13 March 2026

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTIFICATION

W519TC-26-R-0019

Sources Sought for the Establishment of a Center of Excellence for Energetics

1. DESCRIPTION

The Army Contracting Command-Rock Island (ACC-RI), on behalf of the Office of Project Lead Joint Services (PL JS), is seeking information and feedback from domestic industry sources on the potential for design, development, construction, commissioning, and operation of a comprehensive, modern, and efficient "Center of Excellence" (CoE) for scale-up and production of current and emerging explosives to be located at Blue Grass Army Depot, KY. The Army is interested in rapid acceleration of this capability with completion prior to 2031.

The objective of this initiative is to establish and retain a domestic or organic campus for additional explosive production capability. This CoE would serve as a focal point within the organic industrial base using traditional or non-traditional production processes for Research Department Explosive (RDX) and High Melting Explosive (HMX); in addition, the Government is seeking information on establishing a pilot facility for the research, development, testing, scale-up, and production of these next-generation emerging explosives materials. The Government's preference is for a single, integrated campus model, but will consider distributed or networked concepts.

Congress appropriated the Capability Program Executive for Ammunition and Energetics funding in the Fiscal Year 26 Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Act to resource this investment.

2. GOVERNMENT INTENT

a. The Government is issuing this initial Sources Sought for planning purposes only to better understand and frame the capabilities and capacities that industry can operationalize as it relates to producing and scaling up current and next generation emerging explosives. The Government intends to use the information received in response to this Sources Sought to refine its requirement for the CoE at BGAD. Any concepts, approaches, and capability recommendations identified by industry in its response shall be free from proprietary markings. Financial data, technical process information, personnel, and internal business strategies/relationships which respondents’ wish to be held in a confidential status must be marked as proprietary.

b. Due to the urgency of this requirement, the Government intends to release a follow-on Sources Sought notice to award a non-competitive, sole-source, Undefinitized

Contract Action (UCA) under the temporary acquisition authorizations provided in Class Deviation 2024-00005, paragraph B (1), for covered contracts related to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. The Government intends for this potential action to include contract(s) for the design, construction, and commissioning of the CoE facility along with explosive qualification, and potentially long-term operation and management.

c. The follow-on sources sought notification by ACC-RI intends to issue any potential UCA resulting from this notice with a Firm-Fixed-Price ceiling, not-to-exceed value, based upon vendor's responses.

d. The Government reserves its right to amend this notice and/or its acquisition strategy at any time, as determined to be in the Government's best interest.

3. RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS

Individual companies, teaming arrangement(s), or partnerships of companies are invited to respond to this notice. Responses should address the following:

1. Corporate and Team Capability: Describe your organization’s structure, team members, and their roles. Detail any teaming arrangements, joint ventures, or partnerships. If your organization does not currently possess all necessary resources (technical, manufacturing, personnel), demonstrate your ability to acquire them.

2. Background and Experience: Describe your organization's background and experience in the following essential areas, including dates and locations of relevant projects:

a. Process design and scale-up of explosives materials from laboratory/pilot scale to full-rate production.

b. Design, construction, and commissioning, including explosive qualification, of large-scale facilities for hazardous materials, particularly explosives.

c. Operation and management of explosive material facilities, including safety and environmental compliance.

d. Preparation of Explosive Safety Site Plans in accordance with DoD 6055.09- M.

e. Securing environmental permits (local, state, federal) for chemical and explosives manufacturing as well as performing any required assessments and documentation for the National Environmental Policy Act.

3. Proposed Technical Approach / CoE Concept:

a. Describe the conceptual approach to establishing a CoE. Detail the proposed technologies, processes, and infrastructure for research, synthesis, characterization, analytical testing, and production.

b. Provide a representative layout of the proposed CoE campus, including notional facilities for R&D labs, pilot-scale production, full-rate production lines, analytical testing, packaging, waste treatment, and administrative/support functions.

c. Describe how the facility design will incorporate flexibility to accommodate a range of different energetic materials and adapt to future mission requirements and capabilities, to include possible explosive formulation capabilities. Describe opportunities and available space for future additional capabilities.

4. Program Management and Schedule:

a. Provide an Integrated Master Schedule outlining top-level activities and milestones to design, construct, commission, and transition the CoE to full operational capability, to include qualification at the explosive product level by the Energetics Material Qualification Board (EMQB).

b. Provide a notional list of buildings/facilities with approximate size and Net Explosive Weight by hazard class (e.g., 1.1, 1.3).

c. Provide a breakdown of the required manufacturing, engineering, and scientific personnel (numbers, experience, specialized skill sets).

5. Cost, Assumptions, and Contract Model:

a. Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost for the design, construction, commissioning, and transitioning to production operations, to include qualification of explosive products by the EMQB, of the proposed CoE concept. The ROM shall be broken down by each proposed building/facility.

b. Provide a ROM for the price per pound for RDX and HMX components and current RDX- and HMX-based formulations the CoE could produce, assuming five and ten years of fixed prices and no Government direct funding during operations.

c. Identify any proposed self-investment detailing the specific capital structure, the ratio at-risk private capital to Government funding, and any tangible financial commitments your organization is interested in making.

d. Identify any opportunities to re-direct planned, privately-funded or Government-funded projects, currently slated for other DoD sites or at non- DoD installations, to BGAD to optimize the operational viability of the CoE.

e. Demonstrate the reasonableness of the ROM estimate based on the concept provided and discuss the major assumptions/terms and conditions, cost drivers, and potential risks associated with the proposed concept.

f. Identify the contracting vehicle and model best suited for the CoE (e.g., FAR-based, Other Transaction Authority, Enhanced Use Lease, P-3, co-production)?

4. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Submissions must be provided no later than 15 April 2026 at 5:00 PM CDT.

Submissions shall be made at no cost to the Government via electronic mail to Contracting Officer: SFC Pramod Khanal at pramod.khanal.mil@army.mil, Contract Specialist: Lindsey Arguello at email lindsey.j.arguello.civ@army.mil, and Contract Specialist: Rebecca Bernard at email rebecca.s.bernard2.civ@army.mil.

2. If the file size of the response exceeds 5 MB, please email the contacts above to request a drop-off via DoD SAFE. TELEPHONE INQUIRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

3. Submissions are limited to 20 pages.

4. The response shall include: Company Name, Address, Commercial and Government Entity code, Unique Entity Identifier, Point of Contact (name, email, phone), and Company Size/Socio-Economic Status (e.g., Large Business, Small Business, Veteran-Owned, etc.).

5. DISCLAIMER

The Government does not intend to reimburse any contractor for any information or administrative costs associated with responding to this notification. Participation in this survey is strictly voluntary. Any information stated above is subject to change.

Respondents are responsible for appropriately marking any proprietary information. This is a Sources Sought notice for market research purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a commitment to issue an RFP in the future.

mailto:pramod.khanal.mil@army.mil mailto:lindsey.j.arguello.civ@army.mil mailto:rebecca.s.bernard2.civ@army.mil