HSHQDC-14-R-00032_RFP_Questions_and_Answers_2.pdf

Basic Handheld RIID RFP Questions and Answers – HSHQDC-14-R-00032

Amendment A00002

Question

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer

1 67 13 Tab E Is it acceptable to use both an ANSI N42.42-

2012 data file and a supplementary ICD1 data file as input to the

Algorithm Replay

Tool, as long as the output data file is ANSI

N42.42-2012 compliant?

Yes, it is acceptable.

2 12 Attachment

1 GROUP 1

BHH-OR-11 Is the real-time numerical display of count rate sufficient to fulfill the neutron portion of the BHH-

OR-11 threshold requirement, given that indicating the “increase or decrease” in the neutron count rate is an objective rather than threshold requirement of BHH-FR-11-03?

Yes, it is sufficient.

3 6 3 3.5 It is unclear what is to be included in any price to be entered into

Attachment 4 IDIQ

Pricing List for CLIN

0003. Per paragraph

3.5, the description of

CLIN 0003 is “The contractor shall provide repair parts, modules and consumables as requested.” If the

Government exercises an order under CLIN

0003, what is it expecting to receive?

As noted in NOTE 3 in Attachment 4, “NOTE 3: Offeror may insert additional rows as necessary to identify fixed unit prices for supplies or may include a separate fixed unit price matrix covering the supplies proposed under CLIN 0003.”

Each sub-CLIN under CLIN0003 should be a different type of spare part, module and/or consumable that the

Government may need to procure in order to conduct organic

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer maintenance on the device. For every sub-CLIN, there should be a unit price.

4 6 3 3.5 Reference is made to section 3.5, CLIN-

0004. The description of the training to be provided under this

CLIN includes this statement: “…in order for Operational components to conduct their own training and to conduct organic corrective repair and preventive maintenance.” Is it the

Government’s intent to develop organic repair capability for the RIID outside of the OEM?

It is the

Government’s intent to allow for both organic maintenance and

OEM/vendor maintenance. The extent of either type will be determined by the individual

DHS Operational

Components.

5 65 13 Volume 1:

Technical

Tab C:

Statement of

Requirements

Please describe the expected CONOPS for the maritime variant.

The basic handheld

RIID’s primary mission space includes small area searches and secondary screening. Key operational functions performed in small area searches and secondary screenings are detection, localization, identification, and reporting of rad/nuc materials. In a maritime environment this includes boarding ships, searches and secondary screening onboard maritime

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer vessels. The maritime variant of the basic handheld

RIID will be required to operate under more severe operational conditions than the general purpose variant and, consequently, has specific Suitability

(Group 2)

“maritime”-only requirements.

6 17 Attachment

1, Group 1

BHH-OR-15 This requirement states, “OR 15 will be included in Section 8

(Special Contract

Requirements) of the

RFP.” Please define specifically what must be satisfied by this requirement.

Please refer to

Section 8.10 of the

RFP and the answer to question #3 from the “Basic Handheld

RIID RFP

Questions and

Answers” dated

April 8, 2014.

Section 8.10 applies to device(s) that are ultimately awarded a contract. Selected devices will be subject to mandatory DHS review and validation processes prior to being connected to, or interfacing with, the

DHS network. This requirement is intended to give

Contractor’s advance notice that they may be asked to “provide documentation and technical assistance as required to

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer support validation.”

Be aware that DHS

Enterprise

Architecture Board

(EAB) governance requires validation of compliance/ noncompliance with Section 508

(See Section 8.8 of

RFP) requirements.

As such, documentation and technical assistance for Section 508-related reviews may also be required.

7 17 Attachment

1, Group 1

BHH-OR-16 This requirement states, “OR 16 will be included in Section 8

(Special Contract

Requirements) of the

RFP.” Please define specifically what must be satisfied by this requirement.

Please refer to

Section 8.9 of the

RFP and the answer to question #2 from the “Basic Handheld

RIID RFP

Questions and

Answers” dated

April 8, 2014.

Section 8.10 applies to device(s) that are ultimately awarded a contract. Selected devices will be subject to mandatory DHS review and validation processes prior to being connected to, or interfacing with, the

DHS network. This requirement is intended to give

Contractor’s advance notice that they may be asked to “provide documentation and

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer technical assistance as required to support validation.”

8 Attachment

2, Page 4

BHH-OR-

Requirement, Threshold, Objective and

Clarifications

Please clarify the test for neutron detection.

Are the required flux rates equal to the flux at the point of minimum approach to the detector, or an average flux over some distance as the source passes?

The designated rates are the flux rates at the point of closest approach.

9 Attachment

2, Page 25

BHH-OR-

Threshold Please clarify the requirement that

“System shall safely operate in inhabited spaces onboard ships.”

Is there a specific UL classification or other specification that defines safe operation?

No, there are no specific UL classifications or other specifications that define safe operation other than the threshold listed for BHH-OR-26, (i.e., UL 61010-1, Pt 1).

10 1 1.3 Page 7 mentions “end users.” Please provide a summary of the potential end users under the proposed

IDIQ contract

“End users” refer to the DHS

Operational

Components.

11 5 3.5 Page 11 indicates

OCONUS warranty support. In order to allow for proper pricing, please provide details regarding geographic details for

OCONUS level of support.

