FA8684-20-S-C001 Call 0001.pdf

RSO Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) Call 0001

1.0 Introduction

The Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO) seeks to leverage technology advances to further its mission to reduce Air Force sustainment and operational cost and/or improve mission readiness.

The RSO seeks to work with companies who can deliver innovative sustainment and operational advances to Air Force end users.

This announcement is for a Technology Focus Area (TFA)/Area of Interest (AoI) under the RSO Commercial Solutions Opening FA8684-20-S-C001. Interested parties are highly encouraged to visit the Government Point of Entry (www.beta.sam.gov) or the RSO website (www.AFRSO.com) to review the RSO CSO special posting in its entirety to obtain more information on the process for submission and evaluation of the CSO solution white papers and proposals.

This Call seeks to solicit innovative solutions that meet the objectives detailed in Section 2.0.

The term innovative is defined as any technology, process, or method, including research and development that is new as of the date of proposal submission; or any new application of an existing technology, process or method as of the proposal date.

The RSO is not obligated to extend a request for proposal or make an award as a result of this Call; all awards are subject to the availability of funds and successful negotiations. This Call is not an authorization to begin performance, and in no way obligates the Government for any costs incurred by the Offeror associated with developing a White Paper. Prior to commencement of any activities associated with performance under this Call, the Government will issue a written directive or contractual document signed by the Contracting Officer with appropriate consideration established. The RSO reserves the right to modify the requirements of this Call.

The authority to issue this Two-Step, Closed Call is derived from ALCMC/RSO Commercial Solutions Opening, FA8684-20-S-C001, dated 17-Jul-2020. The CSO authority is Section 879 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2017, Public Law 114-328, and Class Deviation 2018-O0016.

Federal Agency: Air Force Program Office: AFLCMC/RO “Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO)” Call Title: Rapid Repair and Sustainability of US Air Force Components NAICS: 541715, R&D in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences Call Type: Two-Step, Closed Call Call Number: FA8684-20-S-C001, Call 0001 Call Release Date: October 23, 2020 White Papers Due: November 09, 2020 at 12:00 PM ET http://www.beta.sam.gov/ http://www.afrso.com/

2.0 Technology Focus Area/Area of Interest: Agile Manufacturing/Cold Spray

As defined in the RSO CSO, the agile manufacturing TFA is described as: The RSO is working to identify, develop, transition, and scale AM technology for the advancement of the Sustainment enterprise. This will leverage mature, new, and emerging AM technology to reduce operation and sustainment costs and improve readiness.

Over the last several years the United States Air Force has sought repair technologies that improve fleet readiness and reduce the cost of maintaining aircraft. Demonstrations during this time have shown that cold spray can be used for dimensional restoration on aluminum and magnesium castings. A small number of component repairs have been approved. A number of these components parts have been repaired and returned to service.

This call is intended to solicit innovative solutions that address the AoI objectives listed below.

The RSO seeks to leverage existing commercial technology to expand the Air Force’s list of approved repairs by adding cold spray technology as an alternative, and to improve the Air Force’s understanding of the cold spray process.

Objectives:

• Leverage use of commercial practices. Intimate knowledge of the components, their design, method of manufacture, cost and failure modes to enable repair of Air Force aircraft components using cold spray technology.

• Demonstrate an ability to transition existing cold spray technology methods to repair aerospace components. This entails an understanding of component and fill materials, cold-spray process parameters and approaches used to validate the efficacy of the technology.

• Utilize traditional and develop non-traditional approaches to destructively test the cold spray deposits on substrates. In addition, conduct secondary materials testing on cold spray deposits and their representative substrates. Examples of secondary materials testing may include fatigue, fracture toughness, as well as resistance to wear, corrosion, and cavitation.

The compilation of the process and testing data will be utilized by Air Force engineers to evaluate the applicability of the cold spray process for Air Force use.

• Develop and demonstrate Cold Spray deposit non-destructive testing methods that are cost effective, timely and relevant to the characterization of the deposits. These methods should provide data for method qualification/certification as well as support future quality assurance functions. These methods should be “governed by” or relatable to currently accepted industrial testing standards or practices (ASTM, ISO etc.)

• Team with the Air Force to provide live and/or virtual presentations of the innovative technology and its related data. Create a data-sharing approach that positions the Air Force to recommend application of the technology to Airworthiness Panels and cognizant Air Force program office engineers. This approach will also consider a plan for transitioning the innovation developed under this effort to the Air Force.

3.0 Call Timeline and General Information

Milestone Due Date Two-Step, Closed Call Published 23-OCT-2020 White Papers Due (Step-One) 09-NOV-2020 Request for Proposal (RFP) Issued or Non-Select Letter Issued 18-NOV-2020 Proposals Due (Step-Two) 18-DEC-2020 Target Selection Date/Contract Award 29-JAN-2021

*The RSO reserves the right to alter or change any of the due dates listed above.

Two-Step, Closed Call Published: RSO publishes a Two-Step, Closed Call.

White Papers Due (Step-One): White Papers addressing the Area of Interest (AoI) defined in Section 2.0 are due no later than 09-NOV-2020 at 12:00 PM ET. All White Papers submitted must adhere to instructions listed in Section 4.0 and Section 5.0 of this Call.

