2_MQ-9_CAT_CWD_Industry_Q&A_Final.pdf

MQ – 9 CAT/CWD

Industry Day Q&A

1. Reference PWS 1.2.1.3 & 1.2.1.4, “Record student performance on written individual event grade sheets or in an electronic TMS database IAW ACCI 11-464.” Is the current electronic TMS database accessible from the Contractor provided LMS?

Answer: LMS & TMS are separate systems, so the answer is no, the electronic TMS database is not accessible from the contractor's LMS.

2. Reference PWS 1.2.3.4, Can the government provide the current LMS in use?

Answer: Current LMS is Moodle and it is open source.

3. Reference PWS 1.2.3.4.6, Can the government provide the LMS database file format?

Answer: The data base is called C-LRN. Products range in format, Word, PDF etc.

4. Reference PWS 1.2.4.1 & 1.2.4.2, Can the government confirm that a dedicated LMS Training Specialist and Certified System Administrator is not required at March ARB and Hancock Field?

Answer: There is no PWS requirement for an LMS Training Specialist or CSA at March or Hancock.

5. Reference PWS 1.2.4, Are all positions required standalone/dedicated or can some of them be combined?

Are all positions included within CBAs?

Answer: Positions are not required to be standalone/dedicated but the positions must be supported per the PWS identified workload per training day. i.e. A position that is required to provide 8 hrs per training day must be manned to support that workload or a position that requires 24 hrs per training day must be manned to cover the 24 hrs of work based on the notes in table A2.2.5.

Answer: Not all positions are identified in CBAs since some positions were not required on the current contract. All of the CBAs are being renegotiated and each position that is known is supposed to be added to that locations CBA.

6. Reference PWS A2.2.4, Based on the information provided in the chart is a crew required to be on a 24-hour standby in the general flight control area for all 251 training days?

Answer: Table in A2.2.4 requires 24 hrs per training day support for the IP and ISO. This is the total support required per training day per position. These crews are expected to work their normal 8 hr work day.

Support is required per PWS para 4.5.1.1. between 0200 and 2200 hrs per training day.

7. Reference PWS A3.2.1.7, Can the government confirm that this table supports A3.2.1.6 paragraph as the paragraph format and table name are not consistent?

Answer: Yes, Table in para A3.2.1.7. supports para A3.2.1.6.

Table A3.2.1.7. will be renamed as " FY19-23 11ATKS SOF Operations Supervisor (Top 3) and MQ-9

Additional Academics and Flying Training Support

8. Reference PWS A4.3.5, Since Specialist Support personnel are not listed within PWS 1.2.4, can the government provide clarity for this position (i.e. qualifications, responsibilities, etc.) and can the government confirm these are standalone/dedicated positions.

Answer: Support Specialist is identified in para 1.2.4.10. There is no requirement that they be a dedicated position, but manning must be able to support the PWS requirement 24 hrs of support/per training day in accordance with the table on PWS page 58 para A4.3.5.

Table A4.3.5 line item "Specialist Support" will be changed to "Squadron Flying Operations Support Specialist".

9. When will the CBA be made available?

CBAs will be posted with the draft RFP.

10. Are the past performance references relevancy evaluated in total or by each individual reference?

The Government will evaluate relevancy for each past performance reference and then rolled up to an overall confidence assessment.

11. Why has this been RFP been determined to be best value when current contract was LPTA?

LPTA is a best value source selection process as well as Full Trade Off. Full Trade Off is being considered because of the challenge faced with recruitment and retention of qualified personnel.

12. Explain rationale for past performance being the least important factor.

Importance of past performance factor is still being discussed. The Government recognizes recruitment and retention of personnel is reflected in past performance record.

13. Please discuss efficiency factor in more details. What do you look for to make the cut?

The Government is considering a potential down select, 2-step or streamlined evaluation process by making some evaluation criteria pass/fail. The Government recognizes there is a lot of interest in this requirement and that it takes a lot to craft a proposal. (Reference FAR52.215-1(f)(4), the contracting officer may limit the number of proposals in the competitive range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the most highly rated proposals).

14. Under the evaluation subfactors in Section 6 & 7, are each of the individual aspects making up a subfactor of equal importance or are they weighted differently.

Under Factor 1, Technical Capability, Subfactor A is significantly more important than subfactors B, C, and D. However, all subfactor aspects are of equal importance.

15. The past performance evaluation in Section 7 states that “The Government will evaluate relevance and assign a relevancy rating for each PPI contract reference in accordance with the following criteria…”The table of criteria (Table 4) has multiple items described for each rating level, will each past performance be required to meet all described relevancy factors for each rating level?

No, an overall combined relevancy assessment will be given based on the information from the past performance references submitted by the contractor or subcontractor as the case may be.

