AMIC CSO 2024.pdf

AIR COMBAT COMMAND HEADQUARTERS (ACC HQ)

ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION

CENTER (AMIC)

COMMERCIAL SOLUTIONS OPENING (CSO)

SOLICITATION

FA4890-CSO-0001-24

DATE: 5 September 2024

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TITLE PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

2.0 CSO BACKGROUND AND APPROACH 1

3.0 GENERAL INFORMATION 1

4.0 SUBMISSION INFORMATION 2

Attachment 1 QUAD CHART FORMAT 4

Attachment 2 WHITE PAPER FORMAT 5

Attachment 3 TECHNICAL PROPOSAL FORMAT 6

Attachment 4 PRICE PROPOSAL FORMAT 8

Attachment 5 STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) FORMAT 9

Attachment 6 EVALUATION CRITERIA AND SELECTION PROCESS 11

Attachment 7 SOLICITATION TOPICS 12

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Air Combat Command Headquarters (ACC HQ) is the primary force provider of combat airpower to America's warfighting commands. To support the global implementation of national security strategy, ACC operates fighter, reconnaissance, battle-management, and electronic-combat aircraft. It also provides command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, and conducts global information operations.

1.2 As a force provider, ACC organizes, trains, equips, and maintains combat-ready forces for rapid deployment and employment while ensuring strategic air defense forces are ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime air defense. Additionally, ACC develops strategy, doctrine, concepts, tactics, and procedures for air and space-power employment. The command provides conventional and information warfare forces to all unified commands to ensure air, space and information superiority for warfighters and national decision-makers. The command can also be called upon to assist national agencies with intelligence, surveillance, and crisis response capabilities.

2.0 CSO BACKGROUND AND APPROACH

2.1 This Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs), issued in accordance with DFARS 212.70, is a competitive solicitation seeking proposals for innovative, commercial technologies and services that accelerate attainment of capabilities detailed in Attachment 7 to meet ACC’s mission.

2.2 ACC HQ intends to obtain innovative solutions or potential new capabilities that fulfill requirements, close capability gaps, or provide potential technology advancements. Solutions may include existing technologies or procedures, not currently in use by the United States Air Force (USAF), that would enhance or streamline USAF mission capabilities. "Innovative", as defined in DFARS 212.70, means any technology, process, application, or method, including research and development, which is new as of the date of proposal submission.

2.3 This CSO seeks the best commercial approaches to meet various technology objectives of ACC. All items, technologies, and services acquired using this CSO will be treated as commercial items. The Government encourages white-paper proposals that span a wide spectrum of possible technical and business solutions in response to the specific technology topics listed in Attachment

7. The Government reserves the right to award to any combination of proposals which offer the best overall value to the Government, and to oversee all processes and approaches once initiated.

Awards of efforts as a result of this announcement will be in the form of FAR Part 12 contracts or other transactions (OT) as codified in 10 U.S.C. § 4022.

3.0 GENERAL INFORMATION

3.1 Funding is not currently available for the topics provided in Attachment 7. Industry responses will be carefully reviewed and prioritized, with funding sought by ACC HQ to pursue innovative and optimal solutions. The price and affordability of proposed technologies will contribute to ACC’s interest in pursuing proposed solutions. Any awards resulting from this CSO will be made based on the evaluation results of a two-phased proposal process described in Section

4.0. The Government reserves the right to fund all, some, one, or none of the proposals submitted;

may elect to fund only part of a submitted proposal; and may incrementally fund any or all awards

Page | 2 under this CSO. All awards are subject to the availability of funds.

3.2 All coordination and communication between Offerors and the Government will be conducted using www.sam.gov and the points of contact associated with this CSO, as specified below:

POINTS OF CONTACT: Questions regarding the administrative or technical content of this CSO and any white paper submissions (reference Para 4.2.1 below) must be forwarded via email to ACCAMIC.MFT.CSO@us.af.mil.

