ASTARS Source Sought Questions and Answers.doc

ASTARS Source Sought Responses Issued 5/1/08

Questions and Answers

Question 1: Could you provide some clarification on the funding for the subject requirement? The original notice indicated that the budget was $10M. Answers to the questions submitted indicated that there was no firm budget at this time. Is there currently a fixed budget for this effort?

Answer 1: $10M is an estimate, it is for non-recurring engineering services (development, installation, testing and training) and three (3) years of leasing and maintenance.

Proposed CLIN structure:

Base Period Design

Option One Evaluation/Acceptance and Training

Option Two Leasing and Maintenance

Option Three Leasing and Maintenance

Option Four Leasing and Maintenance

Question 2: We would like to give you a solution for the above and would like to know if the current operator stations in the P-3 can be installed in the new airplane as GFE?

Answer 2: Yes, displays control could be provided as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE).

Question 3: the Sources Sought has a "Response Date" of 31 DEC. Does that mean that the RFP submissions will be due 31 DEC, vice the 15 SEP mentioned at the Industry day?

Answer 3: Sources sought respones are due NLT 1400 on June 2 , 2008. The anticipated award date is December 31, 2008.

Question 4: the Sources Sought lists the Set Aside as N/A. Is this a Small Business Set-aside or has that determination not been made yet?

Answer 4: It has not been determined yet.

Question 5: I haven't been able to find the NAICS Code 541712 nor definition anywhere. Is this a typo? (541xxx doesn't look like anything remotely comparable to this work scope)

Answer 5: You can access the definition to the 541712 at the following website:

http://www.census.gov/naics/2007/def/ND541712.HTM#N541712 Question 6: Reference the estimated cost of $10M for a period of five years --Is this number really suppose to include the Non-Recurring costs, i.e. the Base Year??? While $2M per year may be sufficient for the operating phase the Non-Recurring cost should run at least $5M in engineering, modifications & FAA certifications (NOTE: All of the required capabilities, i.e. APG-66, MX-15 & associated equipment and consoles can indeed be FAA Certified in at least Restricted Category if not Standard and would not require the use of Experimental category but it does required NRE $$ although not nearly as much as a NAVAIR program might cost).

Answer 6: See Question #1.

Question 7: Reference again the estimated cost of $10M for a period of five years -- Presumably this amount does not include fuel as that would be GFE, right? If it doesn't include the fuel, can you provide the USG's project fuel budget? The P-3C probably consumes an average of nearly 700 gallons per flight hour but if an offeror's proposed solution would consume only 250 gallons per flight hour, an offeror may elect to provide a more expensive aircraft, i.e. purchase cost, if the fuel savings of nearly $500k per year could be used to offset the difference in asset cost.

Answer 7: Yes, government fuel will be provided when in direct support of Test Pilot School (TPS).

Question 8: How long will you be accepting questions?

Answer 8: The cut-off date for questions is 1400 EST, 5/19/08.

Question 9: How many copies of the capability statement should I provided?

Answer 9: Two copies.