Global Comms Backhaul RFI QA Final.docx

Below please find questions for Global Comms Backhaul RFI, Notice ID: SpRCO4162025, from Network Innovations US Government. Kindly confirm receipt. Thank you.

Questions:

Please confirm that the 2Gbps symmetrical is fixed or whether you may require future scalability.

Future Scalability

Please clarify maximum acceptable latency per location (are there application limitations we should be aware of).

50ms, One way from SCAR MSC to [location TBD]

Do redundancy paths need full active-active capability, or is active-passive failover is acceptable?

active-passive failover is acceptable

Please confirm if government-provided type-1 encryptors are to be used or if provider-supplied equipment is required.

GFE

Are there are site-specific constraints and existing infrastructure, especially with the international locations?

There will be some existing infrastructure, different sites have different constraints.

Is any support from the government anticipated for installs or should all costs be included by provider?

Provider

Please confirm requirements for cloud connectivity, i.e., is direct connectivity to commercial cloud providers required?

To AWS Cloud “FENCES” environments

Are there are any plans for future expansion that need to be taken into consideration?

Bandwidth usage may increase as mission operating increase What contract length should be assumed for pricing?

{Objective: 5 years}

Is the government expecting a fully managed backhaul service or simply transport-only solutions that interface with government-owned infrastructure? Technical Both options

Should each site have two physically diverse paths to completely separate service providers or just redundant logical links on the same carrier infrastructure? Technical Both depending on cost and schedule SpRCO will determine Also may depend on SpRCO uptime requirements

If a CSfC compliant solution is proposed to meet encryption requirements, is that acceptable to the government or must the requirement be met with hardware based Type 1 encryption devices? Technical Type 1 is required

Are there target latency thresholds between core CONUS and OCONUS locations (e.g., SCHR to Hawaii, VSFB to Italy) that solutions must meet? Technical Provide best capability. Recommend one way end to end NTE 100ms

Does the government require the target latency thresholds for SATCOM be equal regardless of CONUS to CONUS to OCONUS to CONUS? Technical SpRCO looking for what capability is between all

Are the backhaul links expected to support direct connections into multiple classified cloud regions? Technical Its Possible

Are there any plans to add additional locations in FY26-FY28 beyond the current locations that are listed in the RFI? Solicitation The locations listed are expected to be the complete list

Will the contractor have physical or virtual access to government facilities at each location for circuit termination and troubleshooting? Solicitation Both are options within the scope of a contract

Can the contractor work with the local site POC’s to assist in touch maintenance of the network or does the prime need to travel to each site when anything is required? Solicitation locals POCs are ok

For international sites, will the government assist in securing host-nation approvals or permits required for installation and operation? Solicitation Yes

Do local taxes and tariffs need to be paid to the foreign countries like Italy and Australia or will this be tax exempt? Pricing TBD, Foreign sites are in negotiations, listed for planning purposes

Is the government expecting the provider’s network or solution to undergo a full ATO process, or will the backhaul be covered under an existing enclave’s ATO? Technical It will need to be a DISA-approved solution.

Will government-furnished cryptographic equipment be provided at each node, or is the vendor expected to supply, integrate, and manage it? Will it be managed as a Controlling Authority and COMSEC custodian or just COMSEC custodian? Technical

GFE

Does the government have a target Initial Operating Capability (IOC) or required operational date for each site? Solicitation CY27 (Australia) all others TBD

Will this requirement be procured as a single-award IDIQ, multiple task orders, or integrated into an existing contract vehicle?

Solicitation

Will the effort be incrementally funded by site/year, or does the government anticipate consolidated funding in FY25? Will UFR funds be utilized to fund all or part of some of the contract years? Pricing TBD based on proposed solutions and timelines to support government solutions.

Are there baseline metrics for uptime, mean time to repair, or packet loss that must be contractually enforced? If DISA transport is leveraged, does DISA circuit outages affect the baseline metrics? Technical If DISA is part of solution metrics should be included

Is the vendor responsible for providing a live monitoring dashboard or reporting tools, and will those need to integrate with existing USSF/NOSC systems? Technical provide capability

What is the highest classification level going to be for this scope of work? Solicitation TS/SCI

Are read-ons or special access required (NATO-Secret)? Solicitation Yes

As there is a requirement for data encryption in transit and at rest, will there be a storage medium (data archiving) requirement? Technical There is a requirement for encryption in transit; there is no storage requirement.

Will there be any tempest requirements for equipment that might end up in a SCIF? Technical Yes – TEMPEST level 1

For the 24/7/365 technical support, has the government identified the different severity levels and response times, so that we can accurately price the support required to meet these requirements? Solicitation Those are in draft at SpRCO

Does the government anticipate a Firm Fixed Price or Cost Reimbursable award for this effort? Pricing TBD based on best fit solution for the government.

What is the anticipated timeline / schedule in which the work is to be started and completed? Solicitation Est Start FY26/27, Complete NLT FY32

What classification level(s) of data need to run on this network?

Unclass up to TS/SCI

Please share more specifics about the operating location(s) in Italy and Hawaii (which island) Oahu, Location TBD, most likely near Kaina Point. Italy, expect Camp Darby.

Will all locations require east/west connectivity (site to site) as well as north/south (site to cloud) or only a subset need east/west and if so, which ones?

Yes, E/W & N/S

Should the security services that are provided be fully managed (as-a-service)?