4.0 SUBMISSION INFORMATION

4.1 SUBMISSION OVERVIEW. This CSO is open for a period of one calendar year as of the posted date on www.sam.gov. Phase I submissions will be accepted at any point during this period.

Offerors are encouraged to monitor www.sam.gov for any specific calls or amendments to the CSO that may have updated information. This CSO will be conducted in two phases.

4.2 TWO-PHASED SUBMISSION.

4.2.1 Phase I. Interested offerors must submit Quad Charts and White Papers prepared following the formats at Attachments 1 and 2 respectively and to the email address noted in Paragraph 3.2 above. Phase I submissions will be evaluated against criteria as described in Attachment 6 of this CSO. All submissions must be unclassified. Phase I submission shall be sent to the POCs listed in Section 3.2.

4.2.1.1 Notification of Selection. All offerors providing Phase I submissions will be contacted by the Government, either with an email informing them that the effort proposed is not of interest to the Government at this time or with a request for a formal price and technical proposal (Phase II) by a specific date.

4.2.2 Phase II. Phase II proposals will only be accepted from Offerors who are invited by the Contracting Officer to submit a full proposal. In order to be considered for award under Phase II, offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov, be considered responsible within the meaning of FAR Part 9.1, Responsible Prospective Contractors, have a satisfactory performance record, and otherwise be eligible for award based on federal law and regulation.

4.2.2.1 Proposal Submission. Upon notification for a proposal by the Contracting Officer, offerors have 30 calendar days to prepare and submit a proposal in accordance with the format and instructions at Attachments 3-5.

4.2.2.2 Proposal Review, Evaluation and Selection Process. Each proposal will be evaluated by the Government and the proposal must stand on its own technical merit. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria and process specified in Attachment 6.

The primary basis for selecting proposals for acceptance shall be technical, importance to agency programs, and funds availability. In order to provide the desired evaluation, qualified Government personnel will conduct reviews and (if necessary) convene panels of experts in the appropriate areas. IAW DFARS 212.7004 price shall be considered to the extent http://www.sam.gov/ https://usaf-my.dps.mil/personal/amanda_jardine_us_af_mil/Documents/Microsoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files/www.sam.gov http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/

Page | 3 appropriate, but at a minimum, to determine that the price is fair and reasonable. Proposals need not be evaluated against each other since they are not submitted in response to a common performance work statement or statement of work.

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ATTACHMENT 1: QUAD CHART FORMAT

The following information must be included in the Phase I Quad Chart. Quad Charts shall not exceed 1-page in landscape view. Quad Charts must follow the formatting guidelines below.

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ATTACHMENT 2: WHITE PAPER FORMAT

The White Paper narrative expands on the Quad Chart presentation and must be 8.5 x 11 inches with one-inch margins, no longer than five pages, single-spaced, with text in Times New Roman, no smaller than 12-point font. All white papers must specify a project title, the Offeror’s organization, and the specific topic number associated with the proposal (see Attachment 7).

Pages exceeding the page limitation will not be read or evaluated. White Papers must not exceed a file size of 25 MB.

The White Paper must be limited only to further explanation of the information conveyed in the Quad Chart, as deemed necessary by the Offeror. The information should provide sufficient information on the research being proposed (e.g. the hypothesis, theories, concept, approaches, data measurements, and analysis, etc.) to allow for an assessment by a technical expert. Expand as deemed necessary on the following sections of the Quad Chart: Objective; Description of the Effort; Benefits of the Proposed Technology; Technical Challenges; Major Goals/Milestones by Government fiscal year. Do not include corporate or personnel qualification, past experience, or any supplemental information not requested in the Quad Chart.

