PWS C5ISR for RFI (draft) - 26RA001.pdf

CUI

Basic Performance Work Statement (PWS)

ARL, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat Systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR)

Integrated Operations for High Performance Computing - Scientific, Engineering, Analysis, and Outreach Support Services

Controlled by: US Army

Controlled by: ARL

CUI Category(ies): PROCURE, CONTRACT

Limited Dissemination Control: FEDCON

POC: Daniel Balizan, daniel.j.balizan.civ@army.mil

A.

B.

C. Performance Work Statement

C.1. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

C.1.1 SCOPE

The mission of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is to provide U.S. soldiers the technological edge by conducting a broadly-based, multidisciplinary program of basic and applied research, exploratory development, and analysis, operating with the critical mass, synergy, and flexibility to satisfy the Army's future technological needs. This contract effort will provide the ARL Army Research Directorate (ARD) with research, development, and technology services to support its mission which focuses on scientific research and technology in the areas of information processing, network and communication sciences, information assurance, battlespace environments, computational sciences, and advanced computing.

C.1.2 BACKGROUND

This PWS details the levels and types of Contractor support and services required to sustain the mission and functions of the ARL ARD, located at the ARL facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD and at Adelphi, MD. The ARD provides scientific research and technology focused on information processing, network and communication sciences, information assurance, battlespace environments, and advanced computing, that create, exploit, and harvest innovative technologies to enable knowledge superiority for the Warfighter. ARD technologies lead to strategic, operational, and tactical information dominance across the spectrum of the US Army operations and platforms.

The required support includes services and solutions in the form of research, development, test, evaluation, infrastructure operations, and dissemination of results.

This support includes High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) / Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) operations support and support of HPCMP and DREN/Secret Defense Research Engineering Network (SDREN) program management offices. Also included in this effort are support services for project management, network security analysis, systems management administration, administrative and program management/planning, database management, and software development.

C.1.3 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this acquisition effort is to establish a Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle(s) under which Task Orders (TOs) may be issued. The TOs shall provide services for various programs conducted by ARD. Efforts may include computer science and engineering research and development; network, network sciences, and network security research, development, and operations; cyber security research and operations; network integration and development; and program management support.

C.2. REQUIREMENTS

C.2.1 OVERVIEW

C.2.1.1 The Contractor shall provide the personnel required to perform the following highly technical, cutting-edge military research and development efforts. Specific technology focus areas include both research and development and program services as identified under each of the following headings. Each TO PWS will identify specific requirements. Each TO will have an appointed Contracting Officer Representative (COR) who will serve as the single individual to provide surveillance for individual TO requirements and performance. Each TO may also have one (1) or more appointed Technical Monitor(s) (TMs) that will support the COR with surveillance of the performance. The Contractor shall perform in accordance with the requirements of the individual TO and this base PWS.

C.2.1.2 The Contractor shall ensure its employees are trained and qualified for the positions to which they are assigned and shall provide all applicable developmental training to its employees to maintain skills and knowledge of technical advancements associated with these positions.

C.2.2 PROGRAM SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall support requirements described in but not limited to this section.

Specific technical activities and skill levels required to fulfill ARD requirements vary by task and are specifically outlined in each individual TO.

C.2.2.1 Program Oversight and Support

The Contractor Program Manager(s) shall provide oversight and management over contract employees and tasks as well as oversight of sub-contractors and shall be responsible for the following:

• Manage Contractor personnel under each task.

• Maintain a safe working environment by enforcing standard operating procedures (SOPs), rules, and regulations, to ensure the work environment is neat and orderly, and ensure that all Contractor personnel conduct themselves in professional manner.

• Manage TOs and ensure work complies with and supports specified capabilities and requirements.

• Manage purchase requests in support of the program and ensure accuracy of all program expenditures.

• Track all TO costs/expenditures, compile monthly reports, provide administrative support for activities associated with purchasing, communications contracts (wireless phones/air cards), and prepare and track all orders from initiation to completion for trend analysis recommendations and input that supports budget formulation.

• Submit the financial contract data requirements lists (CDRLs) for each TO within the scheduled timeframe and submit funding notifications in a timely manner.

C.2.2.2 Administrative & Security Support

The Contractor shall provide internal administrative support for TO’s to include the following:

• Processing visitors and newly hired contract employees, to include validating clearances, badging, arranging for escorts, etc.

• Support each task and program’s travel requirements, such as processing travel documents, coordinating travel authorizations, processing expense reports, planning and booking travel arrangements.

• Escort visitors and un-cleared personnel through offices/facilities.

• Brief new contract employees on responsibilities within the facility

• Support Contractor employees with classified and unclassified visits by submitting visit requests.

