DISR CSO AOI 06 May 2025 - Final.docx

Technology Area of Interest (AOI) USSOCOM Digital – Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (D-ISR) 02 May 2025

1. Purpose:

The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Program Manager – Intelligence (PM-INTEL) on behalf of USSOCOM Program Executive Office – Special Operation Forces (SOF) Digital Applications (DA), is considering the award of an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreement providing Digital - Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (D-ISR) capability. D-ISR, executed through the PM-INTEL Enterprise-All Source Information Fusion (ENT/ASIF) portfolio, will provide Special Operation forces (SOF) industry innovation and solutions for deployable, affordable and sustainable agile software development and fielding of intelligence mission software.

This Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreement is focused on new, novel, or disruptive commercial solutions with architectures and technical attributes that can be demonstrated during an estimated 3 to 5-month period with the intent of a follow-on production award through an agile methodology via the DoD Software Acquisition Pathway (DODI 5000.87).

The Government’s overarching acquisition strategy is to accelerate development of D-ISR capabilities through an agile development approach to enable the rapid creation and delivery of an integrated solution. The Government seeks to field D-ISR capabilities by leveraging existing Development Security Operations (DevSecOps) pipelines to enhance the velocity of the program. The solutions will be placed in the hands of operational units to gain user feedback and ensure our development efforts are meeting the user needs. This effort will leverage modern software development methodologies such as agile software development, the use of artificial intelligence, and other modern tools/techniques to include DevSecOps and human-centered design processes.

2. Background and Requirements:

To enable the development of data focused capabilities, USSOCOM established the Intelligence Data Science Team (IDST) in 2017. The IDST develops new and innovative approaches to data science, data engineering, and software development for intelligence personnel across the SOCOM enterprise. USSOCOM/J2 transitioned this capability under Digital - Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (D-ISR) which was established as a J2 Program of Record in October of 2024. D-ISR is focused on leveraging USGOV acquired Commercially Available Information (CAI), Publicly Available Information (PAI) and classified intelligence data in an automated/integrated manner to meet intelligence requirements. D-ISR requires complex data infrastructure, data pipelines, artificial intelligence and software systems to be developed and maintained across multiple network domains, classification levels, and agencies/organizations.

a. Required Technical Attributes:

D-ISR supports each Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC) and Component within the SOF enterprise in addition to SOCOM/HQ intelligence organizations with integrated support across 15 locations. D-ISR fits broadly into the following 6 capability areas:

1. Requirements capture and development: In order to meet complex rapidly changing requirements, face to face interaction between the D-ISR team and the Intelligence analysts leveraging this capability has been critical to ensuring the correct capability is developed in timely fashion. Project management will be collaborative with the government leads and occur in a government provided Jira instance. The performer of the OTA will be responsible for administering their own Jira projects. Captured requirements will be prioritized by the government for development.

2. Rapid prototyping: While enterprise solutions are ideal, often the user does not have the ability to wait for an enterprise level solution to be developed. Rapid prototyping is critical to meet emerging requirements as SOCOM’s dynamic missions shift.

3. Data Engineering/Data Services: Data ingested and created through D-ISR must be shared to other organizations and applications in near real time through high performing and well documented Application Programming Interfaces (API).

4. Software Development: The delivery of capability will be through web applications deployed on government provided infrastructure. To meet the infrastructure requirements, applications must be containerized and developed leveraging the React platform (frontend) and Python(backend). Approved frameworks for Python are Flask, Application Programming Interface (FastAPI), and Streamlit.

5. Integration of Artificial Intelligence: When applicable, the delivered solution will leverage AI to the maximum extent possible to reduce cognitive burden on SOF intelligence analysts. The government will provide Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) access for Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) capabilities.

6. DevSecOps: D-ISR has existing deployment environments across multiple networks which applications will be deployed. Applications must be properly tested and secured prior to deployment into a target environment.

b. Desired Software Developer Attributes:

1. D-ISR requirements across the enterprise necessitate the ability to execute a minimum of 20 projects per quarter ranging from medium to high complexity. Projects requiring at least 4 of the capability areas listed above are considered medium complexity while projects requiring more than 4 capability areas are considered high complexity.

