Attachment 1 Basic IDIQ SOO 2021 Final.pdf

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

Adaptive Technologies for Force Readiness

FA8650-22-D-6400

10/21/2021

1.0 Background

Building on a foundation of Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training capabilities, the U.S.

Air Force (USAF) seeks revolutionary advances and continued improvements to its ability to rapidly train and ensure the readiness of Airmen and Human-Autonomy Teams for complex, dynamic global joint all-domain operations. The Warfighter Interactions and Readiness Division (RHW) aims to conduct research and development efforts to create new knowledge, processes, models and technologies to substantially improve the USAF's capability to provide agile training for multi-capable Airmen together with capabilities to continuously and quantitatively track individual and team readiness.

The purpose of this effort is to enable effective means of assessing and enhancing Airman proficiency, performance, resilience, health, and safety; optimize training fidelity to learning needs; enable comprehensive joint all-domain, performance-based planning, rehearsal, and debrief including teams of human and autonomous performers; and reduce training/exercise overhead. The body of work will encompass the following areas of research:

1.1 Adaptive Proficiency Technologies

Personalized Learning and Readiness Sciences for Capabilities for persistent, high resolution human and system measurement and proficiency-centric readiness evaluation and prediction;

1.2 Interactive Task Learning

Interactive Task Learning for agile, collaborative human-machine teaching and learning of entirely new content on demand;

1.3 Teachable Models for Training

Cognitive Models for affordable and valid models of human cognition to support training and instruction;

1.4 Multiscale Models of Cognitive Performance

Multiscale Models of Cognitive Performance for models capable of predicting performance when internal and external factors are putting pressure on the cognitive system;

1.5 Joint All-Domain Operations and Training

Research for Joint All-Domain operations and training, including work in the above areas as well as training and analysis for autonomous systems; robust and secure machine learning for artificial intelligence teaming and training agents; ready medical force training research; and evaluations of advanced learning technologies like augmented and virtual reality to identify when, where, and how they provide training benefits by reducing costs or training time, or by improving training outcomes.

2.0 Scope

This BAA will require the development, test, and validation of training approaches, methods, tools, environments, instrumentation, and enterprise infrastructure for learning and operational readiness. This includes efforts to measure and model Airman expertise and performance, to rapidly develop models of Airman cognition, and to specify and validate, both empirically and practically, new classes of synthetic, computer-generated agents and teammates. In addition, the research will discover, develop, and transition advanced operator-centric interface technology, intelligent tutors, decision aiding tools, and situationally-adaptive augmentation methods to seamlessly integrate Airmen, Space Guardians and intelligent machines into maximally collaborative warfighting teams. Envisioned technologies will provide the capability to increase the Airman's combat capabilities through personalized learning, persistent readiness monitoring, and multi-scale physio-cognitive-physical modeling; and to deploy integrated solutions that develop synergies, maximize battlespace interoperability, situation awareness, and increases combat power while decreasing Airman physical and cognitive workloads. This includes design and execution of laboratory and field studies to evaluate alternative LVC approaches, solutions, and practices in military and civilian mission areas such as autonomous operations, space operations, manned, unmanned and human-autonomy teamed air, ground, cyber and space operations, joint all-domain command and control, cyber operations, emergency response, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, tactical air combat, and integrated air, land, sea and space operations.

3.0 Objective

The desired end state is to develop Personalized Learning and Interactive Team Training that delivers (1) integrated, quantitative, personalized proficiency-based training, designed and implemented to maximize efficiency and effectiveness; (2) global, persistent LVC training; and

(3) team training for humans and machines, ensuring multi-capable, ready Airmen and mission-ready human-machine teams at the speed of operations.

The USAF must have the capability to:

• Advance training content delivery to enable and demonstrate skill acquisition, transfer of training and retention across a variety of mission contexts.

• Evaluate and quantify the impact of training fidelity in simulation-based training systems.

• Assess if and how advanced learning technologies, including augmented and virtual reality, can improve learning outcomes, reduce training costs, and/or shorten timelines for achieving proficiency.

• Measure and assess transfer of training across a variety of mission contexts.

• Quantitatively and qualitatively assess performance and learning in mission-relevant contexts for individuals and teams.

