OPF-Medium_RFW_Rev_042326_Final.pdf

M67854-26-I-1047

REQUEST FOR WHITE PAPER

ORGANIC PRECISION FIRES - MEDIUM (OPF-M)

SYSTEM

1.0 INTRODUCTION & PURPOSE

This Request for White Paper (RFW) is issued by the United States Marine Corps to conduct market research and identify potential solutions for the Organic Precision Fires - Medium (OPF-M) program.

This RFW shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotations, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of a company's submission of responses to this announcement, or the Government's use of such information. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. The Government may use the information provided to refine its acquisition strategy and performance specifications. Do not submit classified information as it will not be accepted.

The Organic Precision Fires - Medium (OPF-M) provides the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) with an organic, loitering, beyond line-of-sight, and precision strike capability. Marines will employ OPF-M at the tactical level to enable engagement of armored targets beyond the range of direct fire weapons while minimizing collateral damage and exposure to enemy direct and indirect fires during distributed operations. OPF-M will be transported aboard tactical vehicles and then carried by dismounted Marines. This dismounted system will enhance target engagement capability by providing an Anti-Armor destruction capability beyond enemy detection and engagement ranges and in conjunction with other combined arms to support the employing unit’s scheme of maneuver.

The PdM OPF-M program is looking to deliver capability to the Marine Corps in phased releases. The first phase will deliver Baseline System Capabilities (BSC) aimed at delivering procurement-ready capability within one (1) year of contract award. Concurrently, the Marine Corps plans to invest in Capability Growth Areas (CGA) aimed at developing improvements to the BSC for follow-on phased releases. Under this program, the Government is seeking to understand the current state of technology for man-portable loitering munition systems capable of providing long-range, precision fires against a range of targets. Responses to this RFW shall not exceed 15 pages. The Government is interested in solutions from both traditional and non-traditional defense contractors, to ensure a wide range of technologies and approaches are considered.

2.0 ACQUISITION STRATEGY AND PLANNED ENGAGEMENTS

The Government is issuing this RFW in anticipation of an upcoming competitive process under 10 U.S.C.

§ 4022. The white paper will be reviewed by the Government against needs such as the BSC, production capabilities, and feasibility potential towards the CGAs detailed in this RFW. Respondents whose submissions indicate alignment with the Government’s capability priorities may be invited to participate in a procurement effort under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 4022. Any solicitation that follows this RFW will be issued by invitation only. The Government reserves the right to invite any number of respondents to the RFW or none at all and is not obligated by this announcement to issue a subsequent solicitation or make any award. Debriefs and assessment results will not be provided to respondents, as the primary objective of this RFW is to inform the Government on the current state of the art regarding Loitering Munitions.

The Government anticipates the acquisition phases will be as follows:

• Prototype OTA Award: A formal solicitation will be issued in FY26 Q4, inviting proposals for a limited number of prototype OTA awards in FY27 or earlier for demonstrations, further development, testing, and potential future production consideration.

• Production Award: Following Government verification of a minimum viable product, one or more vendors may be selected for production awards beginning in FY28.

3.0 REQUESTED INFORMATION & WHITE PAPER STRUCTURE

Respondents shall structure their 15-page white paper using the following four-part format.

Part 1: Baseline System Capabilities

This section should be the main focus of your response. It must describe your proposed technical solution and directly address how it meets or exceeds the BSC. Provide a technical description of your system, including the air vehicle, launcher, ground control station (GCS), and additional items needed to support operation and transport. Provide supporting data, technical specifications, and clear explanations for each attribute.

Supporting data: Examples of supporting information the Government is looking for in the white paper include descriptions of the datalink, frequency band, encryption methods, anti-jamming technology, GPS-denied or degraded environment capability, system architecture, safety testing, Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) system, energetic material, angle of attack, speed of system, explosive weight, endurance, Electronic Safe and Arm Device (ESAD) used, battery info, set-up and launch time, and transport material.