2. Company processes which include agile Project Management and Software Development experience, and arrangements are highly desired by the Government and will be given extensive consideration in both Phase I and Phase II evaluations.

New: Company processes should enable deployment to Government environments within NIST security and code standard requirements. Experience demonstrated in running a commercial and/or Government DevSecOps platform is highly desired by the Government and will be given additional consideration.

3. Direct and integrated support to SOF TSOC and Components. On-site support to these subordinate units is highly desired by the Government and will be given extensive consideration in all evaluations.

4. D-ISR depends on core services that will be developed and maintained under this AOI. The services include but are not limited to data services/APIs, AI services, data pipelines, cross domain solutions, development/development infrastructure, platform security, and consolidated software development. These services will be made available to developers at TSOC and Components in addition to other data professionals within and external to USSOCOM.

5. Supporting Contractor teams will be cleared at the Top Secret (TS) level with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) eligibility. Contractors will require access to SCI, Foreign Government Information (FGI), NATO, Special Access Program (SAP), and Alternative Compensatory Control Measure (ACCM) material in performance of this effort after Production OTA award.

6. Intellectual Property Strategy: Government rights to intellectual property is critically important to successfully implement the D-ISR program. The PM team will assess intellectual property rights of future technology and balance government investments across the PM-Intel portfolio between Open Government Rights solutions with Industry intellectual property solutions to ensure investment the best long term portfolio investments are made on behalf of SOF users. The government will negotiate prices for deliverables and associated license rights early to best leverage competition.

3. Event Timeline:

Phase I – “Go/No-Go” Evaluation and Request for White Papers (6-pages)

The offeror shall submit a 6-page white paper for consideration no later than 12:00 PM Noon EST, 6 June 2025. White paper submittals shall be no longer than 6-pages in accordance with page size and format below and should demonstrate the offeror’s current solution against the Government’s required technical attributes, current capability against the desired technical attributes, and the offeror’s plan in meeting any desired/required technical attributes.

Phase I, Part 1: Evaluation – “Go/No-Go Evaluation” IAW Attachment 01 (Go/No-Go Matrix) The Phase I, Part 1 evaluation will consist of a “Go/No-Go” screening. The offeror will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis IAW the “Go/No-Go” evaluation criterion in attachment 01. Any offeror not satisfactorily meeting all criteria listed in the Go/No-Go Matrix constitutes failure of the entire submission and shall be removed from further consideration. Submissions successfully meeting all criteria in the Go/No-Go Matrix will receive an evaluation of the 6-page white paper.

Phase I, Part 2: Evaluation – White Paper (6-page limitation): The government will use the following criteria to determine whether the offeror’s proposed system is consistent with the intent of this request and of interest to the Government in continuing beyond the end of Phase I.

· Technical Merit, in accordance with the Required Technical Attributes in Section 2.a., and feasibility and relevancy of the proposed solution to address the challenges in the AOI.

· Innovation – degree to which the government finds the Company’s approach to be compelling and/or the underlying technology to be unique, underutilized and/or unconventional application of interest to Special Operations.

· The “Desired Software Developer Attributes” listed above in Section 2.b.

The Government reserves the right to request further substantiating documentation about existing capabilities. IAW the CSO posting, the Government will proceed directly to Phase II (Capability/Prototype Demonstrations) after a successful Phase I evaluation.

Phase II – Capability/Prototype Demonstrations: After the first phase, the Government will issue prototype awards, and invite the most qualified vendors to participate in a capability demonstration to further demonstrate their capabilities, potentially respond to exchange items provided prior to their demonstration, and answer further questions throughout the demonstration. Upon prototype award, the government will issue a representative problem set for selected offerors to demonstrate their capability against. The government will evaluate the prototypes against the Required Technical Attributes and the Desired Software Developer Attributes listed above. Prior to prototype award, the government will negotiate a fair and reasonable price with offerors for the prototype projects. Price fair and reasonableness will be determined on the basis of comparing proposed prices to competitive bids, historical prices paid by the Government and/or commercial customers, and/or other than certified cost and pricing data provided by the offeror.