• Contribute to creating, and leverage existing, standards related to data handling, sharing, and storage to enable authoritative sources of readiness data across a variety of USAF mission contexts.

• Identify variables that relate to task difficulty and variables that enable increased variation in scenario content and be able to leverage these variables in mission-relevant training contexts.

• Assess decision-making, communications, coordination, performance and knowledge.

• Train forces with realistic mix of techniques, practices, and methods from strategic to tactical levels

• Integrate live, virtual, and constructive elements within several synthetic environments

• Integrate mission requirements in a resource effective manner through distributed simulations.

• Training research and rehearsal missions requiring team of teams environment to meet readiness requirements.

• Meet DoD training transformation requirements and future USAF readiness needs for increasing a range of military missions (e.g., Space, Joint All-Domain Operations, Close Air Support (CAS), Special Operations Force (SOF), Urban Operations, Air to Air, Multi-Role, Cyber)

• Train operational forces in Air and Space missions

• Train total force to include individuals, teams, groups, and human-autonomy teams

• Provide training tailored to force needs

• Complete research to find innovative methods to train as the USAF & U.S. Space Force (USSF) goes to war

• Reinforce Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) and Ready Medical Force training and preparatory spin-up and sustain wartime readiness

• Use multidisciplinary research (including modeling and simulation, cognitive science, computer science, data science, psychometrics, experimental psychology, and artificial intelligence) to meet USAF and USSF strategic goals

• Integrate and assess war-altering capabilities

• Improve force members knowledge, skills, expertise and readiness

• Achieve information superiority and predictive battlespace awareness

• Create full spectrum, distributed synthetic battlespace to meet global response Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) requirement

• Integrate team of teams training to include USAF, joint forces, and coalition partners

• Provide joint training with Joint All-Domain Command and Control missions

• Provide non-material solutions to enhance operational readiness

4.0 Tasks

4.1 Technical

4.1.1 Competency-based Approaches for Training, Readiness and Performance

Requirements Analysis The Contractor shall develop, refine, and/or validate methods and technologies to define and personalize workforce knowledge, skills, experiences, and other attributes to increase training and job success. Also needed are competency-based approaches that can inform and drive models to forecast and analyze alternative personnel and system requirements to meet evolving weapons system capabilities and mission contexts. Additionally, approaches that leverage AI and machine learning technologies for training as needed, as well as definitions of competencies, readiness and training methodologies for teams of humans and intelligent machines. The Contractor shall document and report gaps and requirements. The Contractor shall determine methods that best meet the training, readiness and performance gaps identified. The Contractor shall identify appropriate learning models to best approximate actual learning process, so that training can be customized to situations and to individual experiences and performance.

Further, there is a need for requirements traceability and personalized learning trajectory development to define competency needs from the time an individual enters the training pipeline to the time they retire, and to develop career long learning models and criteria based on known proficiencies and experiences. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate technologies that enable air and space operators to rapidly acquire new mission skills or accomplish refresher training in significantly less time than current training regimes and existing operational training infrastructure standards. Finally, the Contractor shall develop and validate linkages between competency specifications and models to forecast personnel requirements for new systems, mission, and occupations.

4.1.2 Training Content Delivery System Development, Evaluation, Verification and Validation

The Contractor shall develop, integrate, and evaluate tools for enhanced training content delivery to enable and demonstrate skill acquisition, transfer of training, and retention across a variety of mission contexts. The Contractor shall research and develop methods to evaluate and quantify the training fidelity of simulation-based training systems. Additionally, the Contractor shall create and demonstrate LVC environments and content development, delivery, and assessment tools for workforce training, tracking, and management. Approaches and demonstrations of methods that can measure and assess transfer of training across a variety of mission contexts and be generalized beyond military applications to civilian/military, and civilian work environments are desired. Examples include but are not limited to first responder, emergency operations, humanitarian assistance, border and protection, cyber operations, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), C4ISR, resource allocation, and science technology engineering and mathematics.

The Contractor shall evaluate relative costs and benefits of alternative training technologies for achieving proficiency as a function of training context and requirements. Specifically, research is needed on how and when advanced learning technologies like augmented and virtual reality, game-based training environments, and other training simulator technology provide a training benefit. Cost-benefit evaluations of learning technology fidelity impacts on training effectiveness are highly desired.