• Support the tracking of Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) updates and clearances.

• Conduct screening of new contract hires.

• Maintain a list or database of all Government furnished equipment that uniquely identifies each piece of equipment and its location.

C.2.3 PROGRAM & PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

C.2.3.1 Program & Project Management and Analysis.

C.2.3.1.1 The Contractor shall apply an understanding of the overarching and specific plans, programs, and funding in support of ARL ARD to provide program support and analysis of the technical mission and customer programs and projects.

C.2.3.1.2 The Contractor shall provide Government technical managers with support related to the overall planning, execution, reporting and monitoring of Mission and

Customer programs and projects. The Contractor shall research, consolidate, prepare, and present status reports, charts, and other media to document current and projected status of technical deliverables, including the management of cost, schedule, and performance. The Contractor shall provide recommendations for each milestone and identify issues that may delay or impact the program or its direction. The Contractor shall support with purchasing needed equipment based on input and technical direction from Government COR or technical monitor.

C.2.3.1.3 The Contractor shall research other Government agencies, universities, and commercial partners and provide analysis to ARL Government POCs for consideration for potential internal or external partnerships.

C.2.3.1.4 The Contractor shall monitor and report the utilization and execution of resources considering Government mandated goals for obligations and disbursements and the impact project status will have on meeting these goals. The Contractor shall identify, research, and report anticipated constraints in resources, both labor and financial, that may impact programs and projects.

C.2.3.1.5 The Contractor shall assess programs and processes, review reporting documents, and provide decision-support analysis to provide recommendations for overall program direction.

C.2.3.2 Educational Outreach Analysis

C.2.3.2.1 The Contractor shall be responsible for developing, coordinating, and providing analysis for a technology-oriented Education and Outreach Program to support ARL ARD research mission areas. The Contractor shall maintain continual professional interchange with High Performance Computing (HPC) technology-orientated representatives of industry and Government. Efforts shall include the following:

• Proactively seek and implement outreach efforts.

• Participate in and/or support formal and information exchange meetings and workshops.

• Develop, produce, and distribute information and/or items to promote HPC usage among the Department of Defense’s (DoD) science and engineering community.

• Design, develop and maintain web sites and published media.

C.2.3.2.2 The Contractor shall develop, process, and manage a summer outreach program that includes sponsorship of High School, Undergraduate and Graduate Engineering/Scientist Students for summer outreach programs, based on available funding. The Contractor shall handle the recruiting, organizational and logistical arrangements. Efforts associated with this task include the following:

• Identification of specific projects to support research in computational science in areas of interest to ARL

• Identify and propose selection of qualified Students/Faculty for participation in program during each summer program and provide a list of proposed candidates to the Government Point of Contact (POC).

• Plan and coordinate student/faculty participation in required preparation and presentation of final report and/or project demonstration as determined by the Government POC at the close of each program cycle.

C.2.4 HIGH PERFORMANCE NETWORKING RESEARCH SERVICES

This effort includes security, research, and development support services for software and network engineering needed for experimental development and testing of advanced and emerging HPC networking technologies. The Contractor shall perform system analysis, software and networking engineering, development, and research to accomplish assigned missions.

C.2.4.1 Software Defined Networking (SDN)

C.2.4.1.1 The Contractor shall support SDN research. The Contractor shall support the research, development, and sustainment of systems in the following technical areas:

• SDN network modeling for studying state dynamics to improve SDN performance and security.

• Heterogeneous network modeling research

• Ability to compose research publications in peer-reviewed journals.

C.2.4.1.2 The Contractor shall develop new network models to support experiments with SDN protocols and to modify OpenFlow protocols. Additionally, the Contractor shall study the Government SDN project requirements and research to extend the SDN-based network topologies into the Government production networks.

Contractor SDN research tasking that includes:

• Design and Development of SDN Topologies to deploy next generation networking designs

C.2.4.2 Dynamic Optical Networking (DON) Research, Development, Testing and Engineering

C.2.4.2.1 DON research aims to provide technological innovations that advance the state-of-the-art in high performance optical networks. This shall include dynamic super-cloud computing through reconfigurable high-speed optical interconnects between DoD Supercomputing Research Centers and other HPC resources. It may also include applications to other problems within the DoD that may benefit from dynamic reconfiguration of optical paths.

C.2.4.2.2 The Contractor shall support investigating solutions to fundamental challenges related to dynamic provisioning and reconfiguration of high-performance optical networks. This research supports the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a transition partner for continued research and development and additional research opportunities with scientists and researchers at federal funded research centers as well as with academic partners.

