Amendment 01-MASTR Call-07 MAR 2025.pdf

FA2391-23-S-2403

MASTR

Amendment 01

07 MAR 2025

To CALL, Multidisciplinary, Aerodynamics, and Structures Technologies Research

(MASTR)

Under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) FA2391-23-S-2403, Pioneering Aerospace Capabilities, Engineering and Research (PACER)

Federal Agency Name: Air Force Research Laboratory, Aerospace Systems Directorate, AFRL/RQ

Broad Agency Announcement Title: Pioneering Aerospace Capabilities, Engineering and Research

(PACER) FA2391-23-S-2403

Purpose of Amendment 01: The purpose of Amendment 01 is to amend the call for MASTR, answer questions received from potential offerors, and advise on implementation of recent Executive Orders.

The MASTR Call is amended as follows:

1. Call MASTR, Pages 9 concerning Section 4.1.1, the following is changed

a. FROM: (In Red Strike Through)

4.1.1. General Instructions: This CALL consists of offerors submitting Technical and

Cost/Business Proposals for the following:

• MASTR IDIQ (plus the following Initial Task Order)

• MASTR Capabilities Study Initial Task Order

*To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and cost proposal for the IDIQ and a technical and cost proposal for the Initial Task Order.

After receipt, Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria in Section 4.1.2.

below. Proposals will be categorized and subsequently elected for negotiations.

b. TO: (in green)

4.1.1. General Instructions: This CALL consists of offerors submitting Technical and

Cost/Business Proposals for the following:

• MASTR IDIQ (plus the following Initial Task Order)

• MASTR Capabilities Study Initial Task Order

*To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and business proposal for the IDIQ and a technical and cost proposal for the Initial Task Order.

After receipt, Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria in Section 4.1.2.

below. Proposals will be categorized and subsequently elected for negotiations.

2. Call MASTR, Pages 9-10 concerning Section 4.1.2.1, the following is changed

4.1.2.1.

Specific Proposal Submission Instructions:

To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and cost proposal for the Basic IDIQ (MASTR) AND a technical and cost proposal for the Capabilities Study Initial Task Order. Combined proposals will not be accepted. Technical/Management and Cost/Business volumes should be submitted in separate volumes and MUST be valid for at least 225 days. Offerors MUST state this on the cover page of each volume of their proposal.

After receipt, Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria below.

Proposals will be categorized and subsequently elected for negotiations.

Offerors should apply the restrictive notice prescribed in FAR 52.215-1(e) Instructions to Offerors— Competitive Acquisition. Offerors should consider proposal instructions contained in the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Guide for Industry, which can be accessed on line at https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUopt KgypgCuIvw%3d%3d This guide is specifically designed to assist the offeror in understanding the BAA proposal process.

• REMINDER: To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and cost proposal for the Basic IDIQ (MASTR) and a technical and cost proposal for Capabilities Study Initial Task Order.

4.1.2.1.

Specific Proposal Submission Instructions:

To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and business proposal for the Basic IDIQ (MASTR) AND a technical and cost proposal for the Capabilities Study Initial Task Order. Combined proposals will not be accepted.

Technical/Management and Cost/Business volumes should be submitted in separate volumes and MUST be valid for at least 225 days. Offerors MUST state this on the cover page of each volume of their proposal.

After receipt, Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria below.

Proposals will be categorized and subsequently elected for negotiations.

Offerors should apply the restrictive notice prescribed in FAR 52.215-1(e) Instructions to Offerors— Competitive Acquisition. Offerors should consider proposal instructions contained in the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Guide for Industry, which can be accessed on line at https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUopt KgypgCuIvw%3d%3d This guide is specifically designed to assist the offeror in understanding the BAA proposal process.

• REMINDER: To be eligible for award the USAF must receive a technical and business proposal for the Basic IDIQ (MASTR) and a technical and cost proposal for Capabilities Study Initial Task Order.

