RFP_Questions_Received_COR_inputs_-_legal_revTN12_18_18.pdf

Questions & Answers Received for DRAFT RFP N00421-17-R-0054

Q1. Guidance on substitution of a Bachelor’s degree plus 4 years of additional experience for a Master’s degree is not entirely clear. Table 4 in section 4.4 states that a bachelor’s degree plus an additional four years of experience can be used to meet a master’s degree requirement. This is fairly typical in other Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) solicitations as well. The descriptions in Table 5 of section 4.5 include the words “no substitute for years of experience” wording in the Program Manager, Senior Engineer, and Senior Systems Analyst labor category descriptions. Assume that the intent of these words is to preclude anyone from substituting years of experience for the overall degree requirement - but that the intent is not to preclude substituting a bachelor’s degree plus an additional four years of experience for the master’s degree requirement. In other words, candidates with the appropriate bachelor’s degree plus 16 years of experience can still qualify in the Program Manager, Senior Engineer, and Senior Systems Analyst labor categories. Request you consider rewording to clarify this.

A1: The Government concurs that Table 4 is correct.

As for the request of “no substitute for years of experience” be removed from all Labor categories, in Table 5, the Government also concurs. The Government concurs that the short statement is confusing.

The Government’s sense is that the statement actually means “No Education level can substitute for years of experience.” The current contract does not contain this, therefore the Government does not deem it necessary. For example, the Government has Table 4 which provides an approved substitution.

Q2. Table 5 of section 4.5.1.1 calls for a Master’s degree in the Journeyman Engineer labor category.

This seems inconsistent with the other Journeyman labor categories and the Journeyman definition in section 4.4. Was this perhaps intended to be a bachelor’s degree requirement?

A2: The Government concurs, the correct education requirement for Journeyman Engineer should be a Bachelor’s degree.

Q3. The Junior Engineer labor category in Table 5 of section 4.5.1.1 requires “A bachelor’s or postgraduate degree in an engineering or physics discipline from a school where the specified curriculum was accredited by the ABET. What is inconsistent here, however, is that the Journeyman Engineer and Senior Engineer labor categories do not hold to the same degree standards. They are instead much broader, allowing business, technical, physical science, and even social science degrees in addition to engineering degrees. Request that you consider maintaining consistency with prior 5.1.2 Mission Systems Test and Evaluation Division Support (MSTED) Contract Support Service requirements, the draft labor qualifications you previously released, and other recently released NAWCAD solicitations and limit the acceptable degrees in all the engineering labor categories to ABET school engineering degrees only.

A3: The Government concurs with replacing the much broader degrees with the Junior Engineer verbiage. Rationale: an engineering degree distinguishes an Engineer from an Engineering Technician. All 3 level Engineers should have an engineering degree.

The verbiage should be “A ______ degree in an engineering or physics discipline from a school where the specified curriculum was accredited by the ABET.” Senior Engineer = Master’s degree; Journeyman Engineer = Bachelor’s degree; Junior Engineer = Bachelor’s degree.

Q4. Request you reconsider whether a year of experience substitution for the degree might still be appropriate for the three Systems Analyst labor categories.

A4: The Government concurs that the “in lieu of” verbiage should be included for the 3 System Analyst labor categories and the Program Analyst labor category.

Q5. Request you consider including FAR Clause 252.228-7001 Ground and Flight Risk Clause. This clause is required to allow the contractor to support Flight Test requirements in a Project Flight Specialist capacity onboard Navy and Navy support aircraft.

A5: The Government concurs with adding FAR Clause 252.228-7001 Ground and Flight Risk Clause to Section I CLAUSES INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE, due to the following rational: Contractor support personnel on the contract can support government ground tests and installations with inclusion of this clause.

Q6. Request you consider including NAVAIRINST 3710.1F Contractor’s Flight and Ground Operations as a reference. This instruction is the basis for Ground Operating Procedures that are required to participate in aircraft instrumentation installs.

A6: The Government concurs with adding NAVAIRINST 3710.1F Contractor’s Flight and Ground Operations as a reference to support aircraft instrumentation installs.

Q7. Most of the positions in the section 3.4.3 labor category table identify whether the position is onsite or offsite but there are three entries here that are missing this information.

A7: The Government concurs with adding onsite/offsite information to the 3 entries that are missing this information:

Engineer, Journeyman* (Pax River, onsite) Engineering Technician, Sr* (Point Mugu, onsite) Systems Analyst, Sr (Pax River, onsite)