4.1.3 Expertise to Inform Artificial Intelligence

The Contractor shall develop representational formalisms and encoding processes to allow for strategic and tactical knowledge to be captured from highly skilled individuals to inform cognitive and machine learning, to more rapidly develop models to instantiate psychologically valid representations of expert task knowledge and performance to support knowledge transfer for training. These formalisms must capture expert knowledge, skills, abilities and interactions while minimizing or eliminating the knowledge engineering requirements that are typical for the implementation of knowledge bases, and that today limit improvements in computer generated force capabilities, adaptive and intelligent tutoring applications, and performance aiding and supporting agents, coaches and teammates.

4.1.4 Rapid Model and Realistic Agent Development Using Real World Data The Contractor shall develop training agents to take the place of and/or augment the capabilities of humans. Agent development may involve the use of artificial intelligence technologies, cognitive models, machine learning methods, natural language processing, and information synthesis and fusion. Such agents must respond in a natural way to trainees, be able to robustly handle a set of situations and training protocols. Agents should be able to identify their own knowledge and skill gaps and seek interactive training to resolve their gaps. Agents will need ways to interact and communicate naturally, through vision and conversation, with human teammates, requiring advances in adaptive linguistics, computer vision inference and interactive human-agent learning as well as methods for establishing and repairing mutual understanding and common ground.

4.1.5 Improve the efficiency and validity of constructive models and agents in Live- Virtual-Constructive (LVC) environments:

The Contractor shall develop methodologies and algorithms to inform computational and machine learning models/architectures. An area of emphasis is on acquiring context from content repositories such as doctrine, commander’s intent, specific mission taskings, tactics, techniques and procedures, and concepts of operations. Similarly, there is interest in more rapid contextualizing airman and system-level performance and interaction data in and across LVC environments. The opportunity to be realized is more efficient and unobtrusive ways to characterize such data such that models/architectures can obtain and use information more directly through experience and interaction with the content and with relevant LVC environments and to use the data as part of the model development, refinement and validation process. Rapid generation of content contextualization and tokens that become part of the data pedigree is critical to this area of need. The Contractor shall develop and demonstrate techniques for automated contextualizing data to “train” and “teach” software models how to perform in complex environments is essential to overcoming knowledge engineering bottlenecks that limit the scope and scale of contemporary modeling activities today.

4.1.6 Computational Modeling for Learning, Agent Development, and Operational

Readiness The Contractor shall develop theoretically- and empirically-motivated models of skill acquisition, skill decay, situation awareness, real-time domain knowledge acquisition, identifying gaps in knowledge, physiocognitive interactions, and performance that (a) account for major phenomena in the relevant published literature, (b) leverage existing computational process models developed in the basic cognitive modeling research effort and/or (c) enhance the state of the art in the representation of highly interactive synthetic humans as “friendly assets,” synthetic teammates and instructors, adversary players, agents and coaches, and assessors for live and virtual environments and contexts. Requirements include the ability to rapidly develop software models capable of operating within complex training systems, models capable of naturalistic interactions with human teammates (speech, gesture, tone of voice, etc.).

4.1.7 Multi-Scale Modeling for Readiness Monitoring

The Contractor shall develop formal approaches for capturing and assessing the impacts of biological and physiological moderators on operator’s physical and cognitive skills, operational readiness, and mission effectiveness, including but not limited to the impacts of fatigue, sustained attention, workload, physical stress oxygen deprivation, directed energy and chemical exposures on cognition. The Contractor shall develop methods and techniques for leveraging formal models to predict and account for physio-cognitive-physical stressors on human performance, training and readiness. The work should include advance real-time individualized, performance specific predictive models of operator performance that can be generalized across a range of training and operations (e.g., air, ground, maintenance, cyber, and space) and military domains. Approaches that support operator readiness profiles are desired. Models shall be integrated into operational tracking tools and adaptive systems for training and decision support, and into human-autonomy teaming settings.

