system capable of supporting new construction installations and back-fit alterations on DDG 51 and FFG(X) class ships. The AN/WQC-2A Sonar Communication Set has been in service for over 35 years and is one of the Navy’s in-service SONAR underwater communication system utilized by surface ships, submarines, and coastal based shore installations. It requires replacement with a commercially available or purpose built product capable of providing Navy combatants with underwater communications between surface and submarine platforms. The Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) Underwater Communicator will be a stand-alone system capable of replacing currently installed AN/WQC-2A systems on CRUDES platforms and supporting installation on NEWCON vessels. To accomplish this, NGG will utilize existing program of record transducers and established electronic interfaces necessary to transmit and receive single-sideband modulated voice, audio, and continuous wave signals acoustically tough the water medium. NGG will be a STANAG 1074 compliant system capable of communication with other STANAG 1074 compliant underwater communicators currently in use by U.S. Naval forces (e.g. AN/WQC-2A). To request access to the draft SOW attachment, you must be Joint Certification Program (JCP) certified and provide your company's CAGE code to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil or melissa.n.skelley.civ@us.navy.mil. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the acquisition plan and the method of procurement. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 334511. There is no solicitation at this time. This sources sought does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform this requirement, please provide the following information: Company name Point of contact name Mailing address Email address Website address Phone number SAM Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number CAGE code Whether the organization is Joint Certification Program (JCP) Certified If your company is a small business as defined by the Small Business Administration and under what NAICS code If your company has a satisfactory performance record for the type of work required by providing examples of relevant and recent (within tee years) past performance. Please provide a tailored capability statement addressing the particulars of this effort. Interested parties are invited to answer the following questions: Can your company provide this product as a commercial product? What level of modification of a commercial product is necessary to meet the government’s requirement? Please briefly describe the necessary modifications. Does the modification of the commercial product still meet the FAR 2.101 definition of a commercial product? Commercial product means— (1) A product, other than real property, that is of a type customarily used by the general public or by nongovernmental entities for purposes other than governmental purposes, and– (i) Has been sold, leased, or licensed to the general public; or (ii) Has been offered for sale, lease, or license to the general public; (2) A product that evolved from a product described in paragraph (1) of this definition tough advances in technology or performance and that is not yet available in the commercial marketplace, but will be available in the commercial marketplace in time to satisfy the delivery requirements under a Government solicitation; (3) A product that would satisfy a criterion expressed in paragraph (1) or (2) of this definition, except for- (i) Modifications of a type customarily available in the commercial marketplace; or (ii) Minor modifications of a type not customarily available in the commercial marketplace made to meet Federal Government requirements. “Minor modifications” means modifications that do not significantly alter the nongovernmental function or essential physical characteristics of an item or component, or change the purpose of a process. Factors to be considered in determining whether a modification is minor include the value and size of the modification and the comparative value and size of the final product. Dollar values and percentages may be used as guideposts, but are not conclusive evidence that a modification is minor; (4) Any combination of products meeting the requirements of paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this definition that are of a type customarily combined and sold in combination to the general public; (5) A product, or combination of products, referred to in paragraphs (1) tough (4) of this definition, even though the product, or combination of products, is transferred between or among separate divisions, subsidiaries, or affiliates of a contractor; or (6)A non-developmental item, if the procuring agency determines the product was developed exclusively at private expense and sold in substantial quantities, on a competitive basis, to multiple State and local governments or to multiple foreign governments. is it common for buyers in the commercial market to request modification of your commercial product? What types of modifications are typically requested? If not commercial, can your company provide this product as a developmental or non-developmental item? Please describe the warranty terms, conditions, and length of time your company would normally provide for your proposed product? Is your company a small business or other than small as defined by the Small Business Administration? If small, what is your specific socio-economic category(ies)? How many employees does your company have? What NAICS codes relevant to this requirement does your company