FA8650-19-S-5010 - Call 009 Announcement - HTPB.pdf

As of 5 November 2020

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA) # FA8650-19-S-5010

Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III

Expansion of Domestic Production Capability and Capacity Materials & Manufacturing Directorate

CALL 009

“HYDROXYL TERMINATED POLYBUTADIENE (HTPB) PRODUCTION

CAPABILITY FOR DOD MUNITIONS PROJECT”

Overview Information

NAICS Code: 339999 (All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing) Small Business Size Standard: 1500 employees

Federal Agency Name: Air Force Research Laboratory, AFRL/RXKMT

CALL Title: Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) Production Capability for DoD Munitions Project

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Type: CALL 009

Funding Opportunity Agency Announcement Number: FA8650-19-S-5010

This Will be a One-Step Solicitation: FOA with Calls - Refer to Funding Opportunity Announcement FA8650-19-S-5010 Section VII. FOA with Calls for more information regarding proposal submission information and proposal content and form. Please note that any Roman Numeral Sections shown within this call references back to the FOA Announcement Section of same Roman Numeral.

Project Topic Area: Sustainment of Critical Production

THE GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS WHITE PAPER SUBMISSIONS RELATED TO

HYDROXYL TERMINATED POLYBUTADIENE (HTPB) EFFECTIVE ON THE DATE

AND TIME THAT THIS CALL IS POSTED. WHITE PAPER SUBMISSIONS TIED TO

HYDROXYL TERMINATED POLYBUTADIENE (HTPB) PRODUCTION CAPABILITY

WILL NOT BE REVIEWED. THE GOVERNMENT WILL PROVIDE NOTIFICATION

WHEN SUSPENSION PERIOD IS LIFTED.

Intent To Propose: Offerors that anticipate submitting a proposal are requested to submit an e-mail to Keith Tungate , Agreements Negotiator, at robert.tungate.2@us.af.mil containing the name of the recipient, the POC, and the recipient’s intent to submit a proposal. This “Intent to Propose” is requested by Tuesday 19 January 2021, 12:00PM Eastern Standard Time.

Proposal Due Date and Time: 1 March 2021, received prior to 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (45 days after Call release)

Proposal Submission: Proposals must be submitted to the Agreement Point of Contact (POC):

Keith Tungate

AFRL/RXKMT

2130 8th St., Bldg. 45, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7541

Note: Any proposal, modification or revision received at the Government Office designated in this

FOA after the exact date and time specified for receipt of offers is “late” and will not be considered except at the Agreement Officer’s (AO) discretion. It should be noted that this installation observes strict security procedures to enter the facility. These security procedures are NOT considered an interruption of normal Government processes, and proposals received after the stated date and time as a result of security delays will be considered “late.” Furthermore, note that if offerors utilize commercial carriers in the delivery of proposals, they may not honor time-of-day delivery guarantees on military installations. Be advised, if the U.S. Postal Service is used, this building only receives U.S.

Postal Mail twice a week and delivery by such means may not meet the proposal due date and time. Early proposal submission is encouraged. Proposals should be addressed to the Agreement Point of Contact (POC) stated in the Submission section.

Type of Agreement/Instrument: The Government intends to utilize the Department of Defense Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARs)-based Technology Investment Agreement (TIA) for any awards made off of this Call. However, the Government may consider award of a Cooperative Agreement in rare situations if it is a better fit for the requirement.

Estimated Program Cost: Estimating a single award with a total program cost $6.0 million ($3 million Government funding plus $3 million recipient(s) cost share). The program budget is subject to funding availability.

Anticipated Number of Awards: The Government anticipates making a single award estimated at approximately $6 million ($3 million Government funding plus $3 million recipient(s) cost share) for this Call. However, the Government reserves the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award based on technical solutions proposed and funding availability. The Government reserves the right to award some, all or none of the proposals. When the Government elects to award only a part of a proposal, the selected part may be categorized as Selectable, though the proposal as a whole may not merit such a categorization.

Communication between Prospective Offerors and Government Representatives: All exchanges with offerors after the Call is issued shall go through the Agreements Officer. After Call release, questions and answers may be posted if warranted. Discussions with any of the points of contact shall not constitute a commitment by the Government to subsequently fund or award any proposed effort. Only Grants/Agreements Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government.