Request for Proposal (RFP) Issued: Offerors who submitted White Papers by the required due date and who have been favorably evaluated will be issued a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP will detail the requirements (e.g. required content and evaluation criteria) that prospective companies should tailor their proposal towards.

Proposals Due (Step-Two): Offerors who have received a RFP from the RSO are required to submit their proposals by the stated due date. More details and requirements that companies shall adhere to will be contained in the RFP.

Contract Award: The Government anticipates making one award, but reserves the right to award zero, one, or more Contracts for all, some, or none of the solicited effort. Details as to the negotiation and award process will be contained in the RFP.

4.0 White Paper Format Instructions

White Papers should be created using 8.5 x 11 inch portrait format pages with single spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font with 1” margins. White Papers shall not exceed the 5 pages, not including the cover page. The cover page shall be limited to and shall include the following:

Contractor Name, CAGE Code, and date.

All text, including text in tables and charts, must adhere to all font sizes and line spacing requirements listed herein. Pages submitted in excess of these limits will not be read or considered in the Government’s evaluation of the White Paper.

5.0 White Paper Contents

White Papers shall be valid for 180 days. All White Papers should include the following content:

• The White Paper shall address how the Offeror plans to provide an innovative approach to meet the objectives listed in Section 2.0.

• The White Paper shall address each of the listed objectives and should provide a brief description of how the Offeror will address the objectives.

• The White Paper shall include a rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) price for a proposal.

Inclusion of the ROM does not imply or guarantee an RFP will be issued to the Offeror.

6.0 White Paper Evaluation

The White Paper shall be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation factors listed in the CSO.

The factors are as follows:

• Technical o The soundness and technical merit of the proposed solution to adequately address the AoI objectives in Section 2.0; and o The demonstrated feasibility of the proposed solution to address the AoI is mid-maturity. Mid-maturity is defined as a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of at least 5 or greater and a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of at least 5 or greater. The Government is the final decision authority as to a technology’s stated TRL and MRL.

TRL assessment of at least five (5) or higher as detailed at:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/703694.pdf .

MRL assessment of at least five (5) or higher as detailed at:

www.dodmrl.com

• Importance to Agency Programs/Commercial Innovation: The degree to which the proposed concept provides an innovative, unique and/or previously under-utilized capability for government application.

• Availability of Funds: Any award shall be subject to the availability of funds.

• Price: Price shall be considered to the extent appropriate, but at a minimum, to determine that the price is fair and reasonable.

White Papers will be evaluated on the basis of the merit of the proposed concept in addressing the AoI and not against other White Papers submitted in response to the AoI.

7.0 White Paper Submission Instructions

The White Paper shall be delivered electronically by the deadline of 09 NOV 2020 at 12:00 PM ET to the contracting specialist at alan.sinclair@us.af.mil. Offeror’s may request the use of the DoD SAFE website to deliver the White Paper by notifying the contracting specialist no later than 24 hours before the deadline. If such a request is made the contracting specialist will provide a link for electronic delivery via DoD SAFE.

LATE WHITE PAPER SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. The RSO will not be responsible for any proposals that are late due to issues with either Offeror or Air Force email systems or the DoD SAFE. It is the Offeror’s responsibility to ensure the Air Force receives the email with all attachments at the designated email address or the DoD SAFE website (if requested) by the specific due date and time.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/703694.pdf http://www.dodmrl.com/ mailto:alan.sinclair@us.af.mil

8.0 Projected Acquisition Particulars

As previously stated, the submission of a White Paper does not imply or guarantee that an Offeror will receive an RFP after the White Paper is evaluated. The information contained in this section is provided to allow Offerors the opportunity to make an informed business decision in determining whether to respond to this call. The Government reserves the right to change, add, remove, or modify this information in the RFP.

• The Government intends to award one contract following the evaluation of both white papers and proposals.

• The resulting contract shall be a FAR Part 12, Firm-Fixed-Price effort.

• The expected period of performance for the awarded contract is 15-18 months after award.

• The successful Offeror shall be an American entity with all work performed in the United

States.

• Use of Non-Government Advisors: Offerors are advised that technical and cost/price data submitted to the Government in response to this Call may be released to non-Government advisors for white paper review and analysis. All non-Government advisors have appropriate signed non-disclosure statements.

• Government Furnished Property is not anticipated.

• Deliverables expected under the contract include documents reflecting the results of test and demonstration of the cold spray technology on Air Force materials, documents detailing best practices for a cold spray process, and periodic written reports.

• The data rights for deliverables under the contract are expected to be provided in a manner that at a minimum allow for Government Purpose Rights and/or Operation Maintenance, Installation, and Training (OMIT) Rights. Refer to Section 9.8.1 of the Commercial Solutions Opening FA8684-20-S-C001 for additional FAR Part 12 data rights considerations.

9.0 Contact Information

The Point of Contact for this effort is the Contracting Specialist, Mr. Alan Sinclair, or the Contracting Officer, Ms. Valerie Inman. The Offeror shall not contact any other Government personnel or offices regarding this Call.

Position: Name: Email:

Contracting Officer: Ms. Valerie Inman valerie.inman@us.af.mil

Contracting Specialist Mr. Alan Sinclair alan.sinclair@us.af.mil mailto:valerie.inman@us.af.mil mailto:alan.sinclair@us.af.mil