SETS BAA Call 001 Final.pdf

AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY/ SPACE VEHICLE DIRECTORATE SPACE ENVIRONMENT

TECHNOLOGIES AND SCIENCE (SETS) PROGRAM

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA)

FA9453-23-R-X001

PROPOSAL CALL ANNOUNCEMENT CALL 001

GEOSPACE ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGIES AND SCIENCE (GETS)

12 DEC 2023

NAICS CODE: 541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)

PSC CODE: AC12

FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate (RV) Geospace Technologies Division (RVB) Geospace Environment Impacts and Applications Branch’s (RVBX)

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: FA9453-23-R-X001

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT TITLE: Space Environment Technologies and Science (SETS) Program

CALL ANNOUNCEMENT (CALL) NUMBER: 001

CALL TITLE: Geospace Environment Technologies and Science (GETS)

CALL TYPE: Closed One Step Proposal

TECHNICAL AREAS: 1) Solar, Solar Wind, and Ionospheric Effects, 2) Thermosphere, Satellite Drag and the Reentry Environment, 3) Plasma Physics and Chemistry, 4) Particle Physics and Radiation Belt Environment, and 5) Cislunar Environment

DUE DATE AND TIME: 22 January 2024

APPLICABILITY OF BASELINE BAA: All requirements of FA9453-23-R-X001 apply unless specifically amended and addressed in this Call. For complete informaƟon regarding FA9453-23-R-X001, refer to the iniƟal FULL TEXT Closed BAA. It contains informaƟon applicable to all Calls issued under the BAA and provides informaƟon on the overall program, proposal preparaƟon and submission requirements, proposal review and evaluaƟon criteria, award administraƟon, agency contacts, etc. For any discrepancies, please contact the contracƟng officer's aƩenƟon immediately.

Initial FULL TEXT Closed BAA link: https://sam.gov/opp/bebdf56ac5e14e94bb7187774f594f9a/view

I. REQUIREMENT INFORMATION:

A. BACKGROUND: The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate (RV) Geospace Technologies Division (RVB) Geospace Environment Impacts and Applications Branch’s (RVBX) is seeking sources capable of supporting the program’s fundamental and advanced research in space and environmental impacts technologies. Additionally, the program is interested in understanding and quantifying the impact of the space environment on Department of Defense and national security systems and in achieving a capability to specify, predict, mitigate, and exploit the effects of the space environment that can disrupt or degrade operational systems.

B. DESCRIPTION: This Call is specifically requesting potential Offeror(s) to provide interdisciplinary, integrated proposals addressing Topics 1-5 from the Space Environment Technologies and Science (SETS) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Topic areas are:

1. Solar, Solar Wind, and Ionospheric Effects

2. Thermosphere, Satellite Drag and the Reentry Environment

3. Plasma Physics and Chemistry

4. Particle Effects and Radiation Belt Environment

5. Cislunar Environment

C. OBJECTIVE: The effort outlined by this Call does not represent separate, discipline scientific and engineering activities. The Government's existing and planned contracts and in-house research teams have produced and continue to produce substantial discipline knowledge and technologies. The objectives of this Call relates to the interdisciplinary development and integration of those products and products of the greater research community leading to innovative new space environment awareness, mitigation and exploitation capabilities for the joint warfighter. In such a body of work, the various research activities are expected to be tightly coupled, with requirements from one aspect driving scientific investigation of another, with the combined results feeding into novel technologies. These new capabilities must be cost-effective, and new ideas that build on existing capabilities and investments will likely prove advantageous.