Baseline System Capabilities (BSC)

1 Maximize Lethality Against Targets

- Warhead design for catastrophic, or mobility kills on Anti-Armor (Provide Rolled Homogeneous Armor Equivalency (RHAe))

- Automatic Target Tracking (ATT) capability of moving targets day/night (Provide speed of target and distances for identification day/night)

- The system utilizes Naval Qualifiable Energetics

2 Maximize Marine Portability and Mobility

- All-up-round System Weight under 35 pounds (all components – include launch apparatus, if applicable)

- Ground Control Station Weight under 20 pounds (all components)

- All-Up Round (AUR) and Ground Control Station (GCS) are man portable by two (2) Marines

3 Maximize Range and Endurance

- Munition range greater than 25 kilometers from the dismounted ground control station (Provide any equipment needed to achieve this effective range)

- Munition endurance (loiter time greater than 20 minutes) at 25 kilometers

- Ability to handoff munition control to a different GCS operator

4 Maximize System Reliability and Adaptability

- Modular system design with removeable warhead and power pack

- Operational and transportable in Marine Corps environments (e.g., - rain, very high and very low operating temperatures, wind, shock, drop, electromagnetic)

- The system uses Naval Qualifiable fuze, safety and arming (S&A), or ignition system

5 Maximize Operational Control and Safety

- Ability to fly by waypoint navigation that can be set prelaunch and during flight. Ability to re-task in flight, and operator commanded abort during terminal phase. System shall be a Man in the Loop system.

- Ability to set loss of link locations prelaunch and during flight.

6 Minimize Training Burden

- Ability to train with reusable inert rounds

- Ability to train with the GCS in simulation mode

Part 2: Programmatic & Production Plan

This section should provide high-level estimates of your company's ability to deliver and scale the proposed solution.

• 2.1 High-Level Project Schedule: Provide an estimated schedule (e.g., Gantt chart) from a hypothetical OTA award to the readiness for demonstration and delivery of prototype systems.

• 2.2 Production & Manufacturing Plan: Describe your manufacturing approach. Detail your current production capacity and your plan to scale to higher-rate production. If the system is not currently in full-rate production, is the system design complete and stable to enter low-rate production? If not currently, when is that planned? What is the current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of the proposed system and its key subcomponents? Also, include information about your supply chain and key partners.

• 2.3 Test & Evaluation (T&E) Capability: Describe your ability to complete system performance and environmental survivability testing. Describe any relevant testing that has already been completed (internal or Government). Any provided test reports will not count against the page limit.

Part 3: Capability Growth & Product Improvement

This section should address your company's vision for the future and how your system can evolve to meet emerging threats.

• 3.1 Current Product Improvement Roadmap: Describe any relevant product improvements or new capabilities currently under development for your proposed system.

• 3.2 Response to Capability Growth Areas: The Government has identified the following areas for the future growth and relevance of the OPF-M system. For areas below, describe how your current system architecture and your company's technology roadmap are postured to accommodate these specific future capabilities. Where possible, describe your current level of maturity in these areas.

Capability Grow Areas (CGA)

1 Payload improvements: such as, maritime targets, drones, personnel formations, advanced sensor packages, electromagnetic effects, and other types of payloads.

2 Navigation and Operation in Contested Environments: Enhancements for operation in GPS-contested environments, such as the use of M-Code, Assured Position Navigation and Timing (APNT), or vision-based navigation.

3 Target Identification Improvements: Use of digital communications and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) to aid in reduction of sensor-to-shooter timeline.

4 Communication Resiliency: Improvements to maintain command and control in environments with significant Radio Frequency (RF) interference. Such as use of Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS), Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), or autonomous flight to target area without communicating with GCS.

5 Coordinated Multi-System Operation: The development of a capability to control and deconflict multiple munitions simultaneously from a single ground station, to include loitering munition handoff capabilities.

6 Signature Management and Survivability: Reductions to the system's RF, visual, and acoustic signatures to improve survivability.

