Attachment 1 - IDIQ SOW.docx

Statement of Work (SOW)

Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) Support for The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Center for Corrosion Science and Engineering (CCSE)

1.0 Introduction

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Center for Corrosion Science and Engineering (CCSE), Code 6130 in the Chemistry Division seeks multi-disciplinary support of basic experimentation and marine engineered systems related to corrosion science.

1.1. Mission

The CCSE is responsible for a wide spectrum of Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) programs in the areas of marine corrosion, marine engineering, materials, electrochemistry, coatings, biofouling remediation and environmental effects related to the Navy surface ships, submarines, marine structures, aircraft, shore facilities and associated government use in general. As part of the mission, the CCSE performs basic and applied RDT&E programs in the laboratory with a number of at-sea and field-based engineering Science & Technology (S&T) demonstrations at command, shipyards, fleet regional maintenance centers and shipboard.

1.2. Background

At the basic science level, programs include the study of corrosion mechanisms, electrochemical systems, materials degradation and failure analysis, as related to marine physio-chemistry, protection and associated marine systems. At the applied levels, the CCSE performs detailed engineering design, development and evaluation of systems as related to bioremediation, software design, cathodic protection, marine coatings, propulsion, materials performance and fuel cell technology. The emphasis revolves around the design and implementation of improved technology for legacy and next generation Naval platforms, but also closely explores the needs of life-cycle extension, improved service life, affordability, condition-based maintenance and new technology development and implementation.

1.3. Scope

The basic scope of this Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type contract is to conduct scientific, engineering, technical, and analytical Research and Development Solicitation: N00173-26-R-GF02 Attachment 01 – IDIQ SOW

(R&D) for a wide range of NRL research projects supporting the Navy’s corrosion mitigation, coatings, environmental and prevention programs, in the following areas:

1.3.1. Corrosion Science and Engineering

1.3.2. Material Science and Environmental Compatibility

1.3.3. Marine Coatings Science and Technology

1.3.4. Technology Transfer, Field Demonstrations, and Engineering Support The Contractor shall perform the R&D effort at the individual task order level, to accomplish the requirements at the laboratory, field and facility levels. This includes support for:

1) Scientific discovery and invention: Development of scientific and research-oriented test plans, perform analyses, conduct basic/applied studies and conduct RDT&E projects to contribute to the overall objectives of the CCSE’S programs,

2) Applied Engineering: Perform engineering design, fabrication, installation and evaluation of equipment, techniques and platform-based demonstrations as part of developmental programs, proof of concept and fleet technology transition goals, and

3) Logistical and Technical Program Support: Provide logistics, demonstration coordination, field activity support, facility development and experimental fabrication. Assist in the development of standards, procedures, and specifications for Navy, DoD, or other technical authorities.

4) Fleet activities and DoD support: Provide support to fleet program offices, including program management and systems engineering, and support shipyard, waterfront, Naval Air Station, and Air Force Base activities.

5) Demonstrations: Provide support for field demonstrations for Navy or DoD technology programs. Support corrosion control or coatings projects via SHIPALT or TEMPALT.

2.0 General Requirements

The Contractor shall have its support team in place and fully functioning within 30 days of contract award or exercise of a contract option. During this period the Contractor will transition all activities from the incumbent, as required. The Contractor must execute the scope of work in a manner that provides for high quality, timely deliverables while incorporating the proper mix and the most effective use of personnel.

This IDIQ contract will have an ordering period of 5 years from contract order. NRL anticipates issuing Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF - Term or Completion) and/or Firm Fixed Priced (FFP) task orders against this contract to support the functional areas set forth in the SOW.

Task Orders will be issued to support specific set of tasks contained in the SOW which are to be performed in a given timeframe. These tasks will vary in scope and duration depending upon the complexity of the effort. Each task order will specify elements of work that are defined in Section 3 to be accomplished, and it is possible that not every task specified in Section 3 of this SOW will be required in each contract period.

2.1 Non-Personal Services

The Government will neither supervise contractor employees nor control the method by which the Contractor performs the required tasks. The Government will not assign tasks to, or prepare work schedules for, individual contractor employees.