C.2.4.2.3 The Contractor shall conduct DON investigations which shall include fundamental physics and material sciences that relate to fiber optic system performance, material sciences to reduce tuning time for telecommunication lasers, as well as software design and implementation of dynamic optical network control planes. Development investigations shall include research and development of other systems and technologies that shall demonstrate the viability of various solutions. Efforts include supporting DARPA and interconnecting DoD and academic experimentation networks, setup, development, and configuration of optical network paths to support high-precision timing and clock distribution experimentation.

C.2.4.2.4 Efforts shall also include providing deliverables related to the following areas:

• Research into dynamic optical networking technologies, capabilities, and applications.

• Design, engineer, and maintain demonstration networks that employ DON technologies and methodologies to provide resulting capabilities to Government scientists and engineers.

• Prepare reports, papers, and other documentation to record and/or publish research findings and results.

C.2.4.3 Quantum Networks

C.2.4.3.1The Contractor shall support the theoretical research on quantum networks to maintain capabilities required by the Government S&Es. The Contractor shall support efforts to perform basic research and build the theoretical and modeling foundation for quantum networks to meet the future mission-critical requirements of Army. Efforts shall also include providing deliverables related to the following areas:

• Prototyping network systems using quantum optics infrastructure.

• Develop quantum-based frameworks to derive algorithms for distributed computing.

• Design and engineer new networks, to support ever-changing RDT&E requirements of the Government.

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings.

C.2.5 COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURES RESEARCH SERVICES

C.2.5.1 Computing Architectures Research

The Contractor shall investigate emerging binary and other novel architecture designs (e.g. quantum, neuro-synaptic) relevant to Army and other DoD mission-related areas addressing benchmarking design, execution, and refinement to better assess emerging computer designs. Efforts shall include:

• Benchmark investigation and execution on a range of binary and emerging adiabatic quantum computing systems.

• Development of parameterized models to describe and capture computing capacity.

• Development of algorithm optimization approaches using various models and software engineering systems.

• Parallel software development.

• Investigation of power and performance optimization.

• Compiler research targeting efficient instruction scheduling.

• Design and implementation of domain-specific computer languages.

• Development in C, C++, and/or similar lower-level computing languages.

• Investigation of multi-tiered and scalable software engineering through Domain

Specific Languages or other methodologies.

• Provide support for testbed capabilities and system monitoring, modification, and maintenance for various R&D and production functions.

• Provide infrastructure support for R&D activities in software development and revision control, testing, data storage and access, and research support.

• Documentation of findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings.

• Investigation into ability to leverage emerging architectures for tactical use cases.

• Research and development toward emulating computing device capabilities.

C.2.5.2 Advanced Computing at the Tactical Edge

The Contractor shall support R&D efforts focused toward enabling advanced, performant computing capabilities at the tactical edge. This includes the development of techniques and optimizations enabling local compute leveraging AI/ML or other advanced techniques on resource constrained and heterogeneous device types as well as across distributed architectures. To support distributed architectures, this includes the development of models and concepts allowing for task migration among friendly assets, methods to allow for the formation and health assessment of tactical computational entities, techniques to assess the impact of various deployment scenarios, and the development of new emulation capabilities to assist with verification, validation, and assessment. The Contractor shall develop new capabilities for situational awareness and enhanced distributed processing as a result of this high-level computing capacity. Efforts shall include:

• Development and evaluation of techniques, optimizations, and algorithms to optimize and enhance computing capability on resource constrained devices.

• Development, evaluation, optimization, and integration of AI/ML techniques to support tactical operational use cases.

• Development and evaluation of techniques enabling use of novel computing architectures facilitating edge processing

• Development of new models and techniques to maximize computing core capacity in distributed environments.

• Investigation of task and/or data parallel processing in cloud service architectures.

• Investigation of data redundancy and integrity.

• Performance of provisioning model stress-testing through network simulation and/or emulation studies.

• Investigation of novel technologies (capabilities) based on increased computing capacity.

• Documentation of findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings, and documentation for locally developed software.

• Conducting test and evaluation of developed capabilities.

• Provide Infrastructure and equipment maintenance and support for R&D activities in software development and revision control, testing, and data storage and access.

The Contractor shall support the development of and implementation of AI optimization and model reduction algorithms and techniques. This includes supporting development of various and general techniques enabling optimization of ML models, as well as optimization geared toward specific use cases including ability to integrate into identified autonomy stacks to enable autonomous systems operation. The Contractor shall support the development of any enabling software and tooling allowing use of these techniques. The Contractor shall be familiar with AI simulation environments to conduct experiments for initial assessment of AI algorithms before integration into autonomous vehicles. These efforts require advanced knowledge of Python and C++ programming in an HPC environment.