list on its SAM registry? Based on the attached requirements documents, what is your rough cost estimate to produce a first article? What is your rough estimate unit price to produce quantities ranging from 5 – 75 units? Would your company be able to provide discounts for orders of higher volumes of units? What might the price break points be for quantities ranging from 1-75? Approximately how many calendar days would your company need to produce a first article and production units? Is contract financing necessary for your company to produce and deliver these items? See FAR Part 32 – Contract Financing. If yes, please explain why? What supply chain issues is your company experiencing that may result in cost, schedule or performance risk for manufacture of first article units and production units? What other risks exist that may affect cost, schedule and performance? Does your company plan to submit a proposal in response to a government RFP? What are your standard commercial or non-commercial terms and conditions for a contract for this type of item? What contract type would you propose for the first article unit and production units? Fixed price or cost? An ordering vehicle such as an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract or an indefinite deliver requirements type contract? Do you have any existing contracts the Navy can use to issue orders against? Can you price the required items on a five-year contract? What types of evaluation factors other than cost/price do you believe differentiate a poorly performing company from a good one for this requirement? Technical, past performance, small business subcontracting plan? Anything else? Given the complexity of the work described in this announcement, please describe your company’s historical experience completing work on similar systems at a similar complexity on the critical systems outlined, or briefly describe how your company would be capable of meeting these requirements as of contract award. Does your company have a satisfactory performance record in providing these items for government or commercial customers in the quantities estimated above? Please provide examples of relevant and recent (within tee years) past performance. Does your company have the necessary organization, experience, accounting and operational controls, and technical skills, or the ability to obtain them (including, as appropriate, such elements as production control procedures, property control systems, quality assurance measures, and safety programs applicable to materials to be produced or services to be performed by the prospective contractor and subcontractors)? If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements, including the approximate percentages of work anticipated to be performed by the prime contractor and subcontractor(s). Are there any barriers that are likely to prevent your company from submitting a proposal? If so, do you have any recommendations to remove the barriers? Please provide any critical feedback and questions you have on the requirement documents. Please provide any additional feedback that you believe is relevant? The government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to provide services/supplies consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated. Based on the responses to this sources sought notice/market research, this requirement may be set-aside for small businesses or procured tough full and open competition, and multiple awards may be made. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions. Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the above-listed services are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notice by 2 June 2022 by 1500 PDT. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be emailed to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil or melissa.n.skelley.civ@us.navy.mil . DO NOT INCLUDE ANY CLASSIFIED, CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED, OR ARMS EXPORT CONTROLLED DOCUMENTS OR INFORMATION IN YOUR RESPONSE. CONTRACTORS ARE REQUIRED TO ADHERE TO OPERATIONS SECURITY (OPSEC) REQUIREMENTS. EXPLANATION OF THESE REQUIREMENTS IS DETAILED IN SECTION I OF THE OPERATIONS SECURITY GUIDE FOR DEFENSE CONTRACTORS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT: https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Keyport/Resources/; CLICK ON OPSEC GUIDE FOR DEFENSE CONTRACTORS ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE. Please send your responses and any questions concerning this opportunity to: Stacy Noble by email at stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil or Melissa Skelley at melissa.n.skelley.civ@us.navy.mil. N00253-22-R-NGG-SS Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
5/12/22, 10:29 PM Next Generation Gertrude
The contract contains firm-fixed-price contract line items supporting the design, engineering, production, testing, and delivery of one first article test unit, training, first production unit, and production units of the Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) underwater communication device in support of Program Executive Office, Integrated Warfare Systems 5. The NGG device will replace the Navy’s AN/WQC-2A Underwater Communications system. This contract has a five-year ordering period from June 8, 2023, to June 7, 2028. Awarded contract N0025323D6002 to SYQWEST INC for 16600000.00 on 2023-06-08. N0025323D6002 Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
6/15/23, 11:02 AM Next Generation Gertrude