The Contractor shall be responsible for managing its employees and guarding against any actions that are of the nature of personal services or give the perception of personal services as defined in FAR-Part 37, Service Contracting.

The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer (KO) if any Government requested actions constitute or are perceived to constitute personal services.

2.2 Business Relations

The Contractor shall integrate and coordinate all activity needed to execute this contract and task orders.

2.3 Contract Administration and Management

The following subsections specify requirements for contract management and contractor personnel administration.

2.3.1 Contract Management

The Contractor shall establish clear organizational lines of authority and responsibility to ensure effective management of the resources assigned to this contract.

2.3.2 Personnel Administration

The Contractor shall assign a single point of contact, also known as the Program Manager (PM), who must work closely with the government Contracting Officer and Contracting Officers Representative (COR), as applicable.

The Contractor PM must ultimately be responsible for ensuring that the contractor’s performance meets all government contracting requirements within cost and schedule. PM must have the requisite authority for full control over all company resources necessary for contract performance. As appropriate, the role of PM may be a full-time management position, or a collateral duty assigned to a technical team member.

The Contractor shall maintain the adequacy of their employees by providing initial and refresher training to meet the SOW requirements.

The Contractor shall make necessary travel arrangements for employees.

2.3.3 Contract Administration

The Contractor shall establish processes and assign appropriate resources to effectively administer this contract and its task orders. The Contractor shall respond to Government requests for contractual actions within five workdays.

2.3.4 Contractor's Management Plan (CMP)

The Contractor must adhere to the Contractor's Management Plan (CMP) defining the contractor's approach to implementing the contract as accepted by the Government during the time of the award. The CMP provides the Government with an insight into the systems, processes, and structure within which the contractor operates. The CMP should include, as applicable and if not defined in a separate plan: quality control, risk management, systems engineering, software development, configuration management, earned value management, and subcontract management.

The Contractor shall receive the contracting officer’s acceptance in writing of any proposed change to his management plan once the CMP has been accepted by the Government.

2.4 Government Property: Government furnished property and/or information, if required, will be specified in each Task Order. To the extent that Government Property as defined by FAR Part 45 will be provided, the appropriate FAR clauses will be placed into a Task Order based on the nature and type of work to be performed.

2.5 Contractor Acquired Property (CAP): Equipment and unexpended materials and supplies purchased by the contractor under this contract and task orders become the property of the Government at the end of the performance period, including all options.

The Contractor shall provide supplies for contractor personnel.

The Contractor shall provide any other equipment, material, and supplies, not furnished by the Government, but required to perform the work defined under Section 3, Performance Requirements, below.

The Contractor shall be responsible for any subcontract management necessary for performing efforts described in Section 3, Performance Requirements, below.

2.6 Location and Hours of Work

Accomplishment of the results contained in this SOW requires work at the NRL Washington, DC site and the NRL Corrosion facility located in Key West, FL. Where economical and appropriate from a type of work perspective for NRL-DC activities (e.g. primarily desk work), researchers may be located offsite. Contributing support to S&T programs may also be at Navy sites including, but not limited to: DoD labs, San Diego, CA; Norfolk, VA; Puget Sound, WA; and Pearl Harbor, HI.

Normal workdays for NRL are Monday through Friday except US federal holidays. NRL Workers typically work eight (8) hours per day, forty (40) hours per week. All employees are expected to be available during core hours. Core hours of work are from 1000 to 1100 and 1300 to 1400 daily. In the event of severe weather conditions, the contractor should refer to the top banner of the NRL website (www.nrl.navy.mil) for the NRL-DC operating status or refer to the Office of Personnel Management website (www.opm.gov) for the operating status of the U.S. Government offices in Washington, DC, area and for additional information.

2.7 Travel / Temporary Duty (TDY)

Travel to other government facilities or contractor facilities, as mentioned above, may be required to conduct experimental research or attend Government reviews, or scientific meetings, and seminars. The Contractor shall maintain the capability to arrange the travel of contractor personnel to locations in CONUS/OCONUS, often on short notice. Contractor personnel will be subject to all travel regulations in effect at the time of the anticipated travel.