The Contractor shall support research and development in areas dealing with maximizing the computing capacity across disparate processing cores as fielded in a cloud-based and/or distributed infrastructure in a tactical environment. These efforts require the development of comprehensive models to capture computing capacity per core, per node, and across networked cores. Parameter assessment, development, and integration into models shall be required to increase and refine fidelity of computing distributed in tactical settings. Data integrity and processing migration and assignment (provisioning) across “friendly” processing assets shall be studied, refined, and expanded as part of this basic and applied research effort. Efforts shall also include the development of new methods to classify application signatures that can facilitate a mapping of algorithms to divergent architectures, along with novel optimization and heuristic methods for computationally intractable problems. The Contractor shall also assist with the investigation of methods for supplying tactical data storage within environments under consideration.

C.2.5.3 Scalable Technologies for Spatial and Temporal Data Analytics and Machine Learning

The Contractor shall support research and development in areas dealing with high dimensional data and potentially scalable data sets with the purpose of drawing conclusions and the discovery of useful information. Examples of theoretical algorithms for these techniques include numerical and non-numerical analytics. This task includes accelerated and parallel approaches to facilitate real-time or near-real-time processing.

Efforts shall include:

• Development of new models and techniques to facilitate machine learning.

• Investigation of novel approaches for “big data” processing including, data mining, genetic algorithms, signal processing, and simulation, as well as other potentially promising approaches.

• Novel technique development for data analytics.

C.2.5.4 High Performance Computing Technology, Hardware, and Software.

The Contractor shall support various aspects of a High-Performance Computing Center to include installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting complex hardware architectures;

installation and configuration of system and end user software; managing access control, queueing systems, and resource allocation. The Contractor shall support software development for system tools, maintenance, analysis, and configuration. The Contractor shall communicate in a clear, concise, manner with HPC center customers, as well as other contractor and Government staff.

C.2.6 COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES

C.2.6.1 Extreme-Scale and Multi-Scale Computational Frameworks

The Contractor shall support R&D efforts that posture the Government to be on the leading edge of extreme scale coupled simulations and research. The Contractor shall also support research in the area multi-scale predictive simulation with first principles and surrogate modeling for complex physical systems as well as the development and implementation of new parallel solvers and post-processing algorithms and software to add capability and improve performance when analyzing experimental and simulation data sets. The Contractor shall perform the following research and development tasks:

• Physics-based code development

• Complex software systems development

• Frameworks and interpolation methodologies for large-scale, extreme-scale, and multi-scale coupled simulations.

• Software and algorithm development for a variety of data sets and research new ways to analyze complex distributed data sets utilizing low level (C, C++, etc.)

and high level (Python, etc.) programming languages, and scalable algorithm implementations.

• Conduct research into, develop, and apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques and algorithms to Army relevant problems.

• Surrogate models of complex physical systems to enable investigation of scenarios that are currently intractable using first principles methods.

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings, and documentation for locally developed software.

• First principles models for complex physical systems.

• Engage with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in other Competencies to develop domain specific models.

• Perform GPU Porting/Implementation/Programming

• Parallel solvers and post-processing algorithms for extreme-scale and multi-scale simulations.

• New artificial reasoning computational models and techniques for multiple data sources to provide enhanced detection, classification, identification as well as deeper reasoning (associative, interventional, causal, etc.).

• Modeling, simulation, and analysis of AI/ML methodologies leveraging various programing languages and applications.

• Software and algorithm development for mixed reality experimental environment and reasoning frameworks, exploring visualization and analysis techniques for heterogenous data and resultant outcomes.

• Perform applied research and development into complex authentication methods including Kerberos for web-based multi-tiered applications. This shall also include seamless authentication across Kerberos domains.

• Perform applied research and development into complex authentication methods for web applications.

C.2.6.2 Interdisciplinary Computing Methods

C.2.6.2.1 Interdisciplinary Computing Methods include the coupling of multi-physics and phenomenological models to provide an understanding of complex systems and environments, including network Simulation, Emulation and Environment Software Development and Support. The Contractor shall provide software development support leveraging multiple techniques to predict hardware performance based on multiple external variables including the effects of terrain, weather, network traffic.

C.2.6.2.2 The Contractor shall execute the following tasking:

• Perform software development for large geospatial data sets and research new ways to analyze and visualize large, complex distributed data.

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings, and documentation for locally developed software.