N0025322R0032 – Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC) Keyport is seeking feedback on the draft solicitation for the Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) devices that will be used onboard US Navy ships. The NGG Underwater Communicator will be a stand-alone system capable of replacing currently installed AN/WQC-2A systems on CRUDES platforms and supporting installation on new construction vessels. To accomplish this, NGG will utilize existing program of record transducers and established electronic interfaces necessary to transmit and receive single-sideband modulated voice, audio, and continuous wave signals acoustically tough the water medium. NGG will be a STANAG-compliant system capable of communication with other STANAG compliant underwater communicators currently in use by U.S. Naval forces (e.g. AN/WQC-2A). A Presolicitation Notice (synopsis) and Sources Sought Notice were previously released for NGG. We encourage interested parties to review this draft solicitation and provide feedback to assist in the final solicitation posting. We want to emphasize that these documents are in “draft” form and are subject to change. No awards will be made from this draft solicitation and any response is voluntary; please do not submit a proposal. Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this draft solicitation; all costs associated with responding to this draft solicitation will be solely at the respondent’s expense. Not responding to this draft solicitation does not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Feedback to this draft solicitation must be submitted to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil by 5:00pm Pacific Time on September 19, 2022. The formal solicitation is anticipated on or around September 20, 2022. N0025322R0032 Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
9/12/22, 7:29 PM Next Generation Gertrude
PROCUREMENT SYNOPSIS (PRESOLICITATION NOTICE) N0025322R0032 – Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC) Keyport intends to issue a solicitation for the production of Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) devices that will be used onboard US Navy ships. The NGG Underwater Communicator will be a stand-alone system capable of replacing currently installed AN/WQC-2A systems on CRUDES platforms and supporting installation on new construction vessels. To accomplish this, NGG will utilize existing program of record transducers and established electronic interfaces necessary to transmit and receive single-sideband modulated voice, audio, and continuous wave signals acoustically tough the water medium. NGG will be a STANAG-compliant system capable of communication with other STANAG compliant underwater communicators currently in use by U.S. Naval forces (e.g. AN/WQC-2A). This Presolicitation Notice (synopsis) is being issued in accordance with FAR 5.203(a) and 5.204 for non-commercial items procured in accordance with FAR Part 15 – Contracting by Negotiation. This is a Presolicitation Notice only. Do not submit a proposal in response to this notice. The Government anticipates award of one (1) firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity type contract, including one (1) first article test unit, training and potentially up to 80 production units. First article units will be required to pass inspection, testing, and Government acceptance before manufacturing of production units. The first article unit must be completed with all inspection, testing and acceptance within 12 months. The initial production unit must be delivered six (6) months after first article acceptance. Offerors are required to provide FOB Destination pricing to NUWC Keyport WA 98345-7610. The proposed contract is 100% set aside for small business concerns in accordance with FAR 19.502-2(b). Applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 334511, “Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing”, and has a size standard of 1,250 employees. Offers will be evaluated and award will be made on the basis of best value to the Government; that is, selection of the contractor is to be based on other than the lowest price, technically acceptable offer. It is anticipated that solicitation N0025322R0032 will be available middle to late September 2022. The solicitation closing date is anticipated to be 30 days after the issuance of the solicitation package. The actual date and time will be identified in the solicitation. Requirements and evaluation procedures will be documented in the solicitation, which will be required to be completely filled out and returned in whole before the solicitation closes. All questions regarding the solicitation should be submitted in writing as soon as practicable after receipt of solicitation, but no later than five (5) business days prior to the solicitation closing date. Questions should be submitted in writing via e-mail to: stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil. All questions and responses will be posted with the solicitation. Technical documents referenced in the solicitation are restricted by the Arms Export Act and are ONLY available to vendors/contractors appointed data custodian that are registered with Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) Joint Certification Program (JCP). Vendors/Contractors that are not registered with DLIS JCP can obtain registration information at www.dlis.dla.mil/jcp/. Restricted technical information are available tough sam.gov. NOTICE: To obtain the technical documents associated with the pending solicitation, the Company point of contact identified at https://public.logisticsinformationservice.dla.mil/jcp/search.aspx must send an email request to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil. The