RESPONSE_TO_QUESTIONS_2.pdf

RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS 2

SOLICITATION #FA8571‐19‐R‐A002

General Questions

1) QUESTION: What is the anticipated contract award date?

ANSWER: 30 June 2019

2) QUESTION: Will Milestone Payments be Acceptable?

ANSWER: No.

3) QUESTION: Under DI‐MGMT‐80368A/T, Monthly Status Reports (MSR), can you provide more detail as to what is required for Technical Interchange Meetings (TIM), CLIN expenditures, program management (PM) data? Do we need to travel to your facility monthly? How do expenditures need to be tracked? What is required for Program Management Data?

ANSWER: TIMs will be scheduled in the event of any issues and will be in the form of a teleconference. Program Management data shall include current status of the program including financial expenditure data related to hardware, software, or travel associated with the program, any issues related to the program. No monthly travel is needed. Expenditures shall be tracked to the type of expenditure: hardware, software, management, travel, shipping, etc.

4) QUESTION: Details of what is expected in the RFP response are not listed, can you please provide an outline?

ANSWER: Potential offerors should fill in completely pricing for all CLINs and provisional blanks in the RFP posted on FBO. No technical volumes are required.

5) QUESTION: Are we expected to have lay in spares to support the repair turn‐around time. If so, who will manage and maintain these spares.

ANSWER: Within the warranty period the simulator shall be supported to adhere to the PD referencing downtime.

6) QUESTION: Is the size of the UPS part of the size of the rack?

ANSWER: No.

7) QUESTION: Is there a maximum depth of the rack?

ANSWER: Shall not exceed 48 inches including test equipment handles, connections and ports.

8) QUESTION: Can you define the gaming area and maximum altitude?

ANSWER:

Gaming Areas

Flat Earth Arena Size 10,000 km x 10,000 km / 5400 nm x 5400 nm

X, Y Position Resolution 0.125 m / 0.000067 nm

Maximum Elevation 1000 km / 3,281,000 ft

Elevation Resolution 0.125 m / 0.000067 nm

Round Earth Earth Model WGS‐84

Arena Size ‐180 deg to +180 deg long, ‐90 deg to +90 deg lat

Lat/Long Resolution 0.03 arc seconds

Maximum Elevation 1000 km / 3,281,000 ft

Elevation Resolution 0.125 / 0.000067 nm

9) QUESTION: What standards are required for Calibration Certificates?

ANSWER: ISO 9001:2015

10) QUESTION: Can you define the knowledge level of the people we will be providing the familiarization material and training?

ANSWER: The trainer shall be familiar with all the features of the hardware and software of the simulator and be capable to communicate this knowledge to a group of professionals that are range from novice to expert developers of embedded EW applications.

11) QUESTION: What is the security level required to support this program? Is DOD Secret adequate?

ANSWER: There are no specific clearance requirements. Escorts can be provided for access to the facility for installation and testing (if required). No GFE or GFI will be provided.

PD Questions

1) 2.3.2 The HDSS must be able to communicate to systems under test (SUTs) via Ethernet and

1553 with a reconfigurable format documented in the product interfaces.

QUESTION: Does the Vendor/Contractor spec those interfaces/format?

ANSWER: The Vendor is responsible for developing an Ethernet and 1553 interface/format that is open and well documented. System specific interfaces will not be provided. The Air Force expects common messages on the bused like position and navigation data, emitter status, and time.

2) 2.3.4 The control subsystem of HDSS shall provide for remote control of and generation of test scenarios over Ethernet. The contractor shall provide interface software to facilitate remote programming and execution.

QUESTION: Need more information regarding the desired interface. Is this a DLL or GUI?

ANSWER: The HDSS shall provide an alphanumeric multi‐window Graphical User Interface (GUI) that shall provide the User the following capabilities:

1. The following graphic displays shall be available:

a. Platform / Site Symbols

b. Map Data Background

c. DMA Terrain

d. Trajectory of the SUT

e. Trajectory of Airborne Emitters

f. Platform motion Vectors

g. Emitter Status Indicators

2. The following Graphic Data Entry capabilities shall be available:

a. Transmit Antenna Patterns

b. Terrain Elevation Data (minimum DTED level 0 & 1)

c. Modulation Patterns

d. Platform Path points

3) 2.4 The Contractor shall build and deliver a state of the art simulator based on the following requirements:

QUESTION: Need numerous RF Specs like RF Power Output at each "Port", etc. Also need the exact Application specified: Bench? Lab? Near Field or Far‐Field Test Ranges? Anechoic

Chamber?

ANSWER: The primary environment of the HDSS will be used in a laboratory with direct injection.

4) 2.4.1. The HDSS shall be required to meet the minimum threat density described below simultaneously:

2.4.1.1. C/D band, 100,000 PPS with no fewer than 7 pulsed threats, 1 Continuous Wave (CW) threat.

2.4.1.2. E/J band, 1,500,000 PPS with no fewer than 10 pulsed threats, 1 CW threat.

2.4.1.3. K band, 250,000 PPS, with no fewer than 7 pulsed threats, 1 CW threat.

QUESTION: Need Specific Numerical clarification as to what Frequency Bands these actually are, the Alphabetic Designations given are not universally clear.

ANSWER: The band designations are NATO bands, common in Electronic Warfare.