Offerors shall mark each page of its white paper that contains proprietary information. It is the Government’s intention to acquire any data rights necessary to satisfy agency needs; however, this will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis with applicable data rights clauses included in any resultant contracts. An offeror may provide with its white paper assertions to restrict, use, release or disclosure of data and/or computer software and computer software documentation that will be provided in the course of contract performance. Rules governing these assertions are prescribed in DFARS clauses 252.227-7013 through 7017 and may be accessed at www.acquisition.gov.

http://www.acquisition.gov/

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ATTACHMENT 3: TECHNICAL PROPOSAL FORMAT

The Technical Proposal portion of the Phase II submission shall not exceed 10 pages, excluding cover page and table of contents. Any pages submitted in excess of the 10-page limit will not be considered or evaluated. All proposals shall follow the format below:

I. ABSTRACT.

II. SCOPE. This proposal is submitted in response to the Air Combat Command Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) on….. [Cite the Project Title.]

a. Objective. [A clear and concise description of the objective of the proposed project.]

b. Background. [Provide the necessary technical and scientific background to support the scientific and technical merits of the proposed project.]

c. Programmatics. This effort will support the ACC initiative [topic number] aimed at developing [capability area or topic title] technologies or methodologies. [Describe the Offeror’s management plan for the proposed project; list supporting and collaborating organizations and subcontractors; clearly identify roles and responsibilities of each organization and subcontractor supporting the project].

d. Relevance. [Describe the relevance of the proposed project in terms of ACC mission, end-user needs and the technology maturity of the proposed project.]

III. CREDENTIALS. [Describe the Offeror’s qualifications to perform the proposed work.

Summarize the relevant credentials of the primary performing center and supporting academic and industrial partners. Describe specific examples of similar work performed, and equipment and/or facilities available to perform the proposed work. List summary qualifications of the Key Personnel.]

IV. WORK TO BE PERFORMED. [Provide details of the work to be performed by task and subtask.]

a. General. [Provide an overview.]

b. Detailed Tasks. [Describe the details of all tasks needed to perform the proposed work.

Clearly distinguish base period tasks and option tasks as appropriate.]

i. BASE PERIOD (YEAR 1) (as applicable)

1. Task 1: Task Title 1 [Describe what will be accomplished, how the task will be performed, the resources allocated to the task (personnel, hours, materials, etc.), appropriate metrics to measure progress, and deliverables from the task. Describe applicable subtasks. Ensure task description clearly identifies why the task is necessary to accomplish project objectives. Do not include pricing details here.]

2. Task 2: Task Title 2

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3. Task N: Task Title N [Define as many tasks as necessary to achieve the stated objective(s).]

ii. OPTION 1 (YEAR 2) [Define as many Option Periods as necessary to achieve the state objective(s). Proposed work shall not exceed 5 years.]

1. Task N+1: Task Title N+1

2. Task N+2: Task Title N+2

3. Task N+M: Task Title N+M

V. PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE. [Depict the tasks and sub-tasks and the duration of performance of each in a Gantt chart or other suitable chart. Briefly describe the proposed period of performance.]

VI. REFERENCES. [List any relevant documents used to develop the technical approach.]

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ATTACHMENT 4: PRICE PROPOSAL FORMAT

The price proposal must include pricing information sufficiently detailed for meaningful evaluation of the proposal. Since the CSO is limited to commercial solutions, detailed costs will not be required. For pricing purposes, Offerors should assume a contract or agreement start date of approximately 90 days after submission of the proposal.

Since all proposals must offer commercial items, technologies, or services, the requirements of the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act are not applicable. However, if the Contracting Officer determines necessary to support a determination of a fair and reasonable price, other than certified cost and pricing data may be requested.

The responsibility for providing adequate supporting data and attachments lies solely with the Offeror. Further, the Offeror must also bear the burden of proof in establishing reasonableness of proposed prices; therefore, it is in the Offeror’s best interest to submit a fully supportable and well-prepared price proposal.

The Offeror shall prepare the Price Proposal (with the exception of the narrative information described below) using Microsoft Excel format but shall merge all Price Proposal documents into one Adobe PDF file for ultimate proposal submission. Include the Topic Number and the Project Title on all pages. The Offeror shall retain the Excel version of all Price Proposal documents for subsequent submission to the Government should the Offeror’s proposal be selected for award.

a. Format. Price proposals shall be formatted as follows.