request shall include company name; complete address; CAGE code; and point of contact name, email address, and phone number. The documents will be provided only to those companies with an active JCP certificate and a minimum Confidence Level Assessment of “Basic” in the NIST SP 800-171 Assessment report contained in the Supplier Performance Risk System. Provisions and clauses in effect tough the latest Federal Acquisition Circulars are included in the solicitation. To access the clauses/provisions to be completed, download the Federal Acquisition Regulations at: http://acquisition.gov/far/ Download the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS) at: http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfarspgi/current/index.html The offeror must have a current registration and completed representations and certifications in the System for Award Management (SAM) at website https://sam.gov/ a Federal government owned website. Offerors are encouraged to ensure their SAM registration includes their business size status under NAICS 334511. N0025322R0032 Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
8/24/22, 4:37 PM Next Generation Gertrude
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division (NUWC) Keyport is posting this solicitation for the Next Generation Gertrude (NGG) device that will be used onboard US Navy ships. The NGG Underwater Communicator will be a stand-alone system capable of replacing currently installed AN/WQC-2A systems on CRUDES platforms and supporting installation on new construction vessels. To accomplish this, NGG will utilize existing program of record transducers and established electronic interfaces necessary to transmit and receive single-sideband modulated voice, audio, and continuous wave signals acoustically tough the water medium. NGG will be a STANAG-compliant system capable of communication with other STANAG compliant underwater communicators currently in use by U.S. Naval forces (e.g. AN/WQC-2A). Award will be made to a single Offeror whose proposal represents the best value to the government using FAR Part 15 Contracting by Negotiation procedures. The applicable NAICS code is 334511, “Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing”, and has a size standard of 1,250 employees. This solicitation is 100% set aside for small business. The Government will award one (1) firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity type contract, including one (1) first article test unit, training and potentially up to 80 production units. First article units will be required to pass inspection, testing, and Government acceptance before manufacturing of production units. The first article unit must be completed with all inspection, testing and acceptance within 12 months. The initial production unit must be delivered six (6) months after first article acceptance. Offerors are required to provide pricing for FOB Destination shipping to NUWC Keyport WA 98345-7610. Several of the Exhibits and Attachments identified in Section J are restricted by the Arms Export Control Act and Distribution Statement D and are ONLY available to vendors/contractors appointed data custodian that are registered with Defense Logistics Information Services (DLIS) Joint Certification Program (JCP). Vendors/Contractors that are not registered with DLIS JCP can obtain registration information at www.dlis.dla.mil/jcp/. Restricted technical information is available tough sam.gov. NOTICE: To obtain the documents associated with the solicitation, the Company point of contact identified at https://public.logisticsinformationservice.dla.mil/jcp/search.aspx must send an email request to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil. The request shall include company name; complete address; CAGE code; and point of contact name, email address, and phone number. The documents will be provided only to those companies with an active JCP certificate and a minimum Confidence Level Assessment of “Basic” in the NIST SP 800-171 Assessment report contained in the Supplier Performance Risk System. Offerors wishing to submit a proposal must download the posted solicitation, attachments, and exhibits from this website once access is approved, and frequently monitor the site for any amendments to the solicitation. No paper copies will be accepted. Only digital copies sent via DoD SAFE (https://safe.apps.mil) will be accepted. Failure to respond to the electronically posted solicitation and associated amendments, if applicable, prior to the date and time set for receipt of proposals may render an Offeror’s proposal non-responsive and result in rejection. Provisions and clauses in effect tough the latest Federal Acquisition Circulars are included in the solicitation. To access the clauses/provisions to be completed, download the Federal Acquisition Regulations at http://acquisition.gov/far/ . Download the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS) at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfarspgi/current/index.html. Offerors must have a current registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) database, https://sam.gov/. All responsible sources may submit a proposal, which the agency shall consider. Submit inquiries to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil. Questions, comments and feedback on the RFP and associated attachments is encouraged. Please submit all questions in writing to stacy.e.noble.civ@us.navy.mil no later than 25 October 2022. Responses will be posted to this solicitation. N0025322R0032 Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command
9/22/22, 11:13 AM