5) 2.4.2. The HDSS shall have no fewer than 20 ports for SUT availability with reconfigurable polarizations of at least horizontal, vertical, left‐hand and right‐hand at for each connection.

QUESTION: 20 Ports are specified, but the 3 bands listed above imply 27 simultaneous Threats.

24 Pulsed + 3 CW. Need to know of every single “Port” needs to have all 4 Antenna Polarizations and the associated “Horns” attached.

ANSWER: The HDSS shall be able to represent a combination of emitters simulating real‐world conditions while in a static or dynamic environment.

6) 2.4.3. The HDSS shall support frequency range outputs between 50Mhz and 40GHz for any polarization.

QUESTION: Does the HDSS have to have Continuous frequency coverage from 50MHz to 40 GHz or is a break from 20‐30GHz acceptable?

ANSWER: The HDSS shall have continuous frequency coverage.

7) 2.4.4. The HDSS shall allow a user to reconfigure ports for frequency ranges and polarization types.

QUESTION: Will every “Port” have to support all 4 spec’d Antenna Polarizations? Who provides the 4 Transmit and/or Receive Horns/Antennas for each?

ANSWER: The HDSS shall be able to represent a combination of emitters simulating real‐world conditions while in a static or dynamic environment. There is no GFE available on this contract.

8) 2.4.5.4.1. PRI modes for user selection shall include stable, jitter, stagger, switching, periodic, pulse bursts, Synchronized and manual.

QUESTION: Clarification as to what a “Manual” PRI would be is needed and “Sync’d” to What?

Another Emitter?

ANSWER: Manual describes the ability to change the PRI. “Sync’d” describes the ability to trigger on another emitter.

9) 2.4.5.5.10. Multibeam (subsection of "Scan Modulations")

QUESTION: This a Physical Antenna property of some kind of array and can’t be replicated in a single “Port” ‐ is this meant to spec a User‐Supplied multi‐lobed antenna pattern (non‐ conventional Sum/Delta Monopulse beamforming) be imported?

ANSWER: At a minimum, the HDSS shall provide the capability for simulating Multi‐Beam Scan modulation with the following characteristics:

1. Multi‐Beam Scan modulation shall have from 2 to 8 beams.

2. The azimuth beam offset shall be from ‐180° to +180°.

3. The elevation beam offset shall be from ‐90° to +90°.

10) 2.4.5.5.15. Synchronized and Random (subsection of "Scan Modulations")

QUESTION: “Synchronized” to other Emitters?

ANSWER: At a minimum, the HDSS shall support the following Synchronized modes:

1. Synchronize PRI changes at the end of a sector scan or raster bar. The PRI may be any allowable waveform including staggers, bursts, and periodic modulations.

2. Synchronize PRI changes at the end of an RF sequence or modulation. The PRI may be any allowable waveform including staggers, bursts, and periodic modulations.

3. Synchronize RF changes at the end of a sector scan or raster bar. The RF may be any allowable waveform including sequences and periodic modulations.

4. Synchronize RF changes at the end of a PRI sequence or modulation. The RF may be any allowable waveform including sequences and periodic modulations.

5. Synchronize scan changes at the end of a PRI sequence, frame, or periodic modulation. The scan may be any scan type.

6. Synchronize scan changes at the end of an RF sequence or periodic modulation. The scan may be any scan type.

11) 2.4.9.2. No RF interfaces shall be in the top or bottom of the HDSS.

QUESTION: Need a specific “Keep Out Zone” provided in numerical units.

ANSWER: All RF ports on each enclosure shall be between two and five feet from ground level.

12) 2.4.12. The HDSS shall provide a mechanism that can plan and execute static and dynamic scenarios based on user inputs in a graphical environment that includes a map.

QUESTION: "Dynamic" implies some number of Emitters or SUTs be controlled by the User

Dynamically but need to know how many and will it be acceptable for the contractor to specify over what Interface this will be accomplished?

ANSWER: The HDSS shall provide a dynamic RF injection (simulating movement of emitters and

SUTs) in a graphical planning area and graphical map that tracks motion of emitters and SUTs.

At a minimum, the HDSS shall provide dynamic capability for one or more SUTs and more than 6 dynamic emitters.

13) 2.4.13. The HDSS shall be capable of importing DTED data and creation manual terrain maps.

QUESTION: Resolution of DTED data needs clarification.

ANSWER: Minimum DTED level 0 and 1.

14) 2.6.1. The Contractor shall provide all equipment for calibration and maintenance (including hardware and software and special equipment).

QUESTION: Is the calibration equipment to reside within the same rack as the simulator?

ANSWER: All HDSS calibration and maintenance equipment should be in the rack enclosure, but is not required.

15) 2.9.3. Data Accession List [CDRL A003, Data Accession List (DAL), DI‐MGMT‐81453B/T]

QUESTION: Need a description of what is meant by “DAL”

ANSWER: A list of contractor internal data generated by the contractor which the government may request (available upon request).

16) 2.10.2. The Government shall supplement the factory ATP with threat injection evaluation of existing organization threats in the frequency ranges and will not accept delivery until complete.

QUESTION: This needs clarification as to the process, types and when the " existing organization threats " will be made available to the contractor for ATP Prep and Execution.

ANSWER: Existing organization threats do not need to be made available to the contractor as these threats will fall within the parameters of the HDSS specifications. There is no GFE or GFI available.