(1) Paper Size – 8.5 X 11-inch paper

(2) Margins 1-inch

(3) Spacing – single

(4) Font – Times New Roman, 12 Point

(5) Electronic Software: Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe Acrobat

b. Additional Information: The following information should be contained in a cover sheet attached to the price proposal:

(1) Full company name and address

(2) CSO number submitting proposal against

(3) Point of contact, name, title, and phone and fax number

(4) CAGE code

(5) UEI number (formerly known as DUNS number) Development, demonstration and implementation of technologies that can be used to extend the mission life of on-orbit payloads and their host space vehicles.

(6) Will you require the use of any Government property in the performance of this work?

If yes, identify.

NOTE: If an Offeror takes exceptions to the requirements called out in the announcement, the exceptions should be clearly stated in the price proposal.

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ATTACHMENT 5: STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) FORMAT

A SOW must be included in with the full proposal as part of the Phase II submission. The SOW is limited to ten pages and must be a separate and distinct document suitable for incorporation into the procurement instrument. Do not include proprietary data or markings in the SOW. In addition to the contractor proposed SOW, a government generated Supplemental Requirements SOW containing additional contracting requirements may be included in any resulting award(s). Pages should be numbered and the initial page should have a date (document date) shown under the title.

The proposed SOW must accurately describe the work to be performed. The proposed SOW must also contain a summary description of the technical methodology as well as the task description, but not in so much detail as to make the SOW inflexible. The SOW template should include the following sections and specifically respond to the Request for Proposal (RFP):

1. OBJECTIVE. This section is intended to give a brief overview of the project and should describe why the work is being pursued and what the Offeror intends to accomplish.

2. SCOPE. This section includes a statement of what the SOW covers. This should describe the capability area (CSO topic) to be investigated, goals, and milestones for the effort.

3. BACKGROUND. The Offeror must identify appropriate documents that are applicable to the effort to be performed. This section includes any information, explanations, or constraints that are necessary to understand the project tasks and requirements. This section should describe the effort’s relationship to previous and ongoing efforts.

4. TASKS AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS. This section contains the detailed description of tasks that are necessary to perform the proposed work. These tasks will represent the work to be performed in any potential contract award, and, thus, shall be considered contractually binding.

This section should be developed in an orderly progression and presented in sufficient detail to establish the feasibility of accomplishing the overall program goals. This section should clearly distinguish base period tasks from option tasks. The sequence of performance must be presented by fiscal year and task order, as in Section IV of the Technical Proposal. The SOW must contain every task to be accomplished. Note that the Government reserves the right to modify and negotiate the language in the SOW prior to any potential contract award.

4.1. Task descriptions must be definite, realistic, and clearly stated. Use the phrase “the contractor shall” whenever the work statement expresses a provision that is binding. Use “should” or “may” whenever it is necessary to express a declaration of purpose. Use “will” in cases where no Offeror requirement is involved (e.g., power will be supplied by the Government. Use active voice in describing work to be performed.

4.2. Do not use acronyms or abbreviations without first defining them. Place abbreviations and acronyms in parentheses following the first usage of the spelled- out phrase.

4.3. If presentations and meetings are identified in the Offeror’s schedule, the Offeror must include the following statement in the SOW: “Conduct presentations and meetings at times and places specified in the contract schedule.”

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4.4. The desired project structure consists of base period tasks, focused on demonstrating the feasibility of the technology, and option tasks, which cover design, fabrication, testing, and evaluation of the final product. Execution of option tasks will be dependent upon and determined by the contractor’s performance during and the results produced from the base period tasks.