3. Call MASTR, Page 1 concerning Type of Contract/Instrument the following is changed

Type of Contract / Instrument:

The Air Force reserves the right to award the instrument best suited to the nature of research proposed. Accordingly, the Government may award any appropriate contract type under the FAR or Other Transaction (OT) for Prototype, grant, cooperative agreement, or OT for Research. The Air Force may also consider award of an appropriate technology transfer mechanism if applicable. It is anticipated that awards under this CALL will likely be Multiple Award Fair https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUoptKgypgCuIvw%3d%3d https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUoptKgypgCuIvw%3d%3d https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUoptKgypgCuIvw%3d%3d https://www.afrl.af.mil/Portals/90/Documents/HQ/BAA%20Ind%20Guide%202020.pdf?ver=7AivkWvoUoptKgypgCuIvw%3d%3d

Opportunity (MAFO) IDIQ contracts with Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), Cost Reimbursement, Cost Share (at the discretion of the offeror), and/or Firm Fixed Price (FFP) task orders. Cost reimbursement contracts require successful offerors to have an accounting system considered adequate for tracking costs applicable to the contract. The IDIQ minimum guarantee required by FAR 16.504(a)(1) will be the initial Task Order solicited with this CALL. We anticipate that the initial task order will be a CPFF type task order.

Type of Contract / Instrument:

The Air Force reserves the right to award the instrument best suited to the nature of research proposed. Accordingly, the Government may award any appropriate contract type under the FAR or Other Transaction (OT) for Prototype, grant, cooperative agreement, or OT for Research. The Air Force may also consider award of an appropriate technology transfer mechanism if applicable. It is anticipated that awards under this CALL will likely be Multiple Award Fair Opportunity (MAFO) IDIQ contracts with Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), Cost Reimbursement, Cost Share (at the discretion of the offeror), and/or Firm Fixed Price (FFP) task orders. Cost reimbursement contracts require successful offerors to have an accounting system considered adequate for tracking costs applicable to the contract. The IDIQ minimum guarantee required by FAR 16.504(a)(1) will be the initial Task Order solicited with this CALL. The initial task order will be a CPFF type task order.

4. Call MASTR, Page 10 concerning Section 4.2.1.1.a the following is changed

4.2.1.1 Page Limitations: The following describes proposal page limitations.

a. The Technical/Management proposal shall be limited to 25 pages. The TO Technical/Management proposal shall be limited to 6 pages. Technical/Management proposals and Statements of Work must be provided in Microsoft Word. Signed pages may be submitted in Adobe.

a. The IDIQ Technical/Management proposal shall be limited to 25 pages. The TO

Technical/Management proposal shall be limited to 6 pages. Technical/Management proposals and Statements of Work must be provided in Microsoft Word. Signed pages may be submitted in Adobe.

5. Call MASTR, Page 10 concerning Section 4.2.1.1.f the following is changed

f. Pages shall be numbered starting with the cover page being Page 1, and the last page being no greater than 25. The page limitation covers all information including indices, photographs, foldouts (counted as 1 page for each 8.5 by 11 portion) tables, charts, appendices, attachments, resumes, etc.

f. The IDIQ Technical/Management proposal Volume pages shall be numbered starting with the cover page being Page 1, and the last page being no greater than 25. The TO Technical/Management proposal shall be numbered starting with the cover page (if included) being Page 1. The page limitation covers all information including indices, photographs, foldouts (counted as 1 page for each 8.5 by 11 portion) tables, charts, appendices, attachments, resumes, etc.

The questions and answers related to the MASTR call are as follows:

Q1: Can you please clarify if this 6-month study is to be bid at $10K-$15K? Or is there a typo and potential for $100K-$150K effort?

A1: The Capabilities Study Task order is for $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand) - $15,000 (Fifteen Thousand).

Q2: Noted this will not be a 2-step BAA process. Do you think this limits small business innovation and participation due to the substantial IDIQ requirements?

A2: A one-step solicitation was determined to be most appropriate for this acquisition and no contractor impacts are anticipated.

Q3: The MASTR program has a $200M IDIQ and on page 9 of the call there is a reference/requirement to include a technical and cost proposal for the IDIQ and a technical and cost proposal for the initial task order. In the past, it has not been standard to provide a cost proposal for the IDIQ and it’s not clear why this is being requested. Are you looking for proposals to include a cost proposal covering the entire $200M under the IDIQ or something less?

A3: A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ, please see the Call Amendments above.

Q4: Page 9 of 18 (Page 9 of 173) cites under 2.2 “Anticipated Funding: CAPABILITIES STUDY TASK ORDER range of $10,000-$15,000”. Please confirm whether this is correct (ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars) if not what the actual dollar amount range is.