4.1.8 Criterion Development and Readiness Standards Definition for Laboratory and Applied Research and Operational Environments

The Contractor shall develop, evaluate and validate novel multi-variate readiness criteria and associated assessment methods to both qualitatively and quantitatively measure and model individual and team learning, performance, and proficiency. Methods for measurement and tracking in formal job and work structures as well as ad-hoc and just-in-time work and performance instances are desired. Automated tools to persistently monitor and diagnose performance and identify knowledge and skill requirements and gaps are also needed. Criterion development and assessment may center on one or another area or construct - the following are examples (but not limited to): communication (speech, text/chat) monitoring, physiological state tracking and mobile performance tracking and analysis; team interaction either collocated or at a distance; collaboration and trust – especially in Airmen and machine teams; situated knowledge or judgment; decision making; understanding; and learning. Finally, the Contractor shall support longitudinal human studies in laboratory tasks and mission-relevant simulations and contexts.

4.1.9 Appropriate Blending of Training Environments for Complimentary Families of Trainers

The Contractor shall develop, integrate, and evaluate infrastructure and enterprise architectures and tools for realistic and secure, multi-technology environments that support personalized live, virtual, and/or constructive learning and training. As well as create and demonstrate live, virtual, and/or constructive environments and content development, delivery, methods and outcomes related to appropriate blending of live and virtual training and rehearsal, and assessment tools for workforce training, tracking, and management. Additionally, research methodologies for leveraging augmented and virtual reality for training, and assess the costs, benefits, and trade-offs associated with those technologies for achieving training outcomes shall be performed. The Contractor shall identify desiderata for using alternative training technologies and approaches to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of financial and time investments in training.

Approaches and demonstrations of environments, content, and methods that can be generalized beyond USAF specific applications to other military and civilian work environments are desired.

Examples include but are not limited to technical trades, maintenance, tactical operations, personnel recovery, medical and emergency response operations, humanitarian assistance, border reconnaissance and protection, cyber operations, remotely operated vehicles, command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

4.2 Other Requirements

4.2.1 Engineering Analysis

The Contractor shall provide engineering analysis on production to identify key performance measures and metrics for use in performance evaluation and supply critical information.

4.2.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis

The Contractor shall conduct data collection and analysis activities. This will include, as necessary, developing and executing research plans, experimental plans, human use protocols and non-human-use protocols for all data collections, including related recruitment and screening of participants. Preparation for data collection will require, as necessary, literature reviews and pilot studies to assure that the facilities are functioning within tolerances required for specific data collections. The Contractor shall conduct appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical analyses using experimental data and conduct record keeping for experiments.

4.2.3 Data Curation

The Contractor shall support curation of data for use in statistical and computational modeling, including but not limited to machine learning development. This will include, as necessary, accessing, storing and reformatting open source data sets, organizing DoD-owned data sets for use in future modeling and analysis, developing ground truth labels and metadata for machine learning. The Contractor shall identify and secure data storage capacity needed to securely capture, store, retrieve, and utilize “big data” to conduct a variety of analytics within and across task orders. Additionally, the Contractor shall provide guidance on appropriate security levels of DoD owned or generated data sets, or data stemming from human subjects data collection.

4.2.4 Software Development

The Contractor shall develop software (in the form of prototypes, conceptual demonstrations, models, and simulations), as necessary, to accomplish specific research. This shall include, but not be limited to, software design, software development, source code documentation, and software user’s manuals.

4.2.5 Research Laboratories and Research Network

The Contractor shall provide all engineering and related efforts necessary to effect and document changes to laboratory facilities or to integrate new and unique components which will enhance research goals, improve reliability, increase productivity, enhance flexibility and improve fidelity. The Contractor shall prepare certification and accreditation packages for software baselines installed in various laboratory facilities. The Contractor shall ensure operation of research information networks, including hardware fault determination and repair, software development and updates, system administration, training in system usage, engineering development, installation of enhancements and upgrades, and system software configuration.

4.2.6 Systems Integration

The Contractor shall perform systems integration of software and hardware components as necessary to perform various technology demonstrations and evaluations within and across task orders.

4.2.7 Technology Demonstrations

The Contractor shall participate in technology demonstrations both onsite and offsite as requested by the government.

4.2.8 Warfighter Personnel Scheduling

The Contractor shall schedule testing of operational personnel both onsite and offsite as required.

