BAA VS-07-02 CALL 0003 Q A 2.pdf

BAA VS-07-02

CALL 0003

Questions & Answers #2 Posted 19 March 2010

Q: The BAA does not call out where the contractor will physically do the work. Is there an assumption that the contractor will have office space on Kirtland AFB, or shall the contractor reside at their own facility, and work on Kirtland AFB on an as-needed basis?

A: The offeror may perform the proposed effort at its own facilities or at Kirtland AFB, if needed. If facilities provided at Kirtland AFB are required, they should be addressed accordingly in the offeror’s proposal.

Q: Does the contractor facility, both local (Albuquerque) and remote, have to have dedicated DOD SECRET facilities?

A: No. If a facility with a SECRET security classification is needed, it can be provided at Kirtland AFB.

Q: If the offering is over $500K, will a Small Business Subcontracting Plan still be required to be submitted if there will not be any subcontractors /small business subcontracting included in our proposal?

A: If there are no subcontracting opportunities, the offeror should provide a copy of its Master Subcontracting Plan or Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan.

Q: When does the Period of Performance begin?

A: The period of performance for any contract/task order will begin once the efforts have been awarded.

As stated in CALL 0003, the anticipated award date is June 2010. The offeror may provide an anticipated period of performance in its proposal.

Q: The BAA states that “For any software developed on this task, the contractor will provide support for verification, validation and accreditation…” Are there specific planned accreditation milestones and associated requirements (mission/scenario application/usage) for any or all of the M&S tools in this contract PoP? If so, please specify or provide reference documentation.?

A: The Government anticipates utilizing the contractor’s best practices. Associated accreditation milestones should be addressed in the offeror’s proposal.

Q: BAA states that the “contractor will provide thorough software documentation as defined by the CDRLs”. Under the Deliverable Items section it is listed that “software deliverables consistent with tracking progress, verifying performance…”. Is there a specific CDRLs list of software documents required to be delivered for any or all tools in this contract?

A: CDRLs were not provided in the BAA or in CALL 0003. CDRLs for contracts resulting from CALL 0003 will be based upon the deliverables identified in the offeror’s proposal and provided prior to contract award.

Q: In the BAA, Amendment 0003, Section 9 Other Information, Paragraph G, it states that all agreements executed after 14 Nov 2007 that use Basic Research Funds made available by the DOD Appropriations Act for FY 2008 will require a limit on indirect costs to not more than 35% of the total cost. It appears that this restriction is for funds appropriated for FY08. Are we correct to

Questions & Answers #2 assume that the 35% limit on indirect costs will not apply to funds released in FY 2010 for an award for CALL 0003?

A: This restriction does apply to FY 2010 Basic Research funds in accordance with the FY 2010 Appropriations Act. However, the work identified in CALL 0003 is not categorized as “Basic Research” so the restriction will not apply to resulting contracts.

Q: Should the Technical Proposal in Response to Attachment 1 & all Technical Proposals in response to Attachment 2a-c consist of all the parts listed on Pages 9 & 10 of the BASELINE BAA?

A: Yes.

Q: On page 4 of CALL 0003 in the "Anticipated Type of Contracts/Instruments" section it says that The Air Force anticipates awarding Cost Plus Fixed-Fee IDIQ contracts as a result of this call.

Will the CPFF contracts be "Completion"?

A: Yes. All contracts resulting from CALL 0003 will be R&D completion-type contracts.

CLARIFICATION REGARDING PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS:

Offerors may choose to submit proposals as follows:

For the IDIQ contract: If an offeror chooses to propose to the IDIQ contract anticipated in BAA CALL 0003 it must submit a Technical Proposal that addresses all objectives in BAA CALL 0003, Attachment 1, and at a minimum, a Technical Proposal and Cost Proposal for one (1) of the Topic Areas identified in CALL 0003, Attachments 2. If an offeror wishes to submit a Technical Proposal and Cost Proposal for more than one (1) of the Topic Areas identified in CALL 0003, Attachment 2, it may do so but it is not required.

For Non-IDIQ, FAR-type contracts: If an offeror does not wish to propose to the IDIQ contract anticipated in BAA CALL 0003, it may submit a Technical Proposal that addresses any of the objectives identified in CALL 0003, REQUIREMENT DESCRIPTION (pages 1-3), as well as a corresponding Cost Proposal. The Cost Proposal should be prepared in accordance with the Cost Proposal Instructions for Non-IDIQ proposals, provided as CALL 0003 Attachment 4. If an offeror chooses to submit a Non-IDIQ proposal, it is not necessary to structure the proposal around the Statements of Objectives identified in CALL Attachments 1 and 2.

Please note, no Advisory & Assistance Services (A&AS) or Level of Effort (LOE) contracts will be awarded as a result of BAA CALL 0003.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Anticipated enclave environment where proposed M&S tools and solutions will be deployed:

• 35-50 users currently, and up to 80 within 2 years.

• Platforms: Mac OS, Linux (Redhat Enterprise), Windows XP/Vista/Server, possibly others

Questions & Answers #2

• Currently, no thin clients. We will likely not migrate completely to thin clients, but a few would be appropriate.

• 6-10 simultaneous users of deployed M&S tools.

• Wiring, routers, switches, hubs, and the basic network infrastructure will likely be in place.

• Recommendations for a stand-alone modeling and simulation network architecture are welcome.

• There is currently a compute cluster with six 8-core Linux nodes and 2 Windows-based head-nodes. This cluster will be available to host M&S tools as well.

• We anticipate a need for network storage of 5-20 TB.

• Currently using tools such as X-Grid for cloud-type computing.

• No connectivity to the internet. This is a stand-alone environment.