OCONUS refers to those areas outside of the contiguous 48 states: Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and other U.S.

territories.

12 8 4.3 Please advise if the use of DHS branding will be required under the contract or if such use of DHS branding is at the Contractor’s discretion.

Offerors shall submit products as they would commercially.

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer

Question was clarified to read-

Shall products submitted include logos on equipment?

13 9.2 Section 9.2 includes

FAR clauses that apply the Service Contract

Reporting (FAR

52.204-14 and FAR

52.204-15) and Service

Contract Act (FAR

52.222-41). We respectfully ask for clarification on why these clauses are included in an IDIQ for the procurement of

COTS systems.

FAR clauses referring to the

Service Contract

Act have been unmarked from this solicitation. FAR clauses 52.204-14, 52.204-15, and

52.222-41 have all been unchecked in the solicitation.

14 Question

Responses dated 08

April 2014

Question #2 indicates the potential for

Security Sensitive

Information (SSI) in performance under the proposed IDIQ. Please clarify if SSI will indeed be applicable, since this requires administration of

NDAs and clearances by the contractor. Will a DD 254 also be applicable?

Currently, there is no anticipation for the vendors to obtain a clearance to award a contract. A

DD 254 will not be required for this solicitation.

15 13 Attachment

1 –

Statement of

Requiremen ts

Requirement

#BHH-OR-

Question: The use of e-mail is inherently insecure. Does DHS have requirements for secure transmission of data via e-mail? More generally, does DHS have any message level encryption requirements for the basic RIID?

No.

16 14-15 Attachment Requirement Question a: BHH-FR- Yes.

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer

1 –

Statement of

Requiremen ts

# BHH-FR-

13-01

#BHH-FR-

13-02

13-01 requires

Transport Level

Security (TLS) for wireless communications. BHH-

FR-13-02 implies no encryption (transport or message layer), e.g.

sending clear text vis-à-vis “…to a laptop using

Hyper Terminal…” Is this interpretation correct?

17 16 Attachment

1 –

Statement of

Requiremen ts

Requirement

# BHH-FR-

13-06

Please clarify what is meant by “voice-only reachback”. Does this mean voice-activated reachback, whereby the operator is able to query stored data in a

Siri or google-voice type approach?

No, it means the operator will be able to report verbally back to reachback support personnel.

To do so, the operator must be able to display the necessary information so that it may be referred to or read.

18 64 13 Tab B:

Product

Description

DNDO seeks evidence that the proposed RIID is truly a commercial item. We would like to include a commercial price list to as evidence. However, there are prices on the commercial price list, and the RFP cautions against putting cost or pricing data in Volume

I. Is it acceptable to provide the list with the prices hidden?

Yes, you may provide the commercial price list with the prices hidden.

19 64 13 Tab B:

Product

Description

The RFP states that product literature, full product specifications, or other documents if necessary may be included in Tab B. It

Yes. Product literature/full product specifications will not be counted towards the five

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer further requests evidence that the device is a COTS product. Can this documentation not be counted in the five page limit for this tab?

page limit, but should not exceed ten (10) additional pages. Please note that the Government will still be seeking evidence that the proposed device is, in fact, a (1) Basic

Handheld RIID and

(2) “commercial”, “COTS” or

“nondevelopmental” item based on FAR

Part 2 Definitions, within the 5 page limit of Tab B:

Product Description.

20 Attachment

1 – 22 through 24

Group 2 Beginning with

Requirement # BHH-

OR-25a through BHH-

FR-25b-03 the

Reference/Explanation column and some of the Meets and Does

Not Meet columns are formatted to print red text. Is there a significance of the red text? Or should the text be provided in black?

There is no significance of the red text. Please provide text in black.

21 55 and 68 12.1 and 13 (10) and

Tab H: Past

Performance

Section 12.1 paragraph

(10) states that past performance information include contracts for the “same or similar” items.

Section 13 of the RFP is inconsistent with section 12.1 because it omits the phrase "same or similar items" and instead replaces it with a narrower, restrictive statement that past performance be limited

This question was included in the previous Question and Answer posting.

The Government’s response indicated that there would be and update to the solicitation, however after reviewing the sections provided, the Government feels that the language is

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer to items that are the

"same" as those items being proposed. In order to provide relevant past performance information, would you please correct section

13 to be consistent with section 12.1 so both sections read "same or similar items." Without this change, Offeror’s who are proposing new or next generation technology will be unable to cite relevant past performance information for COTS programs of similar size, scope, and complexity that is needed to establish the company’s past performance credentials or may have to propose older technology whose performance can be demonstrated by looking at past performance of the same items.”

consistent and no change needs to be completed.

22 8 Group 1 BHH-FR-06-

Will all identification-related requirements be evaluated using a vendor-specified ID time in accordance with

ANSI N42.34-2006,

Section 6.1? If so, must the test results submitted with proposals use this single vendor-specified

ID time?

This question was included in the previous Question and Answer posting.

The response has been updated and is shown below:

Yes. In the explanation of this requirement, the vendor should specify their device’s optimal

Page No. Section Paragraph Question Answer spectrum acquisition. The vendor-specified time will be used for test purposes. Please note that this requirement includes spectrum acquisition time

AND the time it takes to process and display an identification. It is up to the vendor to indicate how submitted test results apply.