4.2.9 Data Management Plan

The Contractor shall develop, implement and share a data management plan for all data acquisition efforts.

4.3 Special Requirements

4.3.1 Foreign Government Collaborations

Individual task orders issued under this contract may involve collaboration with countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other United States partnered countries. The Contractor shall ensure that personnel working on task orders that involve foreign government collaborations receive the appropriate briefings for managing, transmitting, storing, and protecting information necessary for the successful completion of these task orders.

4.3.2 Flight Test

Individual task orders issued under this contract may require hardware and/or software assessments through the use of flight tests. The Contractor shall comply with the provisions of the following directives: a) AFRLMAN 99-103, AFRL Flight Test and Evaluation and b) AFRLI 61-103, AFRL Research Test Management. The Contractor shall support the necessary flight test design, test plan, and airworthiness reviews through the preparation and communication of flight test related documentation and presentation material. This flight testing process includes:

a) developing required flight test and safety plan; b) supporting the required Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Technical, Airworthiness, and Safety Review Boards; c) supporting any and all mishap investigations; and d) documenting “Lessons Learned.” The number of reviews, their timing, and the topics to be covered will be task order dependent and shall be determined jointly among the Contractor, the AFRL Program Manager, and the AFRL Flight Test Office.

5.0 Management

5.1 Protection of Human Subjects

The Contractor shall comply with the provisions of the following directives/regulations: a) Title 32, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 219 (32 CFR 219), “Protection of Human Subjects;” b) Department of Health and Human Services Regulations, “Protection of Human Subjects” (45 CFR Part 46), effective 14 Jul 2009, Subparts A, B, C, and D; c) DoD Directive 3216.02, “Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD Supported Research,” (certified current as of 8 Nov 2011); d) Air Force Instruction 40-402, 10 Sep 2014, “Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in Air Force Supported Research;” and e) AFRL Instruction 40-402, 9 Jul 2014, “Protection of Human Subjects Research.”

Interaction with human research subjects shall not commence until approval from the Air Force Institutional Review Board (IRB) has been obtained. Interaction includes communication or interpersonal contact between investigator and subject for the purposes of conducting research.

If an IRB exemption is granted, the provisions above would no longer be applicable; however, the Contractor should still adhere to standard ethical principles. The Contractor shall refer to, and abide by, The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for protection of Human Subjects of Research,” 18 April 1979.

5.2 Associate Contractor Agreements

Several other Contractors are housed in the same work location as this contract effort. An Associate Contractor Agreement (ACA) may be required on any given task. Therefore, the Contractor shall enter into Associate Contractor Agreements (ACA) for any portion of the contract requiring joint participation in the accomplishment of the Government’s requirement as identified by the Contractor or the government. The agreements shall include the basis for sharing information, data, technical knowledge, expertise, and/or resources essential to the integration of the Task Order(s), which shall ensure the greatest degree of cooperation for the development of the program to meet the terms of the contract. ACAs shall include the following general information:

(1) Identify the associate Contractors and their relationships.

(2) Identify the program involved and the relevant Government contracts of the associate

Contractors.

(3) Describe the associate Contractor interfaces by general subject matter.

(4) Specify the categories of information to be exchanged or research effort to be provided.

(5) Include the expiration date (or event) of the ACA.

(6) Identify potential conflicts between relevant Government contracts and the ACA;

include agreements on protection of proprietary data and restrictions on employees.

A copy of such agreement shall be provided to the Contracting Officer for review before execution of the document by the cooperating Contractors. The Contractor is not relieved of any contract requirements or entitled to any adjustments to the contract terms because of a failure to resolve a disagreement with an associate Contractor. Liability for the improper disclosure of any proprietary data contained in or referenced by any agreement shall rest with the parties to the agreement, and not the Government. All costs associated with the agreements are included in the negotiated cost of this contract. Agreements may be amended as required during the performance of this contract.

5.3 Contract Holidays

The prices/costs in Section B of the contract include holiday observances; accordingly, the Government shall not be billed for such holidays, except when services are required by the Government and are actually performed on a holiday.