The Offeror must achieve this objective by integrating and coordinating, simultaneous activity in several interrelated areas, including the research, development, and evaluation of advanced techniques for the observing/sensing, collection, transport, processing, and storage of terrestrial and space system geophysical data needed to support novel capabilities, including the planning, scheduling and evaluation of collection schemes. Such efforts should advance the Government's existing techniques, as well as enable new capabilities, and must specifically include the exploitation of:

1. Past and Upcoming AFRL Space Experiments: AFRL Demonstrations and Science Experiments and in-situ instrumentation, payloads, and flight experiments to characterize the composition, chemistry, and dynamics of the upper atmospheric and ionospheric environment, to include natural and artificial disturbances, as well as assess and characterize impacts to military and civilian communications, navigation, and surveillance systems.

2. Other space missions addressing elements of the space environment, including operational systems such as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2), Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M), other energetic charged particle (ECP) observing missions.

These missions are designed to exercise and mature sensors and systems capable of measuring the energetic charged particle and ionized environments. They will operate in concert with ground sensors intended to enable the next-generation of space environment specification and forecast, including magnetometer or variometer systems, passive ionospheric sensors, enhanced sounders, radio frequency (RF) beacons or transponders, antenna array-based systems, and ground receivers. The efforts should advance the Government’s development of novel sensing techniques, data quality control algorithms, and integration into data assimilative models. The efforts should also evaluate constellation and sensor deployments with regard to environment hazards to inform future sensing architectures. Using such data sets obtained from space-based sensors operating in concert with ground-based sensors, design and evaluation of integrated space environment modeling techniques that exploit multiple measurement platforms, phenomena, and environmental domains to provide integrated, statistical predictions and specifications needed to support next-generation capabilities for next-generation system operation and design.

The efforts should advance the Government's prediction and specification ability for the environment, interact where appropriate to enhance non-environmental specifications and prediction capabilities, as well as provide new capabilities. In addition, research objectives should progress describing the environmental impacts on spacecraft operations and electromagnetic propagation and quantify degradation and interference from perturbations.

Specific target applications for development and/or insertion of new capability include:

1. Ionospheric specification and forecasting including global and regional Total Electron Content (TEC) and bottomside attributes, irregularity structure models including E region and high latitude phenomena, scintillation analyses, extension to all latitudes, and at scales relevant to RF propagation and impacts

2. High-latitude ionospheric driver specification (i.e., plasma convection, particle precipitation, and thermospheric winds), including possible improvements to climatology and real-time data driven schema.

3. Local space environment situational awareness models and tools to identify and attribute environmental risks to spacecraft operation including spacecraft hazards and spacecraft RF systems

4. AFRL’s RF Attribution and Interference Detection system for identifying and attributing environmental effects and hazards to spacecraft RF systems

5. AFRL’s International Radiation Environment Near Earth (IRENE) model including current component models AE9, AP9, and SPM for energetic Electrons, energetic Protons, and Space Plasma Model, respectively, and future component models such as the SAPPHIRE-2S solar proton model

6. Outer zone radiation belt models such as the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB) model and GPS-based Outer Zone Model

7. Inner zone proton models such as the Selesnick Inner Zone Model (SIZM)

8. Spacecraft charging assessment tools and models such as the NASA/Air Force

Spacecraft Charging Analysis Program (Nascap-2k)

9. Physics-based improvements for magnetospheric specification and forecasting models such as AFRL’s Magnetospheric Specification and Forecast Model (MSFM)

10. Solar forecasting models and tools such as the Solar Indices Forecasting Tool

(SIFT), Air Force Data Assimilative Photospheric Flux transport (ADAPT) model, and solar energetic particles (SEP) Forecasting System

11. Techniques to forecast, mitigate, or exploit impacts of the space environment on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) systems

