FBO Questions Answers.docx

1) Question:

Is AFRL more interested in Laser Weapon System Platform as compared to Laser-Material Interaction modeling?

a. More interested in molecular level modeling or higher-level modeling that informs platforms?

b. Interested in laser propagation?

Answer:

Reference Call 0002 Announcement Section 4.1, titled ‘Scope’ first bullet which states, “Perform research and development in advanced numerical modeling techniques such as; the finite element method, finite volume method, particle methods, hydrodynamics and related methods for performing computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer, radiation transport, stress analysis, and reaction chemistry for the development of predictive models for laser interaction and target effects.”

2) Question:

Is there a preference to teaming with small businesses and universities?

Reference Call 0002 Announcement section 10.10, titled ‘Proposal Review and Evaluation Process,’ which contains the evaluation criteria and importance listed in descending order.

3) Question:

Does it matter if we develop models outside of Albuquerque versus inside of Albuquerque?

Reference attachment 1 – Statement of Objectives Amendment 1 dated 07 Nov 2019 section 6.0 which states, “The majority of the work should be conducted at AFRL facilities at Kirtland AFB, NM.”

4) Question:

Is there an incumbent preference?

Reference Call 0002 Announcement, Section 2.0 which states, “This acquisition is unrestricted and issued under the provisions of FAR 6.102(d)(2) Use of Competitive Procedures, that provides for the competitive selection of research proposals. Proposals submitted in response to any Calls associated with this announcement and are selected for award are considered to be the result of full and open and in full compliance with the provisions of PL 98-369, the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984.”

Reference FA9451-18-S-0003 PACIFIER Broad Agency Announcement, Section XI Other Information. Sections H & I pg 18.

H. Post-Award Small Business Program Representation: Any awards resulting from this announcement may contain FAR Clause 52.219-28 Post-Award Small Business Program Representation (JUL 2013). This clause requires a contractor to represent its size status when certain conditions apply. The clause provides detail on when the representation must be completed and what the contractor must do when a representation is required.

I. Small Business Subcontracting Plans: Unless an exemption applies, small business subcontracting plans are required for efforts expected to exceed the thresholds in FAR 19.702 Statutory Requirements. Prospective offerors shall submit applicable subcontracting plans in accordance with the requirements set forth in FAR 19.704, DFARS 219.704 and AFFARS 5319.704. The subcontracting plan shall be submitted with the Business Section of the Business/Cost Volume and be suitable for incorporation into the awarded contract (no proprietary information or markings). If a company has a master/comprehensive plan shall be submitted with the Business Section of the Business/Cost Volume and be suitable for incorporation into the awarded contract (no proprietary information or markings). If a company has a master subcontracting plan (as described in FAR 19.701) or a comprehensive subcontracting plan (as described in DFARS 219.702), a copy of the master/comprehensive plan shall be submitted with the proposal.

5) Question:

Is commercial software acceptable or is there a preference towards home-grown models?

Answer:

Reference Attachment 1-Statement of Objectives Amendment 1 dated 07 Nov 2019 section 3.0, “1) develop physics based models that accurately predict the target response during laser irradiation to quantify susceptibility and improve the understanding of target vulnerabilities” and section 4.4 last paragraph, “Continue the development and application of existing RDLE engineering and physics models including the Integrated Thermal Response Algorithm (ITRAL) and Finite-elements for Laser Interaction and Penetration (FLIP) solvers, for example.”

6) Question:

Do you anticipate more than one award?

Answer:

Reference Call 0002 Announcement Section 10.7 Titled Type of Contract. The Government reserves the right to award some, all or none of the proposals. When the Government elects to award only part of a proposal, the selected part may be categorized as Highly Recommended or Selectable, even though the proposal as a whole may not merit such a categorization.

7) Question:

Will bidding on this call improve, hurt or have no impact on the testing and vulnerability assessment calls?

Answer:

See FA9451-18-S-0003 PACIFIER Broad Agency Announcement, Section General Information – “This acquisition is unrestricted and issued under the provisions of FAR 6.102(d)(2) Use of Competitive Procedures, that provides for the competitive selection of research proposals. Proposals submitted in response to any Calls associated with this announcement and are selected for award are considered to be the result of full and open and in full compliance with the provisions of PL 98-369, the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984.

8) Question:

Are you looking to wholly own and independently operate the models from this work, or are you looking to fund the creation of models which a contractor would maintain and use for you?

Answer:

See FA9451-18-S-0003 PACIFIER Broad Agency Announcement, – Section B Data Rights. Government Purpose Rights (GPR) is required for all custom software for which the Government is investing funds to further the development and expansion of capability. If more restrictive rights are required, the Offeror must provide the request for data rights exception during the response to the call.

9) Question:

If changes to the CDRLs are proposed, in what format should the proposed redlines be provided to the Government?

Answer:

Reference Call 0002 Announcement Section 9.0 Deliverables. Address any changes in deliverables to the program management office to ensure a standardized method of clearly and unambiguously delineating the Government’s minimum essential data needs.

10) Question:

What is the anticipated start date for the 48 month period of performance?

Answer:

Reference attachment 1 – Statement of Objectives Amendment 1 dated 07 Nov 2019 section 7.2. A typical award occurs between 3-6 months after proposal submission. This does not constitute a commitment by the Government to award on this timeline and is only provided as a guideline. Note: The period of performance has been corrected to 57 months technical period of performance with 3 months for report writing.

11) Question:

When will these questions be posted? TBD.

As soon as reviewed and approved to be posted!

12) Question:

Will the deadline be extended? TBD.

The deadline for proposals will be extended to Friday, December 6, 2019.