Address contracting questions to the Agreements/Contracting POCs:

Agreements Negotiator – Keith Tungate, AFRL/RXKMT 2130 8th St., Bldg. 45 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7541

(937) 713-9899 robert.tungate.2@us.af.mil

Agreements Officer – Ms. Whitney L. Foxbower, AFRL/RXKMT 2130 8th St., Bldg. 45 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7541

(937) 713-9877 whitney.foxbower@us.af.mil

Address technical questions to the Technical POC:

Gregory Horrocks DPA Title III Program Manager 2977 Hobson Way, Bldg. 653 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

(937) 713-7977 gregory.horrocks.1@us.af.mil

CALL FULL TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT:

I. Program Description:

1. Project Topic Areas: The DPA Title III Program has derived three broad Topic Areas for potential projects. The Topic Areas are: Sustainment of Critical Production, Commercialization of Research and Development Investments, and Scaling of Emerging Technologies. This Call fits within the Topic Area: Sustainment of Critical Production

2. Brief Project Summary: The objective of this project is to establish a domestic production capability to ensure the domestic availability of Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB, CAS Number 69102-90-5).

3. Overview: This Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III project aims to establish a secure domestic source of Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB). Proposed capabilities are required to develop a domestic full rate production capability of at least 200,000 pounds of Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene annually. The end product are additionally required to meet the following parameters:

Test Min Value Max Value

Hydroxyl Value, meq/g 0.72 0.78 Antioxidant (AO 2246), % 0.10 --

Brookfield Viscosity, CPs at 30°C

40.0 55.0

Water content, wt. % N/A 0.05 Total Peroxides, as H2O2, ppm N/A 300

Test Min Value Max Value Specific Gravity (at 25C) 0.87 0.92

Mw 6000 -- Mn 3000 --

Iron, % N/A 0.010 Acid number Informational TBD Epoxides, %ⁱⁱⁱ Informational TBD

Functionalityⁱⁱⁱ 2 See SOO for additional information.

4. Within Scope Modifications: See FOA

5. Deliverable Items: The following reporting requirements are applicable to this Call:

Deliverable Item Submittal Requirement

Property Control List Quarterly/As Required Final Report* Draft Final report due 30 days after completion of the TPoP, Final Report due 90 days after completion of TPoP

Funds & Man-hour Expenditure Report Quarterly Recipient’s Progress, Status, & Management Report Quarterly Strategic Business Plan 9 months ARA**/ Updated Annually Presentation Materials As Required Marketing Plan 6 months ARA**/ Updated Annually Copy of Recipient’s Billing Voucher As Required Manufacturing Readiness Assessment (MRA) As Required Certificates of Analysis for 45 pounds of BRA 12 months ARA** Certificates of Analysis for 600 pounds of BRA 18 months ARA** Up to 6000 pounds of HTPB*** Delivered to a location TBD at the end of the TPoP

* Final report shall contain estimate of cost/lb of HTPB at 300,000 lbs annual production levels.

** After Receipt of Agreement or Award (ARA) ***Final deliverable quantity to be determined by program testing needs

6. Schedule/Period of Performance: The Government estimates a Total Period of performance (POP) of 27 months for this Call. This timeframe consists of an estimated Technical Period of Performance (TPOP) of 24 months with 3 months allotted for generating the final report.

7. Other Requirements:

a. Program Security classification: Unclassified.

b. OPSEC: The recipient shall participate in all activities associated with the disciplines of the organization’s Industrial Security, Information Security, Personnel Security, Operations Security (OPSEC), and Antiterrorism programs, following appropriate measures in each program as required for this particular agreement. Security measures are required to reduce program vulnerability from successful adversary collection, exploitation of critical information, and violations of export control requirements. The prime recipient shall ensure all subrecipients, if applicable, conform to these requirements as required by the prime recipient.

c. Program Protection Plan (PPP): Any potential critical program information (CPI) generated as part of this effort will be reviewed to determine the need for a PPP or to be included as part of an existing PPP.

d. Export Control: Information involved in this project will be subject to Export Control.

8. Other Information:

a. Government Furnished Property (GFP) / Recipient Acquired Property (CAP):

GFP/CAP are anticipated but not yet known until proposals received. Acquired equipment will be tagged and maintained by the recipient with the expectation that the government may transfer the equipment to the recipient at some point during a potential no-cost monitoring phase.

b. Government Furnished Information and/or Software: Not Anticipated

c. Base Support/Network Access: Not anticipated

d. Data Rights Desired:

i. Technical Data: Government Purpose Rights desired. Recipients may bring IP to the individual projects

ii. Non-Commercial Software (NCS): Not Applicable (N/A)

iii. NCS Documentation: N/A

iv. Commercial Computer Software Rights: N/A

e. Human or Animal Subject Use: Not anticipated

f. Hazardous Materials: Not anticipated

g. Radioactive Materials: Not anticipated

h. Ozone Depleting Substances: Not anticipated

i. On-base Testing: Not anticipated

j. Military Equipment Valuation: N/A

k. Recipient Acquired Property: Anticipated – Acquired plant equipment will be tagged and maintained by the recipient with the expectation that the Government may transfer the equipment to the recipient at some point during a potential no-cost monitoring phase.

l. Option(s): No options are anticipated.

m. No Cost Monitoring Phase: A no cost monitoring phase (NCMP) may be added after the end of the technical effort. A NCMP allows a continued partnership that provides the government with additional business, marketing, and business viability insight with the Recipient. At the end of a NCMP, if applicable, an equipment disposition strategy for any GFP and/or CAP will be developed and implemented.