12. AFRL’s Special Transport and Chemistry (STC) model investigating the dynamics of artificial plasma clouds

13. Modeling of high-altitude nuclear explosion-produced artificial radiation belt impacts and remediation

14. Cislunar environment climatology and modeling including magnetotail plasma dynamics

The combined sensing and modeling products will be refined, extended and validated through laboratory experiments with ionospheric, thermospheric, magnetospheric and heliospheric applicability, to include basic and applied research project tailoring and execution; the design, test, prototyping and demonstration of novel space environment monitoring and observing systems; the design, test, prototyping and demonstration of novel space environment mitigation and exploitation technologies; fundamental and applied space environment chemistry experiments, including in the field; and the study of space plasma dynamics, material aging and characterization, component qualification, and spacecraft charging. To accurately simulate the charged particle environment of space and study its interaction with the materials and systems intended to operate therein, the efforts should support the Government in developing test facilities and methodologies to accurately mimic the space environment to more rapidly evaluate materials and systems in ground-based testing to facilitate the rapid adaptation of novel materials/technologies, reduce risk, calibrate environmental sensors and create a more agile pathway for new space technologies. This development is critical to the rapid deployment of space-based assets.

The efforts will also assist the government in the development of international environmental testing standards that will standardize the protocol by which a material will be brought to market.

The integrated sensing and modeling techniques should be driven and exercised by next generation space environment impact prediction, visualization and attribution technologies that combine, as appropriate, solar, solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere observational data, integrated environmental models, and engineering data to provide enhanced awareness, predictive capabilities, and mitigation and exploitation courses of action. This research, development, design, and evaluation effort should enhance the Government's existing space system awareness and planning capabilities, as well as enable new capabilities. These new technologies must in-turn consider compatibility and interoperability with the larger Air and Space Forces’ toolset for planning, situational awareness and command and control (C2). Specific types of impacts include upsets, degradation or interference to space vehicles or their payloads and radio frequency systems, including but not limited to communication and surveillance applications. Gains over the current state-of-practice at this end of the utility chain are the ultimate goal of this work.

The Government's objective in this effort is to build upon the current state of the art by specifying and predicting the space environment, expand where necessary the current state of the science, including with artificial intelligence/machine learning techniques, and ultimately to advance the Air Force's operational capabilities to predict, specify, mitigate and exploit the space environment. In particular, this effort will perform cross-disciplinary research and development to integrate models, data and tools across the solar, heliosphere, magnetosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere domains to meet Joint Force needs, including the investigation, design and evaluation of new measurement, modeling, mitigation and exploitation techniques and tools, and the definition of interfaces for those capabilities to the larger Air and Space Forces’ toolset. These interfaces will demand consideration early in the development cycle of interoperability and information assurance equities. The results of this work will be captured in reports, computer software products, and data sets/models key to advancing the Government's science and technology efforts in this area and leading to transition of new capabilities into DoD operations or to industry partners for further technology maturation.

The integrated, cross-disciplinary and tightly-coupled nature of these efforts is likely to require and encourage teaming between offerors in order to meet the Government's requirements. Responsive offerors will demonstrate depth of knowledge in and breadth of knowledge across the relevant discipline areas, experience in integrating research across those disciplines, and experience in the development of advanced technology from those integrated results. Professional software development capability and experience are also required, as is experience with space environment sensor design, data handling, processing and analysis of results from space flight experiments.

Given the inherent uncertainties in research and development and, in particular, the type of integrated effort described here, the Government fully expects that various approaches and efforts will advance at different rates or fail to advance in the manner originally envisioned.

It is further recognized that by the nature of any Research and Development effort, work attempted to include this requirement, could change and or advance through new discoveries or by the use of differing methodologies to arrive at an acceptable and usable solution. It is anticipated that substantial Government-contractor communication will be needed to fully achieve the goals of this effort, and that specific objectives or tasks may require alteration, extension, or elimination as the state-of-the-art advances.

II. AWARD INFORMATION:

A. ANTICIPATED FUNDING: This funding profile is an estimate only and will not be a contractual obligation for funding. All funding is subject to change due to Government discretion and availability of funds and the technical work to be accomplished. Anticipated funding for this Call (not per contract or award) is:

FY 24 FY 25 FY 26 FY 27 FY28 Total anticipated funding:

$2,324,000 $4,583,000 $4,721,000 $4,862,000 $5,008,000 $21,498,000

B. FUNDING RESTRICTIONS: The cost of preparing proposals in response to this Call is not considered an allowable direct charge to a resulting or other contract.