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ATTACHMENT 6: EVALUATION CRITERIA AND SELECTION PROCESS

The Government will review each Quad Chart/White Paper (Phase I) and select the offerors that have the greatest potential to meet the needs of ACC’s requirements based on the topic areas stated in Attachment 7. Initially, a determination will be made if each offeror is technically qualified and has a comprehensive understanding of the topic area and a viable innovative solution based on the information stated in the Quad Chart/White Paper. The Government will determine the most technically competent and capable of the qualified offerors using the criteria below.

• Criteria (Factors) for Selecting Quad Chart/White Paper for Full Proposal Submission:

o Technical merit/applicability, o Importance to agency programs, and o Funding availability

• Relative Importance: All Factors are of equal importance

• Method of Evaluation: Peer or scientific review

The evaluation criteria listed above will be used to evaluate submittals for all phases. Price shall be considered to the extent appropriate, but at a minimum, to determine that the price is fair and reasonable. Proposals need not be evaluated against each other since they are not submitted in response to a common performance work statement or statement of work.

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ATTACHMENT 7: SOLICITATION TOPICS

TOPIC: AMIC-001, TARGET CUSTODY

The Air Force requires ontology, object-management system, and object-based production capabilities to enable fused target custody at scale, including the ability to make dynamic updates to finished target systems analysis and foundational intelligence products.

TOPIC: AMIC-002, CROSS-DOMAIN SECURITY

The Air Force requires a cross-domain solution that can move data from up from NIPR through SCI and SAP levels and down from JWICs, SCI levels to collateral Secret, Secret Rel, and SAP levels. This capability should be already proven and in operational use in another element of the US DoD and have an ATO to load on US networks across any Service, CCMD, or IC network.

TOPIC: AMIC-003, AUTOMATED COORDINATE MENSURATION

The Air Force requires an Automated Coordinate Mensuration System that can automatically detect, identify, classify, and label objects with Cat 1 coordinates provided for each object.

TOPIC: AMIC-004, C-sUAS The AF requires a radar system, EO/IR slew to cue systems, RF counter capability systems, and a C2 open infrastructure integration system that will effectively locate, track, identify, and defeat UAS operating over AF installations. Required capabilities include ability to locate, track, identify, defeat up to 3,500 ft AGL. Desired capabilities include AI and Machine Learning, UAS Radar up to 8-10 km, Electro Optical/Infrared cameras with slew to cue, effective RF and counter GPS/PNT capability, and open infrastructure C2 system to pull elements together in a fused system.

TOPIC: AMIC-005, AIRCRAFT SUNSHADE SUSTAINMENT

The management of aircraft sunshades poses challenges due to their classification as support equipment despite sharing characteristics with real property. This challenge is compounded by the assignment of personnel lacking a background in building management, often as an additional duty that is outside the scope of their primary job. High turnover among sunshade managers further exacerbates the issue, resulting in a lack of continuity. Sunshade sustainment is outsourced to civilian vendors with varying annual funding requirements. Contracts typically only cover biannual inspections; repairs incur additional costs. By 2030, 98% of sunshades in Air Combat Command will have an expired manufacturer’s warranty, which will likely increase sustainment funding requirements. An innovative solution would reduce the burden placed on sunshade managers by standardizing and streamlining the management and sustainment of sunshades across

ACC.

TOPIC: AMIC-006, AI/ML

The Air Force seeks an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capability enabling rapid analysis and correlation of threat intelligence with cyber log data to look for currently unknown patterns (not signature based, but that can also integrate known signatures as well) that predicts cyber attacks to include the anticipated type, location, and estimated objective of the attack (exfil, service disruption, tool implantation, etc). The AI should automatically develop potential countermeasures and wargame them to present the 3 countermeasures most likely to block the attack (to include any possible negative 2nd and 3rd order effects in order to present a developed risk associated with each countermeasure), and present them to the cyber operator for final assessment. The AI should include the capability to automate implementation of a selected

Page | 13 countermeasure(s), or return to the automated AI countermeasure development with additional parameters (e.g., input unacceptable risk in plain language and recalculate).