In this arrangement the Government may choose to transfer any, all, or no equipment for this effort, as needed to continue Recipient’s viability as a Merchant Supplier.

These aspects are described in FOA Appendix II Sample TIA.

II. Award Information

1. Anticipated Award Date: The entire acquisition process will take approximately 165 calendar days, but the actual duration may vary.

2. Anticipated funding: Funding is an estimate only and not a contractual obligation for funding. All funding is subject to change due to Government discretion and availability. Potential offerors should be aware that due to unanticipated budget fluctuations funding in any or all areas may change with little or no notice. No award will be made under this solicitation until funds are available. The Government reserves the right to cancel this solicitation, either before or after the closing date. In the event the Government cancels this solicitation, the Government has no obligation to reimburse an offeror for any costs.

3. Award: The Government intends to award a DoDGARs agreement known as a TIA. TIAs are governed by the DoDGARs and 2 CFR 200. A sample TIA, along with other sample documents, is attached to the FOA. See Appendix II for the sample TIA. Any clarifications/exceptions to the TIA articles, as presented in the sample TIA, must be stated at the time of proposal submission. However, the Government may consider award of a Cooperative Agreement in rare situations if it is a better fit for the requirement.

III. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Offeror: See FOA.

2. Proposed Cost Sharing or Matching: See FOA.

3. Other:

a. Foreign Participation: Per Defense Production Act of 1950, execution of the project requires a domestic source as lead. Foreign Participation is not allowed at a Prime Recipient level for this effort.

Foreign Nationals (FNs) (including individuals from countries other than the United States who are working for a company considered a “domestic source” as defined in the Defense Production Act of 1950) can be employed by the Prime Recipient or Sub-awardee; however, FNs will be limited to Public Domain information unless the Recipient has obtained the proper License of Technical Assistance Agreement that authorizes disclosure of Classified Military Information (CMI) and/or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) to foreign entities pursuant to the Department of State’s ITAR or Department of Commerce’s EAR.

Public Domain information is defined as information that is releasable to the general public and sometimes referred to as open source material. Examples include but are not limited to newspapers, magazines and information posted on the internet.

b. Offerors may be ineligible for award if all requirements of the FOA and this Call are not met by proposal due date.

IV, V. and VI Sections: Not Applicable to Calls

VII. FOA with Calls (One-Step Process)

1. Call Announcement Information (Also referred to as a Call):

a. Overview: See FOA.

b. Requirements/ Domestic Source Requirement: The proposal submitter must provide proof of meeting the Domestic Source requirement IAW DPA Law or the proposal will not be reviewed.

2. FOA with Calls (One-Step Process) Proposal Submission Information:

a. General Instructions:

(1) Offerors shall submit a technical and cost proposal within timeframe shown in

Proposal Due Date and Time Section. After receipt, proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria stated below. Proposals will be categorized and potentially selected for negotiations. The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award some, all or none of the proposals received without negotiation/discussion; however, the Government reserves the right to negotiate with those offeror(s) whose proposal is selected for funding.

(2) Proposals must reference the announcement number FA8650-19-S-5010; the

Call, the relevant Topic Area shown in Project Topic Area Section; and, if applicable, the project title.

3. FOA with Calls (One-Step Process) Proposal Content & Form:

Note: Refer to Funding Opportunity Announcement FA8650-19-S-5010 Section VII.

FOA with Calls for more information regarding proposal submission information and proposal content and form.

a, b, d thru f: See FOA for Guidance

c. Domestic Source Proof: Include proof of domestic source. This will not count toward the page limit.

g. Technical/Management Proposal:

(1) Page Limitations: The following describes the page limitations on the proposal submittal for this Call:

i. Technical Discussion: up to 35 pages

ii. Summary Business Plan: up to 25 pages

iii. Statement of Work: up to 10 pages

iv. Tech Proposal Total: up to 70 pages

(2) See FOA

(3) Technical Discussion and Information: In addition to the information outlined in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number FA8650- 19-S-5010, please include the origins of any materials (precursors, solvents, additives, etc.) necessary for the production of HTPB.