3.0 Performance Requirements

The following section specifies the performance objectives and requirements for the contract. The Contractor shall provide support in accordance with the individual task order SOW. Requirements in each Task Order shall be within the scope of the general requirements of this SOW. The objective of this Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract and its task orders is to support the tasks listed in this section. The technical requirements (listed below) and deliverables (listed in §4.2) apply to any of these general task orders.

· Corrosion Science and Engineering

· Material Science and Environmental Compatibility

· Marine Coatings Science and Technology

· Technology Transfer, Field Demonstrations, and Engineering Support

These task orders support several areas of expertise within the CCSE: Corrosion science; advanced electrochemical systems; environmental and material compatibility; corrosion and marine engineering; marine biological engineering; and marine coating science and technology.

3.0 Technical Activities

3.1. The Contractor shall support work related to Navy and military materials, platforms, and operational environments.

3.1.1. Materials include metallic alloys, composites, ceramics, polymers, organic coatings, inorganic coatings, as well as materials used in additive manufacturing, among others.

3.1.2. Platforms include ships, submarines, and aircraft, autonomous and uncrewed undersea vehicles (AUVs and UUVs), towed devices, power plants, batteries, fuel cells, weapons systems, main and auxiliary seawater (MSW and ASW) systems, as well as ballast water and waste management systems and chlorinators, among others.

3.1.3. Environments include ships, submarines, military bases, installations, structures, field sites, and test platforms as well as natural seawater and atmospheric environments across the spectrum of naval operations.

3.2. The Contractor shall conduct fundamental and applied studies to determine the effect of natural environmental exposure on the performance, operation and degradation of Navy and military materials. Further, the Contractor shall:

3.2.1. Identify, assess, and mitigate Navy materials corrosion problems in the laboratory, in the field, aboard ships, and in aircraft.

3.2.2. Measure, monitor, and quantify corrosion and the state of materials, to include corrosion mechanisms, corrosion performance, durability, physio-chemical properties, and degradation.

3.2.3. Perform experiments to measure or predict the performance of materials along the spectrum of physio-chemical characteristics of seawater encountered in the Navy’s operations.

3.2.4. Study corrosion assessments, prognostics, cathodic protection behavior, and underwater electromagnetic properties using physical or numerical modeling.

3.2.5. Design, evaluate, and prototype corrosion assessment, mitigation instrumentation, sensors and associated software, including corrosion sensors, datalogging, monitoring and control instrumentation, tank inspection systems, electrical isolation, underwater Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) systems and components, and wireless devices, among others.

3.2.6. Determine materials properties, calcareous deposits, hydrogen effects, corrosion behavior, degradation mechanisms, prognostics, mitigation recommendations and mechanical properties.

3.2.7. Design and produce scaled ship and submarine physical models.

3.3. The Contractor shall determine the effect of structural materials selection, fabrication techniques, heat treatment, welding, and mechanical processes on the performance, operation and degradation of materials. Further, the Contractor shall:

3.3.1. Measure, monitor, and quantify material properties, corrosion mechanisms and rates, as well as abiotic and biological degradation.

3.3.2. Perform fundamental and applied experiments on acoustic and electromagnetic behavior of materials and coatings.

3.3.3. Carry out studies to determine associated physio-mechanical effects on performance and degradation related to bonding, fastening, adhesives, additive manufacturing, surface modification/enhancement, heat affected areas, wear, environmental effects, stress/strain effects, inhibitors/additives, and crevice geometry.

3.4. The Contractor shall develop novel coatings and shall assess their physical properties and performance of the new and existing coatings under natural seawater exposure, atmospheric conditions, environmental test chambers, and simulated flow environments. Further, the Contractor shall:

3.4.1. Develop multi-functional coatings, such as surface-tolerant, antifouling, rapid cure, solvent-free, self-inspecting, high performance/durability, and low solar absorbance coatings.

