FA8650-17-S-1070-Amd2.pdf

1-Step Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

FA8650-17-S-1070 * Amendment 02

CLASSIFICATION OF VIBRATING SYSTEMS (CLOVIS)

Federal Agency Name: Air Force Research Laboratory, AFRL/RYM, Sensors Directorate Broad Agency Announcement Title: Classification of Vibrating Systems (CLOVIS) Broad Agency Announcement Type: This is Amendment 02 to the BAA Broad Agency Announcement Number: FA8650-17-S-1070 Contracting POC: Trisha Buddelmeyer, Contract Specialist, AFRL/RQKSE trisha.buddelmeyer@us.af.mil or Anar Wagner, Contracting Officer, AFRL/RQKSR anar.wagner@us.af.mil

1. Question: Reference was made to the AFRL Guide to Industry, published March 2015 in the Amendment 1 questions relative to proposal submissions. Is industry required to follow that guide?

Answer: No.

2. Question:

Will the Air Force or the SIREN contractor perform the actual data collection?

Answer:

The SIREN contractor in conjunction with direction from the Air Force will perform the data collects with participation of the CLOVIS performer.

3. Question:

How much influence will the CLOVIS performer have on the experimental design for data collection?

Answer:

Upon award the contractors will be required to execute Non-Disclosure Agreements.

The CLOVIS performer will then become part of all data collect planning and analysis activities.

4. Question: What is the planned data collections schedule?

Answer:

Depending on funding one-or-more collects per year until FY21.

5. Question:

From a budgeting perspective, can we assume these will occur at White Sands?

Answer:

There will be mix of ground and flight but primarily flight. Locations are TBD.

6. Question:

What is the envisioned CONOPS for how the SIREN sensor will be cued? Is that scanning/cueing algorithm within scope for CLOVIS?

Answer:

Sensor is cued by high resolution passive sensor in the pod. Additional scanning/cueing approaches are TBD but recommendations will be welcome.

7. Question:

How much Preprocessing will be performed on the raw signal data prior to the CLOVIS classification? Will the raw data also be available at run-time?

Answer:

Data products will be available at multiple steps in the processing chain starting with the raw detector data. Yes, it could be.

8. Question:

What is the envisioned CONOPS for how the SIREN sensor and supporting ATR algorithms will be used? E.g., will there be multiple vehicles present? How far will they be separated? What is the expected dwell time on each target (understanding that detections must be made within one second)?

Answer:

Current CONOP is that aim point is selected, sensor is activated, measurement is made, ATR analyzes signal, and ATR output is presented on a display in text form.

Possibly, this is still a research program.

Unknown, but something to be investigated.

Variable, also depends on ATR performance needs and quality of measurement from vibe signal.

9. Question:

How much HMI is expected to be part of the CLOVIS scope? Will the user be a manned aircraft pilot or a UAV operator or someone else (e.g., an analyst)?

HMI (Human Machine Interaction). Question is unclear with regards to scope. All testing and operation at this time is considered to be on a manned platform.

10. Question:

What are representative target types for the initial 5-6 and final 30-40 target vehicles?

Answer:

The BAA was clear that anything that has an inherent vibration characteristic is of interest. Therefore, military interest, funding, availability, samples necessary for ATR development, etc. will be factors in determining the selected targets.

11. Question:

What is the Government’s view of supplemental (non-SIREN) data collects using similar sensors to collect specific data to refine algorithm performance or conduct smaller scale risk reduction experiments?

Answer:

Surrogates may be viable in some circumstances; it depends.

12. Question:

Is there an expected operating envelope with regard to atmospheric conditions and distance, e.g., humidity, precipitation, standoff distance?

Answer:

Operating distances are classified. Humidity and precipitation effects on LADAR should be understood by bidder.

13. Question:

What do you mean by ‘parametrically optimized’?

Answer:

Optimization via training of algorithms and their associated parameters.

14. Question:

Is there a sample dataset available through the VDL?

Not at this time.