The Government anticipates making a down select to the most qualified vendor(s) based on the prototype demonstrations. Offerors invited to the prototype demonstration will demonstrate to the Government either in person or via an online platform lasting no more than 2-hours. In accordance with 10 U.S.C 4022 the OT agreement will include a provision for a potential follow-on production contract to be awarded without additional competition. Invited Offerors will be provided additional details on the date, time and location of demonstrations.

4. Submission Instructions:

Instructions for submissions (Phase I):

Potential Offerors must submit a White Paper no later than 12:00 PM Noon EST, 6 June 2025. The white paper submissions shall respond directly to the “Required Technical Attribute” and “Desired Software Developer Attribute” requirements above. The Offeror should be clear, concise and include adequate detail for effective evaluation. The White paper should not simply rephrase or restate the Governments requirements, but rather provide clear and convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet the requirements above. The White Paper should contain sufficient information to enable the Government to fully assess and determine the Offeror’s capabilities. Offerors are reminded to submit only the requested information in accordance with these instructions.

White papers must describe how the Offeror meets the Non-Traditional Defense Contractor requirement in accordance with 10 U.S.C 4022. If the Offeror does not meet the definition of Non-Traditional, the Offeror will need to determine the cost share with a Non-Traditional Defense Contractor.

The White Paper shall not exceed a total of six (6) letter-sized (8 ½ x 11) pages and must include appropriate classification markings if necessary. One page equals one side of a sheet of paper. Number the pages consecutively and use a 12-point font size in an easily readable font, such as Times New Roman or Arial. The 6-page limitation does not include the title page, but if used, a table of contents, definition of acronyms, illustrations, or diagrams will count against the 6 page limit. The Government will not evaluate any materials exceeding 6 pages.

The white paper shall contain:

a. Title Page (does not count against page limit) - Company Name, Status as either a traditional defense contractor or non-traditional defense contractor, Title, Date, Technical and Business Points of Contact, E-Mail Address, Phone, and Address, Cage code, and UEI number.

b. Executive Summary (one page – counts against page limit) - Provide an executive summary of the technology.

c. Overview Diagram or figure.

d. Identify major subcontractors

e. Country of affiliation

f. Identify whether subcontractors are foreign to include name of foreign vendor, foreign county of affiliation and what specifically constitutes the foreign content of their products.

g. Include a proprietary information statement to White Paper submission.

The Government will review White Papers to determine the most advantageous solution to the Governments requirements. One or more of the most advantageous solutions may be invited to a prototype demonstration which may result in a prototype OTA award. The Government may award a prototype award to one or more offerors selected for the prototype demonstration.

5. Prototype Production Award Requirements:

Basic eligibility to receive a follow-on production contract will require the successful completion of the Phase II prototype demonstration. The follow-on contract is expected to be awarded under 1) the authorities set forth in Part V of Subtitle A of Title 10, U.S.C; 48 CFR Chapters 1 and 2; 4022(f), or 2) a similarly structured OT Agreement under the authority of 10 U.S.C 4022.

Offerors with successful prototypes may be awarded follow-on production FAR contract or OT agreement. No award of a follow-on contract for production is guaranteed, however it is the Governments intent to award one or more FAR contracts or OT agreements valued at up to approximately $100,000,000.00. The Offerors White Paper will be used to develop the prototype production Statement of Work (SOW).

Points of Contact: All questions/request shall be directed to the points of contact listed:

Contracting/Agreements Officer:

Christie Orlando Email: christie.r.orlando.civ@socom.mil

Contracting/Agreements Specialist Joshua Cales joshua.v.cales.ctr@socom.mil

Program Manager:

Nicole Fox nicole.a.fox.civ@socom.mil

Attachments:

Attachment 01 Go/No-Go Matrix