C.2.6.3 The Contractor shall support the theoretical and applied research and development in Computational Sciences required by the Government S&Es. The Contractor shall support efforts to perform basic and applied research and build the foundation for computational science to meet the future mission-critical requirements of the Army. Efforts shall also include providing support and deliverables related to the following areas:

• AI/ML

• Autonomy/autonomous systems

• Algorithm/ML model optimization

• Edge computing and AI/ML at the edge

• Emerging/novel and distributed computing architecture

• Software research and development

• Integration, test, and evaluation

• Develop and test infrastructure setup and maintenance

• Documentation of findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, and/or conference presentations and proceedings, and documentation for locally developed software.

C.2.6.4 Simulation and Emulation in HPC for Large Scale Tactical Networks

The Contractor shall:

• Perform R & D for communications modeling in contested environments including Electronic Warfare and Cyber effects.

• Perform waveform model development and behavioral model development based on protocol definitions.

• Modeling of RF environments

• Development of optimization methods for complex processes and systems

• Provide documentation outlining research findings and provide recommendations for research direction.

C.2.7 INFORMATION SCIENCES

C.2.7.1 The Contractor shall support the Software Defined Networking (SDN) Research project. The Contractor shall support the research, development, and sustainment of systems in the following technical areas:

• SDN network modeling for studying State Dynamics to improve SDN performance and Security.

• Heterogeneous network modeling research

• Experimentation of SDN for heterogeneous devices

• Ability to compose research publications in conferences and/or peer-reviewed journals.

C.2.7.2 The Contractor shall support research and development in areas dealing with high dimensional data and potentially scalable data sets with the purpose of drawing conclusions and the discovery of useful information. Examples of theoretical algorithms for these techniques include numerical and non-numerical analytics. This task includes accelerated and parallel approaches to facilitate real-time or near-real-time processing. Efforts shall include:

• Development of new models and techniques to facilitate machine learning.

• Investigation of novel approaches for “big data” processing including, data mining, genetic algorithms, signal processing, and simulation, as well as other potentially promising approaches.

• Novel technique development for data analytics.

• Adaptive analysis for limited data

• Development and modification of uncertainty of information and information sources for decision making

C.2.7.3 The Contractor shall support R & D efforts in data analysis and simulations.

The Contractor shall also support research in predictive analysis and simulation as well as the development and implementation of new parallel solvers, novel machine learning, and post-processing algorithms and software. Efforts shall include the following:

• Physics-based code development

• Data Models and Formats

• Big data informatics: Post-processing of large complex data sets

• Limited, contested, potentially compromised data analysis and solutions for detecting and identifying objects, areas, and signals of interest.

• Complex software systems development

• Mixed computer language development

• Scientific visualization

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, C.2.7.4 The Contractor shall identify, design, develop, and implement accessible, online support software/tools to accomplish the following:

• Provide applicable program management tools.

• Provide applicable relational database management tools and techniques that facilitate support.

• Share data and allow real-time desktop to desktop support.

• Provide access and a real time Developer Environment for the development of

HPC capability.

C.2.7.5 The Contractor shall support R&D efforts in common operating picture systems, cyber defense and emerging technology supporting decision making. Efforts include:

• Develop methods to address cyber-resistant information processing and decision-support schemes for tactical information for command and control.

• Develop, maintain, and extend cross-reality environments that incorporate real-word sensing to enable the research and development of command, control, and intelligence for decision making.

• Maintain, and extend or develop server and network architectures that support intelligent synchronization and information mediation between heterogeneous sensors, various systems, as well as common operating picture systems.

• Research and develop metrics for measuring the efficacy of decision making in immersive and traditional interface.

• Perform research that includes the collection and extraction of intelligent actionable facts gathered from the technical services to explore methods to present these to human analysts or cyber decision makers in ways that improve the security posture of the Global Information Grid (GIG).

• Research and develop algorithms, devices, and techniques to improve communication with edge devices including issues of connectivity with information systems.

• Ability to write research publications in conferences and/or peer-reviewed

C.2.7.6 C.2.7.6 Contractor shall perform R&D in artificial reasoning and machine learning

• Causal discovery for time series data extending existing techniques including machine learning approaches.

• Causal inferencing modelling for estimating causal effects.

• Developing interpretable causal models

• Creating technique for causality and rare event prediction

• Evaluation of causal model performance

C.2.7.7 The Contractor shall perform R&D in autonomy and robotics.

• Investigating multiple agent autonomous and robotic systems

• Developing methods for multiple agents to coordinate and perform various tasks.