The following days are contract holidays:

New Year’s Day Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Presidents Day

Memorial Day Independence Day Labor Day Columbus Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Day Christmas Day

6.0 Security Requirements

The highest level of security classification for the technical research areas under this contract is TS/SCI. Contractor personnel shall adhere to base security and AFRL security policies when on base. Furthermore, the Contractor shall adhere to the Visitor Group Security Agreement (VGSA) and any additional security requirements provided by the Government through the specific task order SOW or applicable documentation such as the DD Form 254, PPPs, SCGs, and the Operational Security (OPSEC) Plan.

6.1 Safeguarding of Unclassified Controlled Technical Information (UCTI) Contractor personnel shall be able to access, handle, mark, receive, and store UNCLASSIFIED documents, equipment, hardware, and test items using the applicable standards of For Official Use Only (FOUO) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). DFARS Clause 252.204- 7012 (Safeguarding Covered Defense Information and Cyber Incident Reporting) applies to this contract. The Contractor shall submit all CUI (documents designated as FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and/or LIMITED DISTRIBUTION, etc.) by a controlled means using United States Postal Service (USPS) mail, Safe Access File Exchange (SAFE) website, and/or FIPS 140-2 validated encryption software such as https://spi.dod.mil/ewizard.htm. The requirements for safeguarding UCTI will apply to all task orders issued and apply to any task order subcontractors.

6.2 Operations Security (OPSEC)

The Contractor shall provide OPSEC protection for all sensitive/critical information and indicators involved in execution of this contract/Task Order, as defined by AFI 10-701 (Operations Security). 711 HPW Critical Information and Indicators are protected under the 711 HPW Operations Security Program and the 711 HPW Critical Information and Indicators List (CIIL). Contractor employees granted access to critical information and indicators will be provided initial OPSEC training by the 711 HPW OPSEC Coordinator upon in-processing and prior to being granted access to CIIL items related to the contract/Task Order. The Contractor shall participate in 711 HPW’s annual OPSEC training and education programs, which includes periodic updates and refresher training on CIIL items applicable to the contract/Task Order. The 711 HPW OPSEC coordinator will evaluate the OPSEC posture of AF contract activities and operations.

6.3 Safeguarding Export Controlled Information

The Contractor shall not export technical data with military application without an approval, authorization, or license under the Arms Export Control Act, as amended 22 U.S.C. 2751-2794, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 C.F.R. 120 et seq.; and the Export Administration Act of 1979, 50 U.S.C app. 2401-2420. The Contractor shall use the Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL) as general guidance for making this determination.

An export license is required before assigning any foreign source to perform work under this agreement and before granting foreign persons access to any equipment and technical data generated or delivered during performance (see 22 C.F.R Section 125). The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer and obtain written approval 30 days prior to assigning or granting access to any work, equipment, or technical data generated or delivered under this agreement to foreign persons or their representatives. The notification shall include the name and country of origin of the foreign person or representative, the specific work, equipment, or data to which the person will have access, and whether the foreign person is cleared to have access to technical data (ref: DoD 5220.22-M, National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM)).

The requirements for safeguarding Export Controlled Information will apply to all task orders issued and apply to any task order subcontractors. All documents determined to contain export controlled technical data will be marked with the following notice:

WARNING: This document contains technical data whose export is restricted by the Arms Export Control Act (Title 22, U.S.C., App. 2401 et seq.). Violations of these export laws are subject to severe criminal penalties. Disseminate in accordance with provisions of DoD Directive 5230.25.

6.4 Information Security and Force Protection

The Contractor shall provide Information Security and Force Protection training as defined by AFI 16-1404 (Air Force Information Security Program) and AFI 10-245 (Air Force Antiterrorism Standards). The Contractor shall participate in the 711 HPW sustained information Security and Force Protection/Antiterrorism training or include this training as part of its ongoing security program. The 711 HPW Security Managers will evaluate the training posture of Air Force contract activities and operations. This requirement is set forth in AFI 16-1404, AFI 10-245 and applicable AFMC and local supplements. Information Security and Force Protection requirements will apply to all task orders issued under this contract.

6.5 Security Access

Due to the nature of the work to be performed in the technical research areas under this contract, the Contractor shall have or obtain the necessary items required to access, control and secure Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) and/or Special Access Program (SAP)/Special Access Restricted (SAR) information. Individual task orders issued under this contract that will require different levels of security classification access and safeguarding. The various access levels in each task order required to successfully support data analysis, model development, simulation testing, and Warfighter requirements development are Unclassified through TS/SCI.