7 Expanded Operational Environment: The improvement of key systems to expand the operational envelope of the system

8 Increases to range: While still maintaining Marine portability.

Part 4: Corporate Experience

• 4.1 Company Overview: Provide a brief summary of your company, including the company profiles as below.

1 Organization Name, Address and Point of Contact information 2 Business Size/Type (i.e., 8(a) certified, disabled veteran- owned, veteran- owned, woman-owned, Historically Underutilized Business Zone, Native American, or any other Small Business Administration approved designation) as well as company’s small business subcontracting/participation goals for small businesses; small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

3 System Name 4 Vendor Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) previously known as DUNS and CAGE Code 5 North American Industry Classification System NAICS) code applicable to this RFW 6 Historic Production Quantities (by calendar year) of system and/or any other similar systems 7 Lead time from contract award to first delivery of 50 All-Up-Rounds (AUR), 10 Ground

Control Station (GCS) Kits, 10 Ancillary Equipment for Verification Testing.

8 Current (FY27-FY28) Production Capacity (systems per month without facility upgrades;

provide GCS and AUR separately) 9 Anticipated (FY29-FY31) Production Capacity (systems per month; provide GCS and AUR separately) 10 Location of Engineering, Production and Integration Facilities 11 List existing relevant contracts/agreements with state and/or Federal Government agencies and other countries to include the contract number and POC information.

12 Confirm that the system is Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act compliant.

• 4.2 Relevant Past Performance: Briefly describe your experience with similar funded projects, particularly those under Other Transaction Authority.

4.0 RFW RESPONSE SUBMISSION.

• Not-to exceed 15-page responses shall be provided in Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat format only. The requested test reports under Section 3.0, Part 2.3 shall be submitted as an attachment to the response and will not count against the page limit. Document formats will contain 1" margins using a size 12 font. Zip files will not be accepted. Do not submit classified information.

• All RFW question and responses shall be submitted electronically via the Department of Defense Secure Access File Exchange (DoD SAFE), https://safe.apps.mil/. The DoD SAFE supports file sizes up to 8 GB.

• Responses may be submitted as a “guest” for any respondent that does not have a DoD Common Access Card. If submitting as a “guest,” contact the RFW points of contact for the DoD SAFE drop-off code needed for all submissions. The RFW points of contact and recipients of all documents submitted via DoD SAFE are Josh Lim, Contracting Officer, at ju.lim.civ@usmc.mil and Catherine Boxley, Contract Specialist, at catherine.boxley@usmc.mil. All responses shall reference "RFW#: M67854-26-I-1047 (Company Name) Response to OPF-M RFW”.

• RFW questions or comments shall be submitted no later than 10:00 AM Eastern time, on May 8th, 2026. The Government intends to respond to as many questions as practical and will provide questions and answers via amendment to this announcement, posted to the Contract Opportunities website (http://sam.gov/content/home).

• RFW responses shall be submitted no later than 10:00 AM, Eastern time, on May 26th, 2026.

5.0 PROPRIETARY DATA.

• The Government may use information received from this RFW to establish future Marine Corps requirements. Vendors deciding to submit competition-sensitive or proprietary information bear sole responsibility for marking the information for appropriate safeguarding. Proprietary information will be protected from unauthorized disclosure as required by Subsection 27 of the Office of Procurement Policy Act as amended (41 U.S.C. § 423) and as implemented in the FAR.

• NOTICE: The Government uses support contractor/non-Government personnel from Bowhead LLC, ManTech International Corp, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), and their subcontractors as consultants to help collect and review market information. The Government contractually binds these companies with respect to proprietary information by organizational mailto:ju.lim.civ@usmc.mil mailto:catherine.boxley@usmc.mil http://sam.gov/content/home) conflict of interest and non- disclosure clauses. Supporting contractor personnel are procurement officials within the meaning of the Office of Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. § 423) and as implemented in the FAR.