Amendment 1 SAI SIR Section J.2 12.27.23.docx

Surface Awareness Initiative 12/27/2023 Attachment J.2 – Strategic Plan

12/27/2023 Attachment J.2 – Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan Version 1.0 27 December 2023

Introduction The purpose of this Strategic Plan is to facilitate communication between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Industry for the Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI). This document provides overarching program objectives and vision for the deployment of solutions that will provide surface situational awareness to operational environments that do not have existing Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE) or Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) systems. This plan also provides information about the planned FAA acquisition approach and provides insight on issues of importance to the FAA. The information and timelines in this plan are subject to change.

In 2021, an Operational Needs Assessment (ONA) was conducted that identified the need for increased surface situational awareness at airports which currently are not equipped with surface surveillance equipment to reduce runway incursions. The FAA has identified over 230 airports that are potential candidates for an SAI solution. The ONA resulted in the identification of the first 45 candidate airports (Attachment A).

SAI will deliver innovative, cost-effective technological solutions to airports without existing surface surveillance capabilities to expand Air Traffic Control’s (ATC) surface situational awareness. SAI solutions will leverage Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) as a primary source of aircraft position both on the surface and in airport arrival and departure corridors. These ‘targets’ will be displayed overtop an airport surface map that will at a minimum depict runways, taxiways, hold ramps, and other movement areas.

Objectives The FAA is pursuing implementation of SAI solutions with the greatest sense of urgency. These solutions must be effective in providing enhanced surface situational awareness with an architecture that supports rapid deployment with minimal impact to existing infrastructure and operations.

SAI solutions must meet minimum performance requirements; however, the FAA is also interested in enhanced capabilities beyond minimum performance as well as future expansion of inherent performance that may be pursued after initial solution commissioning.

Program Scope The SAI program includes additional scope items beyond provision of the surface situational awareness solution. The SAI solution provider must provide these services:

· Solution Installation – The solution provider must be responsible for the installation of all on-site equipment. This work must be in accordance with prescribed policy and requirements. At FAA facilities, the solution provider must consult and get approvals from the designated FAA representative for all matters relative to placement, power, integration, and/or any other aspects they identify.

· Training – The solution provider must deliver documentation (to include user manual) and materials that describe the functionality and operation of the solution to support the FAA’s development of web-based training courses. The solution provider must conduct on-site user training at each site prior to completion of solution implementation.

· Sustainment Services – The solution provider must monitor the status of the SAI solution. The solution provider must report anticipated and unanticipated service disruption to the installation site specific focal point. The solution provider must repair and restore service, address SAI solution outages, and maintain solution as necessary to ensure continuity of service.

· Upgrades – The solution provider must provide any routine upgrades to their SAI solution. Any upgrades must not negatively impact the capability of the equipment installed to meet all qualification requirements.

Acquisition Approach Under this SAI acquisition, the FAA intends to develop a Qualified Product List (QPL), from which the FAA and other entities, such as airport authorities (using their independent authority and processes), may elect to procure products for surface situational awareness[footnoteRef:1]. A QPL establishes a list of qualified products that have been evaluated and meet all applicable qualification requirements. [1: While other entities outside of the FAA may utilize the FAA’S QPL for commercial SAI applications, they are not bound to FAA contract vehicles nor pricing. However, entities may not represent any product as a QPL product that has not been selected by FAA for the QPL.]

Initial establishment of the QPL will be based on a Screening Information Request (SIR) where Offerors Technical Volumes will be evaluated on PASS/FAIL criteria. After evaluation of the Technical Volumes, those submissions that “PASS” will be selected to conduct an Operational Capability Demonstration (OCD). The OCD, which will also be evaluated on PASS/FAIL criteria, will ensure solution compliance to minimum performance requirements. In addition, the OCD will serve as an opportunity for Offerors to demonstrate performance beyond what is required (enhanced functionality) in time allotted. When selected for the OCD, the Offeror must submit the remaining SIR Volumes (e.g., price, past performance) for FAA evaluation.

If the Offeror passes both the Technical Volume Evaluation and OCD, the solution will be placed on the QPL. For work orders from the QPL, the FAA has identified four categories within the source selection process to allow the Government to fit the selection criteria to the specifics of a particular airport. With a possibly large scope of airports for which work orders can be made, this allows the award decision to better align with the environment of the airport identified for a SAI solution. Work orders from the QPL for three categories will be made on Best Value determination, while one category will be awarded using Lowest Price, Technically Acceptable (LPTA). Best value describes the solution that is the most advantageous to the FAA based on technical evaluation (adjectival rating based on identified strengths and weaknesses), past performance, total evaluated price, and FAA’s independent risk and opportunity assessment. Under LPTA, in addition to Section M.2 Determination of Responsibility, Section M.3.3 criteria for Basis of Exclusion and all other criteria identified in the SIR, Technically Acceptable, is defined as solution that meets the critical requirements as defined in Attachment J-3 Requirements Compliance Matrix.

To ensure an understanding of whether a proposed enhanced technical capability is identified as either an enhanced capability or opportunity, the following examples are provided:

The following examples may constitute enhanced functionality beyond minimum performance:

· User displays that enable entry and viewing of dynamic data (i.e., scratch pad)

· Differentiating targets based on target report quality metrics

· Mode C altitude correction

· Ability to record and playback data

The following items are examples of opportunities that a proposed solution could provide:

· Alerting / notifications of targets in collision conflict

· Incorporating target position information from other sources, while still being compliant with minimum performance requirements

· SAI solution can be made available for operational use in an accelerated timeframe that results in a delivery faster than that required in Section F

· SAI solution’s cybersecurity attributes have been evaluated by a FedRAMP accredited third party assessment organization

The QPL will be reassessed after 18 months and then every 3 years thereafter. Candidates that previously failed to make the QPL would be able to qualify with technical proposal submission and an OCD. Solutions already on the list could also resubmit proposals, to account for pricing adjustments and/or enhance capabilities, and consequently, update their best value determination. At the time of QPL reassessment, the FAA may also request written confirmation of each current QPL vendor’s desire to remain on the QPL. Any vendor not responding to the request for confirmation by the stated deadline in that request may be deleted off the QPL as an indication of lack of interest. Vendors may request to withdraw at any time by submitting a written request to the CO.

After initial deployment of an SAI solution pursuant to a work order from the QPL, the FAA may elect to issue discrete task orders to modify the provided service. Situations that may constitute such a need would be to address ATC suitability issues and airport configuration changes.

Attachment A Initial Airport Site Listing The first five airports have been prioritized to receive a SAI solution, however, the FAA reserves the right to revise the priority, as needed. The FAA will identify a site priority listing of the remaining 40 sites as a future activity.

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