6.6 Secure Communications and Storage

Individual task orders issued under this contract will designate the level of classification necessary for the work to be performed through the task order SOW and applicable security guidance such as the DD Form 254, a Security Classification Guide (SCG), or a Program Protection Plan (PPP). For those task orders with a security classification requirement, the Contractor shall be able to receive, store, and generate classified information at the security level specified by the task order. Furthermore, the Contractor shall use classified communications media, such as telephones, computers, and Secure Video Teleconference (SVTC), to transfer and communicate classified information at the security level specified by the task order.

6.7 Common Access Card (CAC) Requirement

Contractor employees requiring access to U.S. Air Force bases, AFRL facilities, and/or access to U.S. Government Information Technology networks in connection with the work on this contract must be U.S. citizens and have at least a favorable T1 investigation. The possession of a permanent resident card (“Green Card”) does not equate to U.S. citizenship. This requirement does not apply to foreign nationals approved by the U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. State Department under international personnel exchange agreements with foreign governments. Any waivers to this requirement must be granted in writing by the Contracting Officer prior to providing access. The above requirements are in addition to any other contract requirements related to obtaining a Common Access Card (CAC).

6.8 Security Clearances

The Contractor shall maintain a U.S. Facility Clearance of Top Secret. Moreover, based on the individual task order requirements, it is foreseen that certain Contractor employees will be required to have or obtain a Tier 5 Critical-Sensitive or Special-Sensitive investigation to be granted access to TS, TS/SCI, or SAP/SAR information. On-site Contractor personnel must have an active clearance or Interim access at / or above the level of classified information access required on the specific task order. Interim clearances for newly hired personnel shall be processed to permanent status as expeditiously as possible as some Contractor personnel will be required to use the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) and process classified materials; however, expediting will be on a case-by-case basis. Such clearance must be obtained through the Defense Security Service. Contractor personnel who already have approved security clearances are highly preferred. The Contractor shall be required to wear Contractor identification badges and maintain currency in all Privacy Act Laws. If subcontractors are needed to perform classified work, the Contractor will notify the program engineer responsible for that task order 15 days prior to any agreement. Furthermore, if subcontractors are required to perform classified work on a task order, the Contractor shall submit a signed copy of the subcontracted DD Form 254 to the Government Contracting Officer and task order manager within 30 calendar days of establishment of the contract or agreement.

6.9 Disposition of Classified Material and Access

When a task order is complete, the Contractor and, if applicable, any task order subcontractors shall account for all classified hardware and material given, used, or generated during the task order period of performance. If the classified hardware or material will not be used on another task order under this contract, the Contractor shall submit an encrypted, unclassified list of all materials and/or hardware in their possession to the Government Contracting Officer. In the list of items, the Contractor shall outline those items they wish to keep and the corresponding justification. The Government Contracting Officer and the 711th Industrial Security Manager will determine whether the material will be destroyed, transferred, or returned to the Government.

At the end of this contract, the above requirement applies. However, if there is to be a follow-on effort to this contract, a final DD Form 254 must be issued to the Contractor authorizing the Contractor to retain the classified material, access, and hardware for a specified time period until the follow-on contract is awarded and the material, access, and information are transferred to that new effort.

6.10 Processing Unclassified Government Information on Information Technology Systems Contractor personnel and, if applicable, any task order subcontractor personnel shall be able to access, handle, receive, and store unclassified documents, equipment, hardware, and test items, using the applicable standards of FOUO and CUI. The Contractor and its task order subcontractors (if applicable) shall submit all CUI (documents designated as FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY, ITAR, limited distribution, etc.) by one of the following controlled means: a) USPS mail, b) electronically via the SAFE website or DoD encryption wizard, or c) obtaining a DoD-approved PKI certificate and sending the information via encrypted email. The Contractor and its task order subcontractors (if applicable) shall encrypt all emails containing technical data or other critical information for this program. AFRL program information is not approved for public release, social media, and/or use in advertisement or public website posts without approval from the task order manager, 711 HPW security and the WPAFB public release office.