King Kong QA 14 June 2022.pdf

Cognitive Electronic Warfare (EW) Software Development for In- Flight, In-Field, and In-Squadron Applications (King Kong) Call 01

Questions (Q) and Answers (A) 14 June 2022

CALL 01 * King Kong SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Solicitation Q&As

FA8650-22-S-1054

1) Q: Should the proposal include the Contractor Statement of Work as a separate Word document deliverable, or can it be incorporated into the Technical/Management Volume?

A: It can be incorporated into the Technical/Management Volume

2) Q: The proposal notes the Cost Volume and Business Volume should be two separate “sections”. Can the Cost and Business Volumes be split into two separate PDF deliverable volumes?

A: Yes, the cost volume and business volume can be split into two (2) separate PDF deliverable volumes.

3) Q: The proposal notes a requirement for a Project Funding Profile: "Offerors should include a project funding profile by Government Fiscal Year (GFY) (1 Oct through 30 Sept) for budgetary purposes. This will enable the

Government to easily identify program funding needs by GFY." Is there a specific format the Government would like, or can this be created using Contractor’s format?

A: There is no specific format that the Government would like. Contractor format is acceptable.

4) Q: The solicitation states that the anticipated contract type is CPFF. Would the Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate (AFRL/RYW) consider using a FFP OTA, or a FFP or T&M type commercial item contract for this work instead?

A: The Government is anticipating a Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) award. FFP and T&M contract types will not be considered. In addition, the Government is not anticipating an OT award. However, the Government reserves the right, to award any contract type that is appropriate

5) Q: Under Type of Contract/Instrument of the BAA, it states “Cost reimbursement contracts require successful offerors to have an accounting system considered adequate for tracking costs applicable to the contract.”

What criteria will the Government use to determine the offeror’s accounting system is adequate? Are there certain requirements and/or conditions that specifically need to be met to be considered adequate?

A: Reference DFARS 252.242-7006 - Accounting System Administration for definition of “acceptable accounting system” and system criteria. If the proposal submission is deemed selectable per the BAA evaluation criterion, a Pre-award Survey may need to be conducted prior to award if offeror does not have an accounting system that has been deemed adequate by Defense Contracting Audit Agency (DCAA).

6) Q: In section 2.0: Primary Objective of the King Kong SOO, the stated objective is to “perform both applied and advanced R&D…to aid platform cognitive capability and next sortie reprogramming”. Should the delivered product feature the ability to “perform both applied and advanced R&D….” to enable the customer to execute this process beyond the POP?

A: Yes. All R&D will build toward the overall product that will be a sustained capability beyond the POP.

7) Q: On page 14 of the overall Kaiju BAA it says “Additional information on prior work in this area, descriptions of available equipment, use of base support (if desired), data and facilities and resumes of personnel who will be participating in this effort should also be included as attachments to the technical proposal.” Based on this language, would any of these attachments count towards the Technical/Management Volume 30 page limit?

A: All additional information, with the exception of resumes, shall be included in the page count. Resumes do not count towards the overall page limit.

8) Q: The solicitation states that “Pages shall be numbered starting with the cover page being Page 1...” Will the

Government allow the cover page to be excluded from the overall 30-page limit?

A: For Call 01 (King Kong), page 1 shall start on the cover page.

9) Q: The solicitation states that “Additional information on prior work in this area, descriptions of available equipment, use of base support (if desired), data and facilities and resumes of personnel who will be participating in this effort should also be included as attachments to the technical proposal.” Can the

Government confirm that all of the additional information listed above should be provided as attachments and will be excluded from the overall 30-page limit?

A: All additional information, with the exception of resumes, shall be included in the page count. Resumes do not count towards the overall page limit.

10) Q: SOO 4.7: The Government mentions the use of Hardware and other ODCs that might be used in the performance, but does not provide further details. Can the Government specify the required Hardware, or confirm that these items will be furnished as GFP, or specify an estimated cost for Offerors to plug-into their proposals?

A: This would include AFRL’s Data Collection Pod, IDAL facilities and simulators, ARCEM workstations and software.

11) Q: SOO 4.8: Does the Government anticipate field and flight testing travel requirements? If yes, can the

Government provide guidance for budgeting travel (number of trips, locations, etc.)?

A: The government would expect travel to various test sites and customer sites. Trip frequency is expected quarterly to multiple CONUS locations.

12) Q: SOO 4.8: Can the Government clarify Field Testing, including the expectations and amount of field tests anticipated?

A: Field testing would largely consist of offline data processing at a test site. The expectation is that this would happen on an annual basis.

13) Q: SOO 6.0: Can the Government clarify how to budget for integrated test fixtures for hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) and advanced digital scenario generation test equipment under deliverables? Are model equipment or specifications available for reference?

A: The government team will largely be responsible for HITL and scenario generation needs. While the scope of this effort will include this type of tasking, the bulk of the technical effort will be focused on offline data processing for reprogramming applications.

14) Q: The answer provided to Question 1 of the Q&A (5/26/22) states “Contractors will only utilize GFI/GFE data exclusively. The awardee will not be expected to create their own data. If additional data is needed, the contractor can request new data to be made to meet program objectives.” Will SOO Section 4.4 be updated to remove references to data generation? If not, please clarify the data generation requirements of SOO Section 4.4.

A: GFI/GFE will be provided for all data generation needs. Section 4.4 deals with the data generation process and traceability that will need to be understood for the technical effort. Also, to inform new data generation requests, the government team would expect the contractor to be familiar with the design of in-house data generation processes and tooling.

15) Q: The answer provided to Question 3 of the Q&A (5/26/22) states that developed software “must comply with ARCEM’s documented software standards and interfaces.” Please provide the documented software standards, interfaces, and a description of DevOps environment.

A: Documentation will be provided after award, to the awardee.

16) Q: Many of the GFI algorithms referenced in SOO Section 4.1 (ARC, ESCE, and REAM) were likely developed prior to the Big Iron standard. Will these GFI algorithms be provided as Big Iron compliant algorithms, or should proposers assume they will receive source code for these “as-is” algorithms? For cost estimating purposes, what is the number, type, and complexity of algorithms that proposers should assume will be provided as GFI?

A: All algorithms provided will be delivered 'as-is'. They will likely need to be modified both for the architecture and the reprogramming application.

17) Q: Please clarify the use of “As a follow-on" in SOO Section 4.6? Is the effort for “developing an environment to host a digital version...” to be included in the scope of the King Kong proposal or is that scope intended for a future contract (i.e., follow-on contract)?

A: This would be for a future contract. The scope of work in this effort is with respect to current reprogramming applications. The government would look to expand this capability to deal with Operational

Flight Programming (OPF) augmentation in the future.

18) Q: For cost estimating purposes, please provide information regarding the timing, quantity, and description of known and/or anticipated field test events. If flight testing is desired, please provide information regarding available GFE flight test aircraft and sensors (e.g., Data Collection Pod).

A: Field testing is expected and will consist of offline data processing at a test site. In flight test equipment would include current fielded platforms and AFRL test equipment including the Data Collection Pod. Reference

Q11 and Q12 discussing flight testing.