A4: The Capabilities Study Task order is for $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand) - $15,000 (Fifteen Thousand.

Q5: Under Section 4.1 (Page 9 of 18) is specifically asking for separate Technical + Cost Volumes for both the Base IDIQ and initial Task Order. How is one supposed to price a generic Base that doesn’t have specific tasks or CDRLs? Can you please clarify?

A5: A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ, please see the Call Amendments above.

Q6: The BAA states that a Cost Volume is required for the IDIQ response.

• However, there is no discrete SOW to cost to for IDIQ.

• Is there a particular assumption and ground rules that you would like us to follow to generate the Cost Volume?

• As a comparison, the AFRL/RQV’s AASTR IDIQ RFP from 2022 did not require a

Cost Volume but only a Business Proposal.

A6: A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ, please see the Call Amendments above.

Q7: In the SOO for Task Order 1 (Attachment 3), there are references to page count, see below for example. What do the page counts mean? Are these the number of pages expected in the proposal for the SOO line item?

A7: Yes, the number of pages expected is per SOO line item. Specifically:

3.1 Identify Technology Gap and Conceptual Research Project,1-3 pages.

3.2 Define strategy for Increased Security Levels, 1 page.

4.1 and 4.2 Program Management,1 page or less for each.

Q8: Can the government confirm that it intends that the offeror is to provide the SOW as a separate standalone file attachment to the Technical/Management volume versus as an appendix, and that while other formatting rules apply, that the cover page is not required for SOW?

A8: The SOW can be submitted either as a separate standalone file or as an appendix to the Technical/Management volume. A cover page is not required for the SOW; however, if included, it counts towards the 10-page limit.

Q9: Please confirm that for the MASTR IDIQ, Offerors are to define and propose their own labor categories, labor mix, level of effort and rates as part of the MASTR IDIQ Price response, and may use these labor categories and rates as a basis for their TO pricing?

A9: A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ, please see the Call Amendments above.

Q10: Can the government confirm that page count requirements for the Initial TO Technical/Management Proposal are up to 25 pages and that "expected" page counts listed near specific requirements are suggestions but are at the discretion of the Offeror?

A10: The Call Amendments above clarify the page limit for the IDIQ and Initial TO Technical/Management Proposals. The total page count for the Initial TO is limited to 6 pages as specified in Attachment 2 and the Call Amendments above. The "expected" page counts listed before specific requirements within the SOO should be used as guidance, but offerors have discretion in their page allocation within the overall 6-page limit.

Q11: Can the government confirm that it seeks minimally one technology gap identified and one more conceptual research project proposed, that the option to identify and propose more than one are at the discretion of the offeror, and that if multiple conceptual research projects are proposed that all proposed options be included within one

MASTER Capabilities Initial Task Order Response comprising one Cost/Price Proposal volume and one Technical/Management Proposal volume?

A11: Offerors are required to identify at least one technology gap and offer one conceptual research project to address the gap. While submitting multiple gaps and projects is acceptable, all technology gaps and associated projects must be addressed within a single Initial Task Order proposal submission. This single submission should consist of one Technical/Management volume and one Cost/Business volume, adhering to the 6-page limit set forth in the Call Amendments above. Only one Initial Capability Study Task Order will be awarded per offeror.

Q12: Regarding the IDIQ proposal and the Capabilities Study Initial Task Order proposal(s) that are due on April 1, 2025.

Is it expected that all areas of research that meet the MASTR guidelines and that are included in our IDIQ proposal, have a Capabilities Study TO proposal submitted in April in order to be eligible for participation in future calls?

A12: No. Once the Multiple Award IDIQ is established, the awarded contractors will be included in the contractor pool and will receive opportunities to propose to fulfill future Task Order requirements regardless of the area of research proposed to by the contractors for the Initial Capability Study Task Order. Please refer to Answer 11 above as well for additional information.

Q13: In Section 1.5 Other Requirements, 1.5.1 Program Security Classification we see Secret DD Form 254 listed as a requirement and read several references in the call to Secret level work (with potential for TS/SCI work in certain TOs). Are vendors required to have an active Secret FCL at the time of proposal submission, or is it sufficient for vendors already working through the FCL process to bid on this opportunity?

A13: Vendors are not required to have an active Secret FCL at the time of proposal submission for the MASTR IDIQ and Initial Capability TO. However, future Task Orders may require it.