C. ANTICIPATED NUMBER OF AWARDS: The Air Force anticipates awarding at minimum of one

(1) contract. However, the Air Force does reserve the right to make multiple awards or no awards pursuant to this Call.

D. ANTICIPATED AWARD DATE: Expected award date is April 1, 2024.

E. ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (POP): The anticipated contract period of performance is 63 months with 60 months for technical performance and 3 months for a final reporting.

F. ANTICIPATED TYPE OF CONTRACTS/INSTRUMENTS: The Air Force anticipates awarding a

Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee contract as a result of this Call, but also reserves the right to award the instrument best suited to the nature of research proposed.

G. DELIVERABLES ITEMS: The anticipated deliverable items are subject to negotiation:

1. Software and Documentation

2. Presentation materials

3. Monthly Status Reports

4. Final Scientific and Technical Reports

5. Monthly Financial Reports

Data deliverables are subject to negotiations. The following Contract Data Requirements List (CDRLs) is representative of data requirements that may be required. See attachment 2 for more details.

A001: Scientific & Technical Reports A002: Status Report A003: Computer Software Products A004: Presentation Material A005: Funds and Man-Hours Expenditure Report

The anticipated deliverables include data. The Government may consider all applicable data rights clauses, as necessary, to meet the Government’s mission and technical objectives.

H. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY: None anticipated.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:

A. ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST (OCI): All OCI issues and the need for applicable clauses will be resolved prior to award.

B. SECURITY REQUIREMENT: It is anƟcipated that aŌer award the contractor will require access to classified informaƟon during the effort. In accordance with FAR 52.204-2 the resulƟng award will require a DD Form 254. Offerors must have a valid U.S. security clearance of SECRET or higher in order to respond to this Call because this Call may include informaƟon classified at the SECRET or higher level which will be released only to offerors possessing the appropriate clearance. All classified material will be handled in accordance with E.O. 13526, NaƟonal Industrial Security Program OperaƟng Manual (NISPOM) DoD 5220.22-M, Industrial Security RegulaƟon (DoD 5220.22-R), DoDM Industrial Security Program 5200.01 Volume 1 through 4, and AFI 16-1406.

C. BASE SUPPORT AND ACCESS: Base support is anƟcipated. The Government will ensure the contractor has access to all faciliƟes where work will be performed. The government will provide workspace for the contractor providing onsite technical support. The Government will provide on-site Contractor personnel with staging area, access to projecƟon equipment, and access to appropriate Government files and databases. General office supplies, such as pens, paper, staplers, etc., will not be provided. Use is limited to official Government business related to the performance of the requirements in this contract. The Government will provide access to all Government faciliƟes, as necessary, including sponsorship for access to non-Government faciliƟes, for execuƟon of all Contractor tasks. 52.204-2, Security Requirements and 5352.242- 9000 Contractor Access to Department of the Air Force InstallaƟons apply to contracts made under this call.

D. FOREIGN NATIONALS: No Foreign Nationals will be considered for this Call.

IV. APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

A. PROPOSAL DUE DATE AND TIME: Proposals must be submitted in response to this Call no later than on 22 January 2024, 1200 hours MDT.

Proposals for any other technical areas identified in the overall Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) will not be accepted in response to this Call solicitation. Proposals received after the due date and time shall be governed by the provisions of FAR 52.215-1(c)(3).

Offerors may be ineligible for award if all requirements of this announcement are not met by the due date and time.

B. INTENT TO PROPOSE: Potential offerors are requested to advise the contracting point of contacts if they intend to submit a proposal in response to this Call. Such notification is merely a courtesy and is not a commitment by the offeror to submit a proposal.