• Creating techniques for initiating, assessing, and predicting behaviors of autonomous and robotic systems

C.2.7.8 The Contractor shall support the theoretical and applied research in generative AI. Efforts shall include:

• Investigating state-of-the-art generative AI and foundation models

• Creating new methods and computational models for generative AI and foundation model-based solutions to heterogenous data

• Performing experiments for data collection and proof of concept demonstrations

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, C.2.7.9 The Contractor shall support the theoretical and applied research in Information Science to build and maintain capabilities required by the Government S&Es. The Contractor shall support efforts to perform basic and applied research and build the theoretical and modeling foundation for information sciences to meet the future mission-critical requirements of the Army. Efforts shall also include providing deliverables related to the following areas:

• Military internet of things

• Internet of Battlefield Things

• Robotics and Autonomous Systems

• Sensors and Intelligent Systems

• Smart Sensors for Urban Terrain Environment

• Document findings through written reports, journal articles, technical reports, C.2.8 ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENT SUPPORT

C.2.8.1 The Contractor shall support the ARL mission to provide the Army’s premier laboratory with the necessary resources (people, technology, and processes) to facilitate novel and innovative R&D for the Soldier. The Contractor shall work with internal and external stakeholders to understand and formally document requirements and build business cases, specifically with a focus on technological support for the eleven (11) ARL foundational research competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences; Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences; Energy Sciences, Humans in Complex Systems; Mechanical Sciences; Military Information Sciences;

Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences; Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences; Sciences of Extreme Materials; Terminal Effects; and Weapons Sciences.

C.2.8.2 The Contractor shall provide formal recommendations on strategies, technologies, and platforms to assist ARL S&Es in sharing information and data with their mission partners, to establish and maintain synergistic relationships with international, academic, and entrepreneur communities.

C.2.8.3 The Contractor shall identify, design, develop, and implement accessible, online support software/tools to accomplish the following:

• Provide applicable program management tools.

• Provide applicable relational database management tools and techniques that facilitate shared support among mission partners. .

• Share data and allow real-time desktop to desktop technologies. .

• Provide access and a real time Developer Environment for the development of

HPC capability.

C.2.8.3.1 The Contractor shall ensure the management tools include the ability to access and share program documents, briefings, and reports in a secure manner.

The capability shall also require conference capabilities, as well as a search engine to find and retrieve data in a wiki-like format.

C.2.8.4 The Contractor shall lead the architecture and deployment of a highly customized, flexible, and diverse environment to foster partnerships between internal and external mission partners. The environment shall serve as an incubator for transitions of technologies and capabilities and increase opportunities for technological advancement and transfer of research knowledge. Additionally, the environment shall include authentication mechanisms to apply access controls and establish need-to-know principles.

C.2.9 RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT AND ENGINEERING NETWORK (RDENET)

SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide Scientific System Administration (SA) and IA support for RDENET, a special purpose segregated network that supports R&D activities that cannot occur on production and/or enterprise networks. In such cases the Contractor shall design, engineer, operate, administer, and maintain RDENET networks to provide capabilities required by the Government S&Es.

C.2.9.1 The Contractor shall perform IT and IA functions to include:

• Design, engineer, secure, administer, and maintain RDENET environments.

• Set up new hardware, net enclave servers, Linux machines, virtual machines, configurations, user accounts.

• Perform backups, patching, and monitoring activities.

• Develop recommendations for RDENET policies, practices, and standard operating procedures.

• Install and configure RDENET systems, adhering to all applicable IA requirements, controls, guidelines, and accreditation specifications promulgated by the ARL Office of the CIO, and decisions of the ARL Enterprise Configuration Control Board.

• Manage RDENET systems and maintain continued compliance with all applicable system and network requirements.

• Develop centralized management and IT support systems, servers, and services to enhance efficiently maintaining RDENET systems’ conformance to applicable requirements.

• Create, update, maintain, and submit required IA documentation.

• Engineer the integration of R&D with IT systems and solutions in accordance with

ARL S&E project requirements.

• Onboard and offboard users and systems.

C.2.9.2 The Contractor shall collaborate with relevant ARL elements to maximize the security posture of the RDENET while ensuring the integrity, continuity, and capabilities required by the S&Es to perform their RDT&E mission.

C.2.9.3 The Contractor shall prepare documentation, reports, SOPs, and diagrams to satisfy accreditation requirements of RDENET networks. The Contractor shall also provide support in the efforts to design and engineer new networking, to support ever-changing RDT&E requirements of the Government.

C.2.9.4 The Contractor shall maintain necessary certifications for administrators and for performing information assurance duties for the enclave.

C.2.10 NETWORK SCIENCES RESEARCH

C.2.10.1 The Contractor shall support the theoretical research in Network Science to maintain capabilities required by the Government S&Es. The Contractor shall support efforts to perform basic research and build the theoretical and modeling foundation for network science to meet the future mission-critical requirements of the Army. Efforts shall also include providing deliverables related to the following areas:

• Mobile ad-hoc networking

• Quality of information

• Trust modeling

• Quantum networking

• Communication in resource constrained environments

• Software defined networking.