Q14: If vendors without an active FCL are eligible to bid, is there additional information that must be included within the proposal, such as an outline of the vendor’s plan/anticipated path to achieving FCL + associated schedule, cost, etc.?

A14: No additional information is required for the IDIQ or Initial Capability TO awards. An active FCL is not required at this time but may be required for award of future TOs.

Q15: Regarding the MASTR Call – on the first page we read that the Government “anticipates that the initial task order will be a CPFF type task order”. Would the Government consider FFP for the initial TO or would this disqualify the vendor’s bid?

A15: See the Call Amendments above. The initial task order will be a CPFF type Task Order.

Q16: Do we need to provide a SF 424 Research and Related Key Person Profile and Privacy Act Statements for our Subcontractors?

A16: Whether you need to provide SF 424 Research and Related Key Person Profile and Privacy Act Statements for your subcontractors depends on how they are involved in your proposal. You may not need to include subcontractor documentation at all if their participation is not yet defined. If subcontractors will only be involved in potential future task orders, no documentation is required now but will be provided in response to those solicitations. However, if your IDIQ or initial task order proposal relies on known subcontractors, you should include their documentation with your submission.

Q17: Wanted to make sure we understand correctly, you do want us to propose a cost proposal covering 11 years for the IDIQ, correct?

A17: A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ, please see the Call Amendments above.

Q18: Is it acceptable to propose both the IDIQ and TO as CPFF only?

A18: See the Call Amendments above. A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ and the initial task order will be a CPFF type Task Order.

Q19: Do you have a Draft SOW for the FA2391-23-S-2403?

A19: A SOO for the IDIQ (Attachment 1) and for the study (Attachment 2) were provided and offerors are to include a SOW in their proposal consistent with the requirements of the Call.

Q20: Our understanding is that the IDIQ would be established with a total program ceiling price of $200M, and then the individual Task Orders would be separately negotiated and awarded under the IDIQ. Can you clarify what costs should be separately bid for the IDIQ?

A20: Please see the Call Amendments above. A cost proposal is not required for the IDIQ.

Q21: Are there any ACA agreements necessary for this initial IDIQ and Task Order? If so, can you please advise of the companies and their respective POC’s?

A21: There are no ACA's required for the MASTR IDIQ and no ACA's required for the Initial Capabilities Study TO for MASTR. However, it is important that offerors to note that on future TO's, "The contracting officer may require ACAs when contractors working on separate Government contracts must cooperate, share resources or otherwise jointly participate in working on contracts or projects." When applicable, ACA requirements will be identified in TO solicitations.

Q22: Are the page expectations in Section 3.0 and 4.0 of the Statement of Objectives (SOO) related to the proposal submittal, or the CDRL A001 Scientific and Technical Report (Final Report)?

A22: The page expectations located in the SOO for the Capabilities Study Task Order are for the Capabilities Study Task Order proposal submission. Please see the answer to Question 7.

The information related to implementation of recent Executive Orders is as follows:

Pursuant to recent Executive Orders, the PACER BAA will be amended to incorporate changes. It is possible the amendment will not be complete before the submission deadline for this call. Therefore, please be aware that the following provisions and clauses no longer apply to the MASTR call or awarded contracts.

1. As found in FA2391-23-S-2403_Revision 1.1 June 2024, Atch 2 Model Contract FA2391-24-C-

B044, 52.222-21 and 52.222-26 are considered removed and 52.444-6 is considered revised as below for purposes of this Call.

SUBCONTRACTS FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES (MAR

2025) (DEVIATION 2025-O0003)

(c)

(1) * * * * * * * *

(xi) [Reserved]

(xii) [Reserved]

2. As found in FA2391-23-S-2403_Revision 1.1 June 2024, Atch 3 Section K – Representations and Certifications, 52.204-8 paragraphs (c)(1)(xiv) and (xv) are considered revised as below for purposes of this Call.

ANNUAL REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS (MAR 2025) (DEVIATION 2025-

O0003)

(c) * * *

(1) * * *

(xiv) [Reserved]

(xv) [Reserved]

3. As found in FA2391-23-S-2403_Revision 1.1 June 2024, Atch 4 Section L – Instructions

Conditions and Notices to Offerors, 52.222-24 is considered removed for purposes of this Call.

END AMENDMENT 01