C. CALL AMENDMENTS: Offerors should monitor SAM.gov for any additional notices to this Call that may permit extensions to the proposal submission date or otherwise modify this announcement.

D. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Proposals must be submitted electronically via DoD SAFE (Secure Access File Exchange) website, https://safe.apps.mil/. DoD SAFE is a service to exchange large unclassified files. To create a drop-off (upload files), Offerors must contact the contracting office to receive a drop-off request or request code from an authenticated user (Government POC).

Please allow 3 business days for the contracting office to process a request. Once the authenticated user generates a drop-off request, the Offeror will receive an email with a link to submit the drop-off. Optionally, the authenticated user (recipient) may provide a request code.

In that case, click the Drop-off button on the SAFE home page and enter the Request code. A drop-off request is valid for 14 days. Frequently asked questions about DoD Safe can be accessed at: https://safe.apps.mil/.

Proposal submissions must reference the BAA number FA9453-23-R-X001 as well as the Call number i.e., “Call 001,” and title.

E. FULL PROPOSAL PROCESS: Below are specifics regarding proposal format and content. Proposal submissions must follow all format and content criteria provided in both the overarching BAA and the solicitation.

F. GENERAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS: Proposals that include data restricted from public disclosure or used by the Government for any purpose should be marked with the proper disclosure and use of data restrictions. Technical and cost/business volumes should be submitted in separate volumes and must be valid for a minimum of 180 days. Proposal submissions must reference the BAA number FA9453-23-R-X001 as well as the Call i.e., “Call 001,” and title.

G. PROPOSAL FORMAT:

1. The technical proposal shall be limited to thirty (30) pages and shall be prepared and submiƩed in MicrosoŌ Word format. The Statement of Work (SOW) and cover page does not count against the page limit.

2. Cost/Business proposals have no page limitaƟons; however, offerors are requested to keep cost proposals under 100 pages as a goal (Cost break-outs should be submiƩed in MicrosoŌ Excel with the formulas, all other informaƟon should be provided in MicrosoŌ Word).

3. The same formaƫng rules apply to the C-SOW, which is limited to ten (10) pages in a MicrosoŌ Word format.

4. Paper Size – 8.5 inch x 11 inch

5. Margins – one-inch on each side

6. Font - Calibri 11+ point font or equivalent, to include tables, diagrams, and charts. Any other informaƟon (e.g. capƟons, restricƟve markings) shall not be smaller than Calibri 10 point font or equivalent.

H. PROPOSAL CONTENT:

1. Cover Letter:

A cover letter shall accompany each proposal with a Proposal Number that Identifies the Offeror.

The cover letter should identify the BAA number, Call number, and technology area under which the proposal is submitted, a statement that the proposal is valid for 180 days from the due date specified in the Call, provide technical and contracting points of contact, CAGE code, and include statement indicating if the firm is a small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a), or women-owned small business concern. The proposal must be signed and dated by an authorized official of the organization.

2. Technical Volume:

The proposal shall include a discussion of the following informaƟon: creaƟve or innovaƟve and technically sound approach to accomplish the Call’s objecƟve(s) and/or advances in knowledge, understanding, technology, state-of-the-art, and raƟonale of the offeror’s technical approach and the relevance to the Space Vehicle Directorate mission area(s). The Offeror shall provide any informaƟon on prior work in the topic areas, descripƟons of available equipment, data and faciliƟes as aƩachments to the technical proposal. This informaƟon will be used in the proposal evaluaƟon to help determine the soundness of the technical approach. This volume shall include a Contractor Statement of Work (C-SOW) detailing the technical tasks proposed to be accomplished under the proposed effort. The C-SOW shall not have any company proprietary informaƟon contained within the document.

