iFAB Foundry BAA Q A

iFAB Foundry BAA 12-14 Questions and Answers – Round 1

January 25, 2012

Question 1: Is there a requirement for small/disadvantaged business participation on the iFAB Foundry proposal teams?

Answer 1: As the BAA states: “All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal that shall be considered by DARPA.

Historically Black Colleges and Minority Institutions (MIs) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this announcement will be set aside for these organizations’ participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of this research for exclusive competition among these entities.”

Question 2: During the iFAB Foundry Industry Day, mention was made that DARPA was investigating the use of the Army Prototype Integration Facilities (PIFs) as GFE for the iFAB Foundry. Has this determination been made?

Answer 2: The participation of any Government entity in the solicitation (as a prime or a subcontractor) is subject to the requirements outlined in the BAA. BAA p. 13 states:

“Note that if government entities are utilized, they must be independently contracted by the offeror and may not be assumed to be provided by DARPA as government-furnished capabilities.” Consequently, neither the PIFs nor any other government facility except space at JMTC-RIA as described in BAA Appendix 7 will be provided as government-furnished. BAA p. 34 imposes further limitations on government entities proposing as prime or sub-contractor.

Question 3: There appear to be some inconsistencies between dates on the schedule and milestones as well as delivery dates specified for Foundry and FANG. For example:

a) The schedule in the Foundry BAA shows the design portion of the final challenge running for 9 months, while the graphic in the FANG BAA shows 6 months.

b) The foundry schedule graphic shows 4 months for the design phase of the first challenge, while FANG shows 3 for the same event.

c) The schedule graphic shows the winner of the full vehicle challenge is chosen either 25 or 26 months after contract while the specific design configuration for the foundry has to be produced by 24 month ACA – which is before the FANG design is complete.

Would it be possible to post a list of dates for the schedule for the major events relative to ACA and resolve these inconsistencies?

Answer 3: The following are responses to the multiple issues identified above:

a) The design portion of the final Full Vehicle Challenge is to last six months during the second and third quarters of FY14. The iFAB BAA Figure 1 incorrectly displays a nine-month duration and will be amended.

b) The design portion of the first Mobility/Drivetrain Challenge is to last three months during the first quarter of FY13. The iFAB BAA Figure 1 incorrectly displays this challenge starting before the start of FY13 and will be amended.

c) The iFAB Foundry performer needs to leverage expected processes for the challenge builds through Tasks 2-5, have them converge as exact processes when the design is submitted under Task 6, and verify these processes in Task 7.

However, the Government recognizes the need to have the FANG designs accomplished before the corresponding foundry configuration task can be completed. Therefore, each of the three Task 5 foundry configuration task elements related to a design challenge will be extended to end one month after the end of the design phase of the corresponding challenge. Figure 1 and Table 1 will be amended to reflect this change.

Question 4: Can the Government identify the iFAB Phase I performers?

Answer 4: The current iFAB efforts are described and performers identified in Appendix 3 of the BAA.