Response to Q-A.pdf

Attention:

The answers provided below will provide each vendor with a better understanding of this requirement and expectations of the government. Please seek clarification or guidance on the responses as needed.

1. We would expect section 3.3 Offensive Missile Systems Foreign Materiel Exploitation (FME) to include the ability to support SW related technologies such as FPGAs and DSPs and techniques such as SW extraction and reverse engineering given these have become critical aspects of the exploitation process and the understanding modern missile systems. Will the Government add a section to 3.3.5 Detailed S&TI characterization of offensive missile systems and components addressing the need for these capabilities? We are not going to add another subsection under 3.3 or expand on 3.3.5. We believe that this topic is covered under “software/firmware, components” listed in 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.4, and 3.3.5.

2. Will the Government release a draft version of labor categories and their requirements/descriptions prior to the RFP release so that contractors and subcontractors may begin labor pricing? Yes

3. Will there be Security Specialists and Security-IT labor categories? Yes

4. With the increasing amount of foreign material exploitation being performed at MSIC (both on-site and at contractor facilities), hazardous material (HAZMAT) safety is becoming an issue. The exploitation of both pristine and battlefield recovered hardware usually involves disassembly and analysis of components that contain inherent risks to those involved. These risks include unknown chemicals, asbestos and other airborne particulates, damaged equipment and possible explosives. Would it be possible to include requirements to field and maintain a trained and equipped staff to mitigate these risks?

Associated costs could include HAZMAT certifications/maintenance, employee training, safety equipment acquisition and maintenance, etc.

We don’t plan to include this requirement. We do have trained and certified Government and contractors (under a separate contract) that perform safety procedures on all of our foreign material exploitation equipment. Additionally, we have safely equipment for use under this contract. However, appropriate experience, knowledge, training, and certifications for personnel working with foreign equipment is encouraged just as they are for 3.2 (Subsystem Analysis), 3.4 (Programing/Modeling), and 3.5 (Systems Analysis).

Section 1.1.1 – Staffing

1) Is work entirely through task orders, or is there a Level of Effort (LOE) level of funding provided for overall programmatic support (e.g., management and business operations)? The work is primarily task orders. There could be some Level-of-effort tasks, but not for programmatic support.

2) Appears staffing of 75-150 is expected by the end of Year 1. Once this level is achieved, will MSIC continue funding this level of support even if the number of task orders is inadequate to support all personnel? No

Section 1.1.2 – Facilities

1) SOW requires a high-bay to house “very large vehicles”. What is the maximum vehicle size expected and maximum quantity of vehicles to be housed in the high-bay? Two 17m vehicles

2) What size SCIF and what quantity of SCIFs are expected to support this contract? This is highly dependent on types of task orders, which is unforeseen. Work might be divided between the Government SCIF and the contractor SCIF. There is no requirement to have more than one SCIF as long as it can support the required staffing.

3) Does each high-bay and SCIF need to support the TS/SCI security level, or could some be set up at the Secret level? The high-bay could be SECRET to TS/SCI

Section 3 – Paragraphs with Testing involved

1) Are all facilities provided as GFE in terms of usage and storage costs, e.g., wind tunnels, INTeF and IIML (see Section 3.2.7), RF lab and Materials lab (see Section 3.3.1), etc. Yes

Section 3 – Paragraphs involving simulations and software

1) Does MSIC already have a set of approved analysis/software tools they expect the contractor to use? For example, Section 3.4.9 says MSIC will specify the CAD modeling program. Yes

Section 3.3.7 – Signature Measurements

1) Is the contractor expected to create its own signature measurement test setups/facilities, or can GFE capabilities (e.g., Pt Mugu radar chamber) be used? Can use GFE

Section 3.3.10 - Flight Test Support (Hardware)

1) Per this SOW paragraph, the contractor is required to provide missile subsystem flight hardware. At what level, i.e., just the box/avionics level, or at the module or even All Up Round level? Mostly at the module level

Section 3.4.5 – HWIL

1) Is the contractor expected to build and maintain an HWIL? No, it would be project dependent and would be GFE

2) Are multiple HWILs required to simulate multiple missile types, i.e., different task orders may require different HWILs? Yes Section 3.5 – Intelligence Analysis

1) Is the contractor required to gather classified intelligence (i.e., not the OSINT described in Section 3.5.7) via direct coordination with other government agencies (e.g., CIA, NSA), or is classified intelligence always GFI from MSIC? It could be required that the contractor do direct coordination

General

1) What are the small business set-aside requirements/percentages for this contract? TBD

2) Are there OCI considerations that we need to be aware of? Please clarify if you are referring to Organization Conflicts of Interest?

3) Of these factors, which is the most important? Technical expertise is the most important

a. Low cost performance, e.g., low labor rates for LOE staff.

b. Ability to respond quickly to short schedules, e.g., new Task

Orders requiring quick turn-arounds.

c. Technical expertise.

4) Is funding available in the FY22 budget/FYDP? Yes

5) What is the expected turnaround time between RFP release and submission to the government? 45 calendar days.