16. As this is primarily a services contract, the PWS and RFP do not appear to have the level of specificity to ensure a similar level of effort is bid by all bidders. What factors will the government use to ensure bids are compared equitably across the board?

Answer. As stated in the draft Sections 6 & 7 posted in FBO which will be part of the Request for Proposal, source selection will be conducted using the Trade-Off source selection process IAW the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation, Department of Defense (DoD) Source Selection Procedures effective 31 Mar 2016 and Air Force Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFFARS) Mandatory Procedures 5315.3 dated 27 Jan 2017 and the specific instructions stated in Section

– Instructions to Offerors and Section 7 – Evaluation Criteria.

17. Will non-exclusive teaming be allowed, so that a key or niche contractor could be on multiple bidder’s teams?

Yes, non-exclusive teaming is allowed.

18. What has been the primary cause for Instructor de-certification on the current contract?

Answer: The primary cause for instructor de-certification is inability to provide quality instruction. This situation does not happen often. There have only been 1-2 cases of de-certification over the four years thus far.

19. Who owns/maintains the CBT equipment and the servers (other than LMS)?

Answer: Any CBT equipment (computers) is owned by the contractor per the PWS para 1.0.

20. What software licenses does the government expect the contractor to provide?

Answer: Any licenses that are required for software based on the contractors proposal.

21. CBA/Strike – What is the name of the union? Will the government provide the CBA early so we can review to determine our innovative approach for recruitment and retention?

CBAs will be posted with the draft RFP with the union information.

22. CBA/Strike – Will you provide additional information on the strike, to include causes and impact to aid us in developing/understanding root cause?

Answer: The last strike incident was about 6 years ago on a different contract and it was due to wage and benefits issues. Should a strike happen, it will be addressed IAW the CBA Agreement and Strike Mitigation Plan.

23. Cost/Price – A FFP does not seem to support your statements and believe this contract will grow and have surges. How does the government plan to address these under FFP contract? How do you add increased student through-put to an FFP contract as an example? Please explain your offset plan.

Increased student through-put and other workload increases determined within scope of the original contract are incorporated via modification.

24. How many new courses does the Government expect requiring 100% development?

Answer: The PWS para A6.9 requires the capability to develop 43 Instructor lead, 8 PMATS/Flight Lesson, and 8 ICW CBT lesson per contract performance year. As addressed in the Industry Day, the contractor is required to have a CW team capable of supporting the table in PWS para A6.9. Since this is a capability, the Government may adjust the Courseware Development Schedule based on changing training requirements without a modification as long as the total work effort is unchanged. For example, changing Revisions to 217 and new to 42.

25. Past performance relevancy criteria favors the incumbent as there are few “RPA” training programs at the $150M level. Recommend deleting “RPA” which mitigates incumbent advantage and replace with “aviation”.

Answer: The Government understands the concern about the Relevancy criteria. We are addressing this issue and will be updating the Relevancy criteria to experience that allow for companies with "aviation" experience, and smaller dollar amounts etc. to fall into the "Very Relevant" category.

26. You stated there are hard to fill positions. Besides IP can you advise on the others? If a pilot has previous UAS quals would the government entertain an accelerated proficiency advance to help with the shortage?

Will you provide historical LOE for curriculum development?

Answer: The IP position is the most difficult to fill due to a large world-wide requirement for MQ-9 IPs.

The ISO position, from time to time has had very minor difficulty, in the short term but long term, no.

Answer: Yes, depending on the individuals qualifications, personnel can be proficiency advanced/ accelerated. This is done on a case-by-case basis.

Answer: If this question is asking, "Will the Government provide how many hours of work it takes to develop a lesson?". No, it is up to the contractor to provide the company's plan in their proposal. This effort will determine what type and size of courseware team they will provide to meet the workload in PWS para A6.9.

27. Please explain your LMS expectations from the contractor. Are we to maintain current system? Bring in a new system? Use an already government proven system? Are there different LMS at the 4 sites?

Answer: The current LMS is called Moodle. IT is an open source system. The contractor can elect to use this system or use another system that meets the LMS PWS requirements.

Answer: There is only 1 LMS for the contract. The support is centered at Holloman, but all sites need to be able to log into it.

28. Will you provide a Bidder’s Library so we can review the various course material; PMATS info, etc. and how soon?

Answer: No. Companies will have ample opportunity to review CW at the Pre-proposal conference which will be scheduled at a later date.

29. Reference PWS A1.2.1, Can the government provide exactly how many of each type event (i.e. 3.5, 5, 7 and 7.5 hours) will be accomplished at each location so that manning can be accurately computed?

Answer: Due to the dynamics of the training program it is not possible to break the events down with any consistency. Therefore the PMATS workload will all be 7.0 hr events.