• Social networking

• Cognitive networking

• Network emulation and simulation.

• Military internet of things

C.2.10.2 The Contractor shall perform analysis, design, development, documentation, and testing of multiple software and hardware systems, tools, components, and libraries. The Contractor shall also perform algorithm analysis and design to provide novel computational capabilities required by the Network Sciences Research Laboratory (NSRL) for achieving research objectives. Capabilities shall include:

• Virtualized environments

• Data visualization

• Communication protocols

• Energy efficient embedded software

• Wireless Communications Systems

• Machine Learning

C.2.10.3 The Contractor shall provide system administration management, network system management, and audio/visual support of computational and collaborative research capabilities required by the Network Sciences Research Laboratory (NSRL) for achieving research objectives.

C.2.11 NETWORK SECURITY RESEARCH

The Contractor shall have the following skills to support research in Network Security:

• General expertise in cybersecurity (both defensive and offensive)

• General expertise in software development and prototyping (Python, Java, C)

• Expertise in simulation and experimentation

• Understanding of tactical mission planning and execution, especially in the cyberspace domain

• Expertise in applied mathematics for modeling and simulation

• Expertise in applied machine learning (e.g. reinforcement and deep learning)

• Expertise in data science

• Expertise in Bayesian modeling and other forms of modeling useful for in the cyberspace domain

• Expertise in uncertainty quantification in modeling

• General expertise in network and system administration

C.2.11.1 Network Security

The Contractor shall provide scientific subject matter expertise (SME) in cyber security to support external customers for program product lines. The Contractor support shall include cyber security science support regarding system requirements/capabilities, system functional analysis, system design, and development reviews, system integration, test and evaluation, training, material fielding, production, evaluation of technical capabilities, and technology readiness support. The Contractor support shall include influencing projects, proposals, and support of work from a cyber science standpoint. The Contractor shall provide support in defining, establishing, and influencing the cyber science aspects of executing technical cost, schedule, and performance objectives of acquisition programs. The Contractor shall provide cyber science subject matter expertise in the establishment of milestones for the progress of assigned systems through the total acquisition lifecycle. The Contractor shall assist in planning, programming, coordinating, and controlling the execution of cyber security functions to meet program requirements with stakeholders. The Contractor shall assist in the development of complex cyber security documentation within System Engineering Plans, Test and Evaluation Master Plans, System Specifications, and Integrated Master Schedules. The Contractor shall make formal/informal cyber security presentations and prepare technical reports/papers of behalf of the Government. The Contractor shall provide advice and subject matter expertise on cyber security technical issues.

C.2.11.2 Security Assessments

The Contractor shall conduct web-application security assessments to formally evaluate the security posture of information systems connected to Army networks. The Contractor shall identify application misconfigurations and security flaws posing a significant risk to Army data and systems. The Contractor shall assist in the completion of formal risk-based reports identifying validated weaknesses, to enable the necessary remediation, hardening, and risk management activities for Army information systems.

C.2.11.3 Production Network Engineering

C.2.11.3.1 The Contractor shall provide the resources to enhance and secure production network technologies for the Government researchers. The Contractor shall prepare the Government network to handle emerging technologies to give a technological edge over other networks. The Contractor shall deliver an enterprise level secure wireless network infrastructure to the Government.

C.2.11.3.2 The Contractor shall maintain, design and engineer networks. The Contractor is responsible for performing under the standards identified by the DoD Risk Management Framework (RMF) and/or the current Network Security accreditation standards. Other Contractor tasking will include the following:

• Produce documentation, diagrams, and reports to document the state of the networks.

• Network-based RMF control implementation and verification.

• Design and deployment of large-scale Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks

• Handle network issues, incidents, requests, and other ARL support tickets that relate to the network.

C.2.12 CYBERSPACE DEFENSE RESEARCH

The Contactor shall support the applied research, development, and engineering of cybersecurity capabilities to support the protection and defense of Army and DoD systems using a wide variety of programming and software development languages, as well as big data analytics and cloud technologies. This scope also includes providing recommendations on utilization of new system functionality as well as outlining the risks, impact, and potential benefits of the different implementation approaches.

C.2.13 SECURITY

AT Level I Training. All contractor employees, to include sub-contractor employees, requiring access Army installations, facilities and controlled access areas shall complete AT Level I awareness training within XX calendar days after contract start date or effective date of incorporation of this requirement into the contract, whichever is applicable. The contractor shall submit certificates of completion for each affected contractor employee and subcontractor employee, to the COR or to the contracting officer, if a COR is not assigned, within XX calendar days after completion of training by all employees and subcontractor personnel. AT Level I awareness training is available at the following website: http://jko.jten.mil.