(4) thru (6), (8) & (9): See FOA

(7) Summary Business Plan: In addition to the information outlined in the

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number FA8650-19-S-5010, include the following information in the Summary Business Plan:

1. Provide complete company ownership structure, including all holding companies or intermediary operating companies. If applicable, identify all foreign ownership/investments in your company. Foreign ownership/investments are any non-US citizens or non-US based organizations, possessing any type of financial investment, passive or active, in your company.

Note: The table of contents, cover page, and Domestic Source Proof will not be included in the page count referenced above.

Note: The Government will check the proposal and SOW for conformance to the stated requirements. Any pages in excess of the stated page limitation after the format check will not be considered.

h. Cost/Business Proposal: See FOA

(3) Cost proposals Page Limitations: See FOA

i. Proposal Content Summary: You may be ineligible for award if all requirements of this solicitation are not met on the proposal due date.

VIII. FOA with Calls (One-Step Process) Proposal Review Information

Note: Offeror must provide proof of meeting the Domestic Source requirement IAW DPA Law or the proposal will not be reviewed.

1. Proposal Evaluation Criteria:

a. See FOA.

b. The selection of one or more sources for award will be based on an evaluation of the recipient’s technical and cost proposals to determine the overall merit of the proposal in response to the Call, SOO and funding availability.

c. The evaluation criteria are comprised of five factors ranked in descending order of importance:

(1) Manufacturing Capability and Experience

(2) Quality of Technical Approach

(3) Business Viability

(4) Merchant Supplier Orientation

(5) Cost/Price

d. These criteria will be used to evaluate the proposal once it is determined that the offeror has met all of the FOA Project Requirements.

e. See FOA.

f. Risk is to be assessed as part of each of the above criteria.

g. See FOA.

h. The offeror must provide proof of meeting the domestic source requirement IAW DPA Law or the proposal will not be evaluated.

i. The evaluation criteria are expanded upon below:

(1) Manufacturing Capability and Experience – Proposals will be evaluated on the recipient’s degree of capability and experience in HTPB production. Evidence may include, but is not limited to, intellectual property, documented manufacturing capability and experience, technical specifications, and dossiers of key personnel.

(2) Quality of Technical Approach – Proposals will be evaluated on the recipient’s credibility and how reasonable their approach is for establishing/expanding a production capability for Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene, also to include whether the proposed approach identifies major technical risks and clearly defines feasible mitigation efforts.

(3) Business Viability – Proposals will be evaluated on the recipient’s business, technical and financial credibility, demonstrated experience, willingness and a credible business plan to become or remain a competitive, economically viable, responsive, supplier of Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene for government and commercial markets.

(4) Merchant Supplier Orientation – Proposals will be evaluated on the extent to which the recipient demonstrates a commitment to being, or explanation of resources to be employed in establishing acceptance as, a merchant supplier for Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene.

(5) Cost/Price – Proposals will be evaluated on the realism of the proposed cost, amount of recipient cost share, and consideration of proposed budgets and funding profiles. Cost sharing, unless waived, will be viewed favorably by the US Government in the proposal evaluation process (which will indicate a strong commitment to and self-interest in the success of the project).

IX. FOA with Calls (One-Step Process) Proposal Selection Information

1. Categories: Based on the evaluation, proposals will be categorized as Selectable or Not Selectable (see definitions below). The selection of one or more sources for award will be based on the evaluation, as well as importance to agency programs and funding availability.

(1) Selectable: Proposals are recommended for acceptance if sufficient funding is available.

(2) Not Selectable: Even if sufficient funding existed, the proposal should not be funded.

Note: The Government reserves the right to award some, all or none of the proposals.

When the Government elects to award only a part of a proposal, the selected part may be categorized as Selectable, though the proposal as a whole may not merit such a categorization.

Note: Prior to award of a potentially successful offer, the Agreements Officer will make a determination regarding budget reasonableness.

X. Award Administration Information (FOA with Calls)

1 thru 8: See FOA.

9. Ombudsman: The Ombudsman article 5.020 entitled “Ombudsman” shall be contained in any Agreement resulting from this Solicitation.

Please note the following Ombudsman information.

The AFRL Ombudsman is AFRL/PK Director Alternate Ombudsman is AFRL/PK Deputy Director

1864 Fourth St.

Wright-Patterson AFB OH 45433-7130

(937) 904-9700 email: AFRL.PK.OfficeAccount@us.af.mil

10. Proposal Reminders: a. thru c, and e thru j - see FOA

d. Completed Title III Certifications and Representations are due with the proposal.

Certifications & Representations can be found at Appendix I.

FOA Appendices: See FOA for Appendices I thru V

Attached for this CALL:

Appendix VI Statement of Objectives (SOO), Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III – Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene Production Capability for DoD Munitions.