TOPIC: AMIC-007, DATA AGGREGATION

The Air Force requires an Automated System that can parse, tag, organize, search, analyze, and present aggregate data. Data needs to be a machine generated log to detect anomalous behavior or intrusion in support of cybersecurity. Supporting any levels of classification.

TOPIC: AMIC-008, CYBER RISK REDUCATION USING AI/ML

AI capable of ingesting threat intel and log data, then analyze and automatically develop a risk level associated with particular missions (e.g., AOC ATO generation/dissemination at Shaw AFB or F-22A sortie generation at Langley), based on those mission's dependencies on particular cyber terrain (similar to FMA-Cyber, automated and bolstered) to accomplish their mission and the current vulnerabilities determined from scans (assuming from the logs).

TOPIC: AMIC-009, AI/ML

Air Force requires that cyber systems automate or create web-based tools that replace the use of hand-generated PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets or Word documents that must be ingested and converted into machine language to work with cyber apps (E.g., Network Address Declarations)

TOPIC: AMIC-010, ACE Deployed Communications The Air Force requires an advanced cyber & intel dissemination capability to move data from deployed units over limited bandwidth communications to in-garrison and supported locations using the latest technological means in a contested environment.

TOPIC: AMIC-011, AI OBSERVATORY

Our vision for the AI Observatory is to create a comprehensive database/platform that tracks AI development, ensuring adherence to ethical AI acquisition policies. This includes operational testing and evaluation (OT&E), periodic testing to mitigate AI drift, hallucination, and poisoning, and retraining as necessary. Additionally, this platform will allow Airmen to search for solutions to existing problems or find similar models that can be repurposed, thus reducing costs, eliminating redundant projects, and accelerating development through collaborative funding.

TOPIC: AMIC-012, AI ACQUISITION/LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

For AI Acquisition/Lifecycle Management we emphasize the importance of lifecycle management contract clauses and procedures. These should include OT&E using separate training data (e.g., holding back 30% of training data), periodic re-evaluation to check for issues like bias or drift, and plans for retraining AI models when such issues arise. Incorporating these elements from the start is cost-effective and essential for meeting both Presidential and Department of Defense (DoD) requirements. This ensures our AI systems perform reliably under adversarial conditions and adapt to new data or capabilities, maintaining operational effectiveness.

TOPIC: AMIC-013, DCI ZERO TRUST

The Air Force is seeking low overhead Zero Trust security solutions for OT environments capable of combing data feeds from multiple disparate systems (e.g. Power Generation / Distribution Systems, HVAC Systems, Water Production / Treatment / Distribution Systems, Wastewater Treatment Systems, Fire / Intrusion Detection / Security Camera Systems, Traffic Control Systems (Vehicle Barrier / Traffic Lights), Airfield Lighting Systems, Building Automation Systems, Page | 14

Energy Management / Meter Reading / Lighting Control, Fuels Distribution Systems, Depot / Manufacturing, etc.) for a wholistic security picture to mission owner and 16th AF. Systems should be scalable (unit, base, enterprise), demonstrate integration with existing solutions, validate cyber as a service capability, and implement best ZT cybersecurity principals agnostic to protocols, network medium, etc.

TOPIC: AMIC-014, WORKFLOW AUTOMATION

ACC requires the development of automated processes and workflows to derive the most value and actional feedback from audits at the speed of relevance. Automation will reduce manual tasks while helping the audit team manage the entire audit remediation lifecycle. Successful automation will introduce speed and efficiency through the reduction of manually-intensive workflows within typical risk and compliance management processes, freeing up manpower to focus on higher priority activities that are not suitable for automation.

TOPIC: AMIC-015, DATA ANALYTICS

ACC requires an integrated data analytics platform. The platform will provide automated processes and data analysis of current and previous audits. The platform will reduce subjectivity in risk assessments, validate postures within the enterprise, and present that information to leadership through easy-to-understand storyboards and dashboards.

3.0 GENERAL INFORMATION