13) Question:

Does the Contractor Information Form need to be completed by subcontractors? If so, does the subcontractor include that document in the Business/Cost Volume? Or does the Prime submit the subcontractor’s document on their behalf? Attachment 3-Cost Instructions document, Page 2 of 6, Section (2)(c). Please provide clarification on this reference section where the Government is requesting a cost analysis on all subcontractor costs to include labor materials, labor, travel, other direct costs. Can you please provide clarification on if the government expects the Prime Offeror to acquire the subcontractors indirect, proprietary rate information to adequately perform a cost analysis? Or would a modified Price Analysis be adequate where the Prime analyzes the subcontractors’ fully burdened proposed rates and price elements? Are subcontractors required to complete and submit in their proposal, the Section K Representations and Certifications?

Reference Cost Proposal Instructions FAR Requirement (Non-APC) PG 15-16. Highly recommend the offeror provide these cost proposal instructions to all subcontractors. Fully disclosed Subcontractor/IOT proposals are required for ALL subcontractors (including Tables 1 thru 4), and must be submitted to the government by the closing date identified in this solicitation. It is especially important that adequate data on subcontractors be provided. Rates are particularly important. Note that the absence of adequate data on subcontractors is a frequent source of prime contractor inadequate proposals and avoidable delay in contract award.

(a) As part of Table 1, list each subcontractor/IOT cost separately by OFY by CLIN.

(b) Obtain certified cost or pricing data from prospective sources for those exceeding the threshold set forth in FAR 15.403-4 ($750,000) and not otherwise exempt, in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(b) (i.e., adequate price competition, commercial items, prices set by law or regulation or waiver).

(c) Provide a list of anticipated subcontractors/IOTs using Table 2.

(d) To ensure compliance with FAR 52.215-22, Limitations on Pass-Through Charges - Identification of Subcontract Effort: Use Table 2 to identify the cost of work to be performed by each subcontractor by contract or task order as applicable. If the offeror subcontracts more than 70 percent of the total cost of work to be performed, comply with the requirements of the provision.

(e) The proposal shall identify those actions where assist audits have been requested by the prime or sub-tier contractors and identify the request date and scheduled receipt date for those audits. The need for assist audits resulting from proprietary data rights assertions at any tier shall be identified to the Contracting Officer as soon as the offeror becomes aware of the need. Government performance of assist audits does not relieve the offeror of the responsibility to accomplish and provide its price/cost analysis of the subcontracts.

(f) Provide an analysis of the proposed subcontract in accordance with FAR 15.404-3(b). Provide an analysis concerning the reasonableness, realism and completeness of each subcontractor’s proposal. Explain the use of decrement factors if applied. If the analysis is based on comparison with prior prices, identify the basis on which the prior prices were determined to be reasonable. If the subcontract exceeds the TINA threshold and no exception applies, the cost analysis should include, but not be limited to, an analysis of: materials, labor, travel, other direct costs and proposed profit or fee rates. Differences between the subcontractor/IOT proposed amounts and the prime contractor proposed amounts must be fully explained.

(i) If the offeror has selected other than the low subcontractor bid for inclusion in their proposal or intends to award the subcontract effort on a sole-source basis, provide rationale for that decision.

(j) If the subcontractor is not yet determined, include a list of the tasks to be performed, an explanation of the method used to estimate the subcontract price, and the reason proposals/quotes cannot be requested/provided at this time.

(k) If the proposed subcontractor’s fee rate is higher than the prime’s fee, provide rationale as to why the subcontractor’s risk is greater than the prime’s.

(l) If the IOT is proposed at other than cost, provide support in accordance with FAR 31.205-26(e).

14) Question:

The POP is indicated to be 48 months (4 years) but the anticipated funding level suggests 5 years (~$1.2M x 5). We would like to request clarification on the POP, anticipated award/start date, and anticipated funding level each year, and total funding level.

Reference amended Call 0002 Announcement Section Period of Performance.The PoP should be a total of 60 months. There will be 57 months for TPoP and a 3 month reporting period.

15.) Question:

Para 10 states that the effort will be TS/SCI. Does this require that every employee working on this effort have a TS/SCI clearance, or are employees with a lower security clearance allowed to contribute as long as they are only exposed to material commensurate with their clearance and a need to know?

No, but adequate staffing with TS/SCI should be available to support various efforts. That does not mean that everyone coming in must have it, but they must be capable of obtaining a TS/SCI if necessary.

16.) Question:

The PACIFIER BAA provides the following proposal submission instructions “iii. Each proposal shall include one (1) cover letter, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies (CD-R, PC format). CD-Rs should be labeled with the company name, BAA number, Call number, and proposal/volume title. Each proposal and volume should be on a separate CD-R.”

Can you please confirm the contents of the proposal package should be as follows. If not, please advise.

Cover Letter, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.

Technical Volume, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.

Business/Cost Volume, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.

Answer:

See FA9451-18-S-0003 PACIFIER Broad Agency Announcement, – Section B Proposal Submission iii. Each proposal shall include one (1) cover letter, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies (CD-R, PC format). CD-Rs should be labeled with the company name, BAA number, Call number, and proposal/volume title. Each proposal and volume should be on a separate CD-R. Electronic copies of the cost proposal worksheet(s) must be in Microsoft Office Excel 2010 or later and must contain all cell formulas. If there are any discrepancies between the paper copies and the electronic versions of the proposal, the original printed copy will take precedent.

· Cover Letter, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.

· Technical Volume, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.

· Business/Cost Volume, one (1) original copy, three (3) hard copies and three (3) electronic copies.