If Government Furnished Property is requested, please submit the following informaƟon with your offer:

a) A list or descripƟon of all Government property that the offeror or its subcontractors propose to use. The list shall idenƟfy the accountable contract under which the property is held and the authorizaƟon for its use (from the contracƟng officer having cognizance of the property).

b) The dates during which the property will be required for use (including the first, last, and all intervening months), and for any property that will be used concurrently in performing two or more contracts, the amounts of the respecƟve uses in sufficient detail to support proraƟng the rent.

c) The amount of rent that would otherwise be charged in accordance with FAR 52.245-9, Use and Charges, and be used in the management of Government property, or exisƟng property management plans, methods, pracƟces, or procedures for accounƟng for property.

d) The voluntary consensus standard or industry leading pracƟces and standards to be used in the management of Government property or exisƟng property management plans, methods, pracƟces, or procedures for accounƟng for property.

Any questions concerning the technical volume or SOW preparation shall be referred to the Technical POC cited in the Call.

3. Cost/Business Volume:

a) Separate the proposal into a cost secƟon and business secƟon. The business secƟon should contain all business aspects to the proposed contract such as: resumes of personnel who will be parƟcipaƟng in this effort, contractual instrument type, and any excepƟons to terms and condiƟons of the announcement, any informaƟon not technically related, etc. Provide raƟonale for excepƟons. IdenƟfy any technical data that will be delivered with less than unlimited rights. Cost proposals have no page limitaƟons;

however, offerors are requested to keep cost proposals under 100 pages as a goal. The proposal shall be furnished with supporƟng schedules and shall contain a labor hour breakdown per task.

b) SubcontracƟng plans for efforts anƟcipated to exceed $750,000 shall be submiƩed along with the technical and cost proposals. Reference FAR 19.704, DFARS 219.704, for subcontracƟng plan requirements. Small businesses are exempt from this requirement.

c) All direct costs (labor, material, travel, computer, etc.) as well as labor and overhead rates should be provided by contractor fiscal year (CFY). A separate breakout by Government Fiscal Year (GFY) is not required.

d) Submit fully-disclosed electronic cost spreadsheets with formulas. Include rate table for all direct and indirect rates that feed into the cost element summaries.

e) Offerors must comply with FAR 15.408, Table 15-2 InstrucƟons for Submiƫng Cost/Price Proposals When CerƟfied Cost or Pricing Data Are Required.

4. AccounƟng Systems:

Federal AcquisiƟon Requirement (FAR) based cost type contracts require a successful Offerors to have an accounƟng system deemed adequate by Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) for tracking costs under a cost reimbursable contract (DFARS 242.75). If an Offeror does NOT have a DCAA approved accounƟng system, a cost reimbursable contract cannot be awarded. Delays with award will likely result if an Offeror submits a cost type contract without an approved accounƟng system. If there is an adequate accounƟng system, provide the most recent DCAA Approved Audit Report of Contractor’s AccounƟng Systems.

5. Contractor Statement of Work (C-SOW):

Provide a nonproprietary Contractor Statement of Work (C-SOW) in a MicrosoŌ Office Word editable format. If milestones are included, do not use hard dates, use number of days or months.

The C-SOW shall sufficiently detail the research to be accomplished and must be suitable for incorporaƟon into the awarded document. The proposed C-SOW shall summarize the technical methodology and the task descripƟon, but not to the extent to make the awarded instrument inflexible. The Technical proposal page limit does not include the offeror’s proposed SOW;

however, the same formaƫng rules apply to the SOW. The government requests C-SOW response is limited to ten (10) pages.

Below is a recommended format for the C-SOW:

SCOPE: This secƟon includes a statement of what the program covers. This should include the technology area to be invesƟgated, objecƟves/goals, and major milestones for the effort. It defines the breadth and limitaƟons of the work to be done.

REQUIREMENTS: This secƟon idenƟfies the specific work to be performed. The work effort should be arranged into major tasks and idenƟfied in separately numbered paragraphs. Each numbered major task should delineate by subtask the work to be performed and should follow an outline numbering scheme. The C-SOW must idenƟfy all reviews and when/where (idenƟfy by milestone or task) that will be conducted. It must also idenƟfy any and all items including hardware, soŌware, and reports to be delivered to the Government as a result of the program. In addiƟon, when proposing, indicate the appropriate CDRLs for your effort per the instrucƟons in paragraph.