3.4.2. Formulate and synthesize resins, pigments, and coatings systems for use in underwater hull, topside, non-skid, bilge, rudder, tanks and voids, and other for Navy or military applications.

3.4.3. Design and test coatings and components to conform to applicable standards.

3.4.4. Evaluate coating performance under environmental extremes of temperature, humidity and solar exposure, and under unique Navy conditions for acoustic damping, coefficient of friction, wear, durability and exposure.

3.4.5. Develop and provide new techniques, equipment and processes for surface preparation, coatings applications, coatings inspections, and coatings removal.

3.5. The Contractor shall support NRL programs in technology development, proof-of concept S&T, technology transfers, and fleet, shipyard, and field demonstrations. This includes programs such as test & evaluation, maintenance-free ship concepts, submarine propulsion system and bearing testing, advanced ICCP and signature control systems, corrosion-resistant marine fasteners, sacrificial and ICCP anode and reference cell development, advanced shaft grounding systems, ship water & sewage treatment systems, and advanced naval power systems & components. Further, the Contractor shall:

3.5.1. Support field demonstrations, waterfront work, test and evaluation, and inspections. This may include NAVSEA CCAT ship paint teams/tool crib trailers, non-skid coefficient of friction study (COF), Ballast Water Treatment, ONR Future Naval Concepts (FNC), ONR Innovative Naval Prototypes (INP), NAVSEA Coatings Center of Excellence, ONR Maintenance Free Ship, and OSD corrosion initiatives, among others.

3.5.2. Execute planning for technology demonstrations of marine coatings, corrosion sensors, and optical inspection systems.

3.5.3. Perform site work, installation, and operations in support of experimentation and system concept evaluation. Experiments typically require the design and fabrication of platforms, test beds, machinery, piping systems, mockups, and/or simulated environments.

3.5.4. Develop SHIPALT and TEMPALT for corrosion control projects.

3.5.5. Provide logistics, training, and fleet support, subject matter experts to support development or evaluation of technical standards and specifications.

3.5.6. Perform software engineering in the development of corrosion control sensors, test platforms, and analytical tools.

3.6. The Contractor shall employ multi-purpose techniques, software, shop and fabrication tools, and equipment. The initial expectation is for all equipment to be government-furnished, though the Contractor may propose opportunities to utilize contractor furnished equipment when applicable. The Contractor shall:

3.6.1. Employ corrosion sensors, datalogging, monitoring and control instrumentation, tank inspection systems, electrical isolation, underwater ICCP systems and components, spectrum analyzers, potentiostat/galvanostats, and wireless devices, among others.

3.6.2. Perform electrochemical polarizations, chemical analyses, metallographic investigations and other analytical tests

3.6.5. Operate shop equipment for fabrication. Tools include milling machines, lathes, water jet, shears and sheet metal tools, saws and cutting equipment, welding equipment, among others.

3.6.6. Use software packages for various functions, including: numerical analysis, statistics, and plotting (e.g., MATLAB, OriginPro); datalogging, user interfacing, and control (e.g., LabVIEW); 3-D design and analysis (e.g., SolidWorks, PolyWorks), and modelling (e.g., COMSOL, CPMaster, Abaqus, OLI Studio, Python).

CCSE does not engage in large scale software development but does occasionally require the custom development of minor applications, algorithms, and code as part of its projects.

4.0 Special Requirements

This section describes the special requirements for this effort. The following sub- sections provide details of various considerations on this effort.

4.1 Security and Safety

Contractor personnel performing work under this contract must have the appropriate security clearance for the work assigned, up to SECRET, at time of the proposal submission, and must maintain the level of security required for the life of the contract. The security requirements are in accordance with the subsections below.

4.1.1 DD Forms 254

The Contractor will be granted access to classified information necessary for performance of this contract upon contract award as specified in the basic DD Form

254. All Contractor personnel with access to unclassified information systems, including e-mail, require at a minimum a favorable National Agency Check (NAC).

4.2 Deliverables

The Contractor shall provide deliverables with the schedule and format as described in section 3.0 of this contract and outlined in the CDRL's listed below. Each task order will identify the required deliverables.