Access and general protection/security policy and procedures. Contractor and all associated sub-contractors employees shall provide all information required for background checks to meet installation access requirements to be accomplished by installation Provost Marshal Office, Director of Emergency Services or Security Office.

Contractor workforce must comply with all personal identity verification requirements (FAR clause 52.204.9, Personal Identify Verification of Contractor Personnel) as directed by DoD, HQDA and/or local policy. In addition to the changes otherwise authorized by the changes clause of this contract, should the Force Protection Condition (FPCON) at any individual facility or installation change, the Government may require changes in contractor security matters or processes.

For contractors requiring Common Access Card (CAC). Before CAC issuance, the contractor employee requires, at a minimum, a favorably adjudicated National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI) or an equivalent or higher investigation in accordance with Army Directive 2014-05. The contractor employee will be issued a CAC ONLY if duties involve one of the following: (1) Both physical access to a DoD facility and access, via logon, to DoD networks on-site or remotely; (2) Remote access, via logon, to a DoD network using DoD-approved remote access procedures; or (3) Physical access to multiple DoD facilities or multiple non-DoD federally controlled facilities on behalf of the DoD on a recurring basis for a period of 6 months or more. At the discretion of the sponsoring activity, an initial CAC may be issued based on a favorable review of the FBI fingerprint check and a successful NACI at the Office of Personnel Management.

iWATCH Training. The contractor and all associated sub-contractors shall brief all employees on the local iWATCH program (training standards provided by the requiring activity (ATO). This local developed training will be used to inform employees of the types of behavior to watch for and instruct employees to report suspicious activity to the COR. The training shall be completed within XX calendar days of contract award and within YY calendar days of new employees commencing performance with the results reported to the COR NLT XX calendar days after contract award.

Army Training Certification Tracking System (ATCTS) registration for contractor employees who require access to Government information systems. NOTE THAT

ATCTS IS BEING RETIRED AND REPLACED BY A NEW SYSTEM WHICH WILL BE

USED AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE. All contractor employees with access to a Government information system must be registered in the ATCTS at commencement of services, and must successfully complete DD Information Assurance Awareness prior to access to the IS and then annually thereafter.

Formal contract that require a formal OPSEC program. The contractor shall develop an OPSEC Standing Operating Procedures (SOP)/Plan within 90 calendar days of contract award, to be reviewed and approved by the responsible Government OPSEC officer.

This plan will include a process to identify critical information, where it is located, who is responsible for it, how to protect it and why it needs to be protected. The contractor shall implement OPSEC measures as ordered by the commander. In addition, the contractor shall have an identified certified Level II OPSEC coordinator per AR 530-1.

For contract that require OPSEC Training. Per AR 530-1 Operations Security, the contractor employees must complete Level I OPSEC Awareness training. New employees must be trained within 30 calendar days of their reporting for duty and annually thereafter.

For Information Assurance (IA)/ Information Technology (IT) Training. All contractor employees and associated sub-contractor employees must complete the DoD IA awareness training before issuance of network access and annually thereafter. All contractor employees working IA/IT functions must comply with DoD and Army training requirements in DoDD 8570.01, DoD 8570.01-M and AR 25-2 within 6 months of appointment to IA/IT functions.

For Information Assurance (IA)/ Information Technology (IT) Certification. Per DoD 8570.01-M, DFARS 525.239.7001 and AR 25-2, the contractor employees supporting IA/IT functions shall be appropriately certified upon contract award. The baseline certification as stipulated in DoD 8570.01-M must be completed upon contract award.

For contracts that require handling or access to Classified Information. The contract shall comply with FAR 52.204-2, Security Requirements. This clause involves access to information classified "Confidential," "Secret," "Top Secret" and requires contractors to comply with, (1) The Security Agreement (DD Form 441), including the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (DoD 5220.22-M); (2) any revisions to DoD 5220.22-M, notice of which has been furnished to the contractor. If covered system support requirements apply, include provision 252.239.7017 into the solicitation, clause 252.239-7018 into the contract, and follow guidance at 239.73.

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Include DFARS clause 252.204-7012, which requires the contractor to comply with NIST 800-171. Also, include DFARS provision 252.204-2019 into solicitations. Acquisition officials should follow procedures outlined in DFARS 204.73 and verify vendors have an adequate NIST SP 800-171 summary assessment score within the Supplier Performance Risk System (within PIEE). If the score does not show a medium-or high-level assessment with a score of 110 or better (as described in the "NIST SP 800-171 DoD Assessment Methodology"), include clause

252.204.7020 and obtain the vendor's "system security plan" and "plan of action" for NIST SP 800-171 verification and assurance by Army Security officials.