DELIVERABLES: This secƟon idenƟfies deliverables for the acƟon. This should include the quanƟty and frequency of delivery (i.e. monthly, quarterly, etc) for each item.

6. S&T ProtecƟon Plan:

Science & Technology (S&T) Program ProtecƟon: Submit as a part of the proposal submission 1.) a completed Standard Form (SF) 424, Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form for all Senior/Key Personnel proposed; and 2.) A Completed Security Program QuesƟonnaire. A miƟgaƟon plan for any idenƟfied S&T ProtecƟon risks may be requested. The Government reserves the right to determine if an offer is awardable or not on the grounds of unacceptable S&T ProtecƟon risk based on its review of the SF 424 and Security Program QuesƟonnaire.

Proposal submission in response to this RFP is cerƟficaƟon that the Offeror is in compliance with SecƟon 223(a) of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry NaƟonal Defense AuthorizaƟon Act for Fiscal Year 2021 which requires that: (a) the Principal InvesƟgator (PI) and other key personnel cerƟfy that the current and pending support provided on the proposal is current, accurate and complete; (b) agree to update such disclosure at the request of the agency prior to the award of support and at any subsequent Ɵme the agency determines appropriate during the term of the award; (c) the PI and other key personnel have been made aware of the requirements under SecƟon 223(a)(1) of this Act; and (d) cerƟficaƟon includes the following statement: “I am aware that any false, ficƟƟous, or fraudulent statements or claims may subject me to criminal, civil, or administraƟve penalƟes. (U.S. code, Title 218, SecƟon 1001).”

V. EVALUATION CRITERIA:

Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 35.016, Broad Agency Announcement. The evaluation will utilize a peer or scientific review process and shall be based on the following criteria that are listed in descending order of importance:

A. Overall scienƟfic or technical merit:

1. Technical Merit: The technical aspect is first order of priority and shall be evaluated based on the following criteria that are of equal importance.

2. Relevance to Space Vehicles Directorate mission areas

3. Soundness of the offeror’s technical approach.

B. Cost/Price: The cost/ price criterion includes the realism of the proposed cost. If the offeror proposes the use of GFP other than any GFP idenƟfied in this BAA, and that proposed GFP provides the offeror an unfair compeƟƟve advantage, then FAR 45.202 requires rental equivalent be applied to the Cost Factor for evaluaƟon purposes only.

Once selected for possible award, the price will be evaluated for realism and reasonableness in accordance with FAR part 15.

VI. AWARD NOTICES: Offerors will be notified whether their proposal is recommended for award in writing. The notification of recommendation for award is not to be construed to mean the award of a contract is assured as availability of funds and successful negotiations are prerequisites to any award.

VII. TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT:

Primary: Capt Tyler Hussey, AFRL/RVBX E-mail: tyler.hussey.1@spaceforce.mil

Alternate: Steven Fiedler, AFRL/RVBX E-mail: steven.fiedler@spaceforce.mil

VIII. CONTRACTING POINTS OF CONTACT:

Contracting Officer: Jessica Perez, AFRL/RVKB E-mail: jessica.perez.23@us.af.mil

Contract Specialist: Ever Orozco Perea AFRL/RVKB E-mail: ever.orozco-perea@spaceforce.mil

IX. ATTACHMENTS

1. Statement of Objectives (SOO)

2. Draft DD Form 1423-1, Contract Data Requirements List (CDRLs)

3. Technical Data Assertion Table

4. DoD Proposal Adequacy Checklist

5. DD254 Security ClassificaƟon SpecificaƟon

6. SF 424 Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile Form

7. S&T QuesƟonnaire Security Program QuesƟonnaire