ARD_Industry_Day_QA_Final.pdf

NSWCCD ACOUSTIC RESEARCH DETACHMENT (ARD)

INDUSTRY DAY QUESTIONS

28 October 2019

1. Question: What percentage of work is off-site?

Answer: Anticipated requirement is less than 4%.

2. Question: Will the contractor need to develop staffing plan for the project over the 5-year period?

Answer: Yes. Requirement shall be addressed in Solicitation Section L. A staffing plan will demonstrate an offeror’s understanding of the support requirement.

3. Question: Will you give the contractors a list of essential job / labor categories?

Answer: It is anticipated that the Solicitation will include the Key Personnel Labor Categories at a minimum.

4. Question: Will it be eCRAFT labor category dependent?

Answer: eCRAFT reporting will be required and labor categories used for support will need to be in accordance with proposed staffing, which will be incorporated into the contract.

Requirement shall be addressed in Solicitation Section L.

5. Question: RFI states: Adequate workspaces on-site at the ARD will be available to support contractor. About how many spaces located in both offices and on barges?

Answer: Many spaces are shared work locations. See section 7.3. This section will be updated in final Solicitation release to provide more detail.

6. Question: What badging is required, CAC and NAVSEA badge?

Answer: CACs are used at the ARD for a combination of ARD installation entry, computer / network access (logon), and restricted area (building / room) access. A CAC cannot be issued to support personnel not needing a requirement for on-site network access / usage.

Support contractors who frequent the ARD on a regular basis, but do not qualify for a CAC, can obtain a Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) ID to facilitate recurring entry to the installation.

7. Question: Would ARD be willing to do an 8(a) set aside?

Answer: The Contracting Officer will make a determination based on the technical evaluation of the responses received from the market research conducted prior to the release of the Solicitation.

8. Question: Is all the fabrication work done on-site?

Answer: No. The primary function of onsite shops is to support day-to-day operations, maintenance, and repair which involves urgent or quick turn over production output.

Fabrication work above the ARD shop equipment capability or contractor on-site resource capacity would be expected to be accomplished by the contractor using off-site capability and resources. Fabrication of larger, complex or longer lead-time production articles and components from detailed blueprints would be most efficiently completed off-site so day-to-day on-site fabrication tasks do not interfere with complex article production schedule milestones. See SOW Section 4.5 for items described as shop services. It is estimated that 75% of ARD fabrication work is accomplished on-site.

9. Question: Who provides the sensors currently?

Answer: Combination of Government and contractor. ARD maintains and reutilizes an inventory of sensors (accelerometers, hydrophones, etc), parts, spares, and material to configure models for testing. Suites of new sensors (connectors, cabling, etc.) necessary to meet new test requirements (different measurement parameters) would be procured by the Government during advanced test planning material acquisition. These materials would be available for model instrumentation configuration changes at the time of test preparation. Materials acquired by the contractor (which could include sensors) would be maintenance and repair materials for unexpected equipment or system failures where materials (spares) are not available in Government stock supplies. It could also be material that is needed if in-progress test results (data) lead to unexpected, necessary configuration / requirement changes which need quick implementation to prevent test schedule delays.

10. Question: What is the current mix of electronics technicians to electronic engineers?

Answer: The current ratio of Electronic Engineers to Electronic Technicians is 42% / 58%. The Solicitation will have a breakout of the anticipated labor mix percentage of Management, Engineering, and Technical labor categories.

11. Question: How many FTE contractors currently support this effort? The current FTE is 44.2.

Answer: The anticipated LOE will be provided in the solicitation. The government uses 1880 hours for FTE estimates.

12. Question: How are underwater instruments replaced? How are they brought to the surface for repair and replacement?

Answer: Subsurface systems are configured for recovery, either instrumentation platforms that are hauled under water and can be subsequently raised to the surface for maintenance, or subsurface components suspended between anchors and submerged riser buoys. Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) and/or divers are used to attach recovery barge winch lines to components, riser buoys, or recovery attachment points to haul to the surface.

13. Question: Does the ARD government team develop the ARD schedules or is contractor responsible for setting the multiple schedule levels?

Answer: The schedules are set by government and contractor together. Contractor provides schedule input. Contractor site management meets with government daily to establish daily work schedules / assignments for contractor personnel, and weekly at ARD planning meetings to discuss and update project schedules. (See SOW 4.6.2 and 1.1.)

14. Comment: Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs) issue. More and more large businesses are refusing to respond to PPQs on the advice & direction of their legal departments for fear of potential libel lawsuits from poor performing subs. The impact is that they no longer provide PPQ for any subs. Bottom-line - PPQs are fast becoming extinct and moot.

Recommendation – the government not require PPQs from subcontractors.

Answer: For each past performance reference identified, offerors will be asked to submit a completed CPARS report, if available, or a PPQ. When CPARS reports are not available, the offeror shall submit one PPQ, to each of its customer POCs identified in the Recent and Relevant Past Performance References.

15. Question: Is there a preference to either retain, or replace incumbent contractor team?

Answer: Neither. Award anticipated to be based on best value. The award is expected to be covered by Service Contract Labor Standards (SCLS) statute. The anticipated SCLS effort, based on the IGCE is about 467,220 of 683,620 hours, or 68% SCLS.

16. Question: Given the rapid progression in cyber security, (1) Will there be any controlled unclassified info (CUI) involved in support of this solicitation? (2) Will the government provide a list of any possible CUI in the RFP? (3) What level of cyber maturity model certification will be required to support this solicitation?

Answer: Most information pertaining to ARD operations is CUI and not approved for public release. Within 30 days of contact award, the contractor shall submit a System Security Plan (SSP) that shall implement the security requirements in Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) clause 252.204-7012. The Contractor shall fully implement the CUI Security Requirements and associated Relevant Security Controls in NIST Special Publication 800-171 (Rev. 1) (NIST SP 800-171.) Additional direction will be released in Solicitation.

17. Question: How do we work on underwater assets and instrumentation?

Answer: Subsurface assets are brought to the surface onto barges. See answer to Question 12, above.

18. Question: How is the pleasure craft traffic contained during a trial or is event scheduling impacted?

Answer: Pleasure craft operating at high speeds interferes with acoustic data acquisition.

However, the Government cannot preclude pleasure craft traffic. Therefore, testing is scheduled at times of low pleasure craft traffic to minimize interference. Testing is conducted after dark during summer, whereas pleasure traffic is minimal during winter and testing can occur during the day. During testing where a model could breach the surface, a range safety boat is stationed to intercept pleasure craft traffic entering the test range. The public is usually cooperative in avoiding or vacating the test range when requested and are warned of the risk.