Army Rotary Wing Contingency Communications System RFI_Sources Sought Announcement.docx

RFI/Sources Sought United States Army (U.S. Army) Rotary Wing Contingency Communications System (RWCC) Service United States Space Force Space Systems Command Commercial Service Office

The Government is seeking industry feedback, recommendations, and best practices during the market intelligence phase of this effort. Please DO NOT provide generic capability statements; they will be deleted. The Government is seeking well defined responses with supporting documentation to assist with developing the acquisition strategy. All responses must be submitted via email to the contacts identified below. This is for informational purposes only and the Government will not be obligated to award to any interested vendors that present information in response to this RFI/ Sources Sought. The Government plans to issue an RFQ in Mar/Apr 2024 for this requirement.

***All information provided is optional; however, it will be used to assist the Government in determining its acquisition strategy***

Description of need:

A. United States Army (U.S. Army) Rotary Wing Contingency Communications System (RWCC) requires Ku-Band services for through-the-rotors, airborne broadband SATCOM. Managed Ku-Band SIMOP subscription service and the required teleport hosted Net Aggregation and ISP access will provide communications for Senior Department of Defense (DoD) personnel during critical U.S. Army support for critical DoD missions while onboard U.S. Army aircraft. These SIMOPs will provide helicopter passengers uninterruptible and seamless connectivity to DoD networks like that available in their office environments while in flight within a coverage area of 250 nautical miles around the National Capital Region (NCR) (CONUS Only). This managed SIMOP service must allow the US Army to port SIMOP subscriptions between multiple aircraft as determined by U.S. Army mission needs.

B. The US Army Aircraft also utilize a Net Agility SDWAN Cellular System, including PacStar Chassis, PacStar 451, PacStar 444, & Cradelpoint IBR900 (x2) hardware as part of its network architecture, which also requires teleport services including Net Agility Data Aggregation using a cloud-based virtual software-defined networking (vSDN) platform, bridging disparate networks (data streams from cellular networks) and distributed cloud resources to enable robust and resilient connectivity, providing simultaneous routes for bonded packets over all available communications links, both COMSATCOM and cellular data streams, providing a powerful and responsive solution, and will rely on the contractor's existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) for access to the internet for data, voice, and video calls (VTC).

C. The anticipated timeframe for service start is 01 Jul 2024.

Questions for Industry:

1. Can you provide Ku-Band managed SIMOP services compatible with the equipment installed on the aircraft, H-60 APU Door Satcom Terminal (part numbers 1432310-017 & 1432310-019), both which incorporate a MiliSAT H LW Ku Band Antenna, part number MH-LW-KUH-NM, and the Arclight 2 MBR-4001 Modem, part number 1220528, as described in description paragraph A above?

2. Can you provide said Ku-Band managed SIMOP services that operate at minimum Committed Information Rate (CIR) of 1 Mbps Forward Link (FL) and 1 Mbps Return Link (RL)?

3. Can you provide the teleport hosted Net Agility Aggregation services and necessary ISP internet accesses as described in description paragraph B above?

4. How much start up time (award to service) would be required to provide both paragraph A & B for a service start date of 01 July 2024?

5. What would be your approach to providing the described services above? Would you consider any teaming agreements with small business? For small businesses specifically, the government seeks tailored responses demonstrating the ability to meet all requirements and comply with FAR Clause 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting, with respects to this pending acquisition.

6. Please provide feedback, comments, concerns, or questions, regarding the description of this effort.

Requested Information:

In addition to providing a tailored capability statement indicating the ability to provide the Inmarsat LAISR service request outlined in the above qualification section, interested vendors are asked to submit the following information:

A. Vendor Information Requested

a. Name of Business

b. Cage Code

c. Business Type SB/Large

d. POC: Name/Phone number/email B. If any or all of these requirements could be completed under your companies GSA Schedule, please reference your GSA schedule and CLINs to support the required capabilities.

C. Any recommendations for current industry best practices not listed.

D. If company is a small business, please describe ability to meet the requirements outlined in 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting.

All responses shall be submitted NLT 7 Mar 2024 at 1700EST. Please submit your responses to the following individuals (include all):

John Seacrist, Contracting Officer. Email: john.seacrist@spaceforce.mil Venita Allen, Contract Specialist. Email: venita.allen@spaceforce.mil

Upon conclusion of market research efforts, the Government anticipates releasing a formal solicitation for this effort. Should you have any questions please reach out to the individuals above.

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