Yes

What the difference is between "Branch Offices" vs "Operating Locations" (ex: Vandenburg is listed as both) Branch Offices are the C2 location, Op location is where the Antenna are, Vandenberg is co located C2 and op.

Please share the file types expected for Data transfer – Planning&Scheduling, Control&Status, Command&Telemetry, required Zero-trust, and cyber data?

TT&C, logging data, patches, system management.

Will the government be procuring the Type-1 encryption? And what types of KGs (142s)?

Yes. KG-175s.

What is the anticipated start date for this network?

First network expected in Aus to be operational in CY27

Is there a budget assigned to this effort? If so, what fiscal year(s)?

Not yet, based on RFIs the money can be POM’d for

Is this specific to just transport or is SpRCO also looking for cloud infrastructure for hosting applications?

At the moment just transport, future growth can have the hosting of applications depending on the need/supplied options

Does SpRCO have a preference of GOCO vs COCO for the network solution? No, that will fall on the SSC/SpOC side to decide, we will help drive the best decision Does the government want to own any of the hardware?

There will most likely be some GFE

What sites need SATCOM connectivity? All What bands are required?

SGLS/USB are operating freqs of the antenna, no band req for satcom backup

Please provide more details regarding the cloud and on-prem applications Will there be any connection or use of MeshONE-T?

If that solution is viable then it is an option, MeshONE-T is planning on deploying to and supporting SCAR at each Operating Location.

Is the 2Gbps symmetrical a minimum requirement? Does the Government foresee any anticipated growth requirements (i.e., bandwidth, etc.) Section 2 Yes. Yes, most likely not before CY30

Does the government intend to contract separately for the monthly recurring circuit costs and the installation, maintenance, and support? Section 4 Yes

What level(s) of security clearance will be required for installation, maintenance, and support personnel? General

TS/SCI

Does the Government prefer billing by individual site or aggregate billing for all sites? General Site

What missions will the SATCOM transport solution service? Section 2

TT&C

Who/what organizations are the end users of the SATCOM services? Section 2

USSF

Why is the Space RCO performing this market research now? What compelling events are driving this effort? General Timeline, first operationl unit in CY27

After the Friday, 5/9/2025 deadline for questions, will the Government consider any additional questions after this date? General Yes

Does the pricing need to include an estimate of all taxes, fees and surcharges? General Yes

We need demarc A-Z address locations to accurately provide a usable Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) to the Government. Will the Governmen provide these at this time? General No, Camp Darby Italy and Vandenberg are currently the only defined locations.

Will the Government need wireless and satellite connectivity for the facilities? General

SATCOM

Will you please provide more details on the specific legacy systems and protocols currently in use that must be supported? General SpRCO looking for best capability that supports high availabilty, low packet loss and low latency. Dynamic routing to support load balancing and automatic failover of long-haul comms

What are the key performance indicators for centralized monitoring and management? Are there specific tools or platforms preferred for this purpose? General Bandwidth utilization, network errors, high-tempo vs low tempo characterization

Are there any specific challenges or constraints related to deployment models (on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid) that we should be aware of, especially in remote and austere environments? General Nothing other than the nature of the remote location

What are the preferred methods for bandwidth optimization in global communications backhaul environments? General Possible quality of service or network priority for constrained bandwidth connections

What are the key milestones and timelines for the implementation process? General Operations NLT start of CY28 in Australia

What are the expected levels of technical support and maintenance? General Those are in draft at SpRCO; depends on total number of locations and if support varies for each site

Can you provide more details on the preferred pricing models and licensing options? Are there specific budget constraints or considerations we should be aware of? General Negative, subject to proposals and best fit for government. See other questions regarding budget timelines.

Please provide the Government's intent for the Vendor to support and manage equipment, network, and security boundaries. General Vendor will be responsible for initial implementation and transfer

Would the Government provide greater details on the locations identified as “Georgia, US, Italy, and Hawaii, US?

Camp Darby Italy - Oahu, Ka'ena Point, Georgia (USA) location and E. & W. Australia have not been Down selected.

Can the government please clarify the requirement with an OV-1 that details connectivity between Headquarters, Branch Offices, and Operating Locations? Industry presumes that this is a hub-spoke architecture with all data terminating at Schreiver Space Force Base, CO.

Hub-Spoke

Ref Previous Question, and the Government’s desire for robust and redundant communications backhaul (ref. Section 1.), while understanding that certain end points are not necessarily single hop (satellite and/or terrestrial) to the destination, … Does the Government desire fully independent redundant connectivity paths between each remote location and the hub, or is it possible that industry may propose a solution that employs, for example, common terrestrial connectivity for multiple remotes to reach the hub?

Multiple options can be explored if they meet the requirements for redundancy, uptime, and resiliency

Where does the government intend to install the Type I cryptos? Does the government have a Type I crypto in mind?

On site – Yes

Does the government have a solution (or requirements for a vendor provided solution) for its Data at Rest requirement or is this completely left up to the vendor?

Vendor

Would the Govt please clarify what data is at rest would be the responsibility of the contractor? The SOW reads that the offeror will be providing a transport solution which is inherently data in transit model.

There is not a data-at-rest requirement for the vendor

Is the government expecting respondents to host and/or support Type-1 encryptors embedded in their service offerings between the government demarcation points?

No

What will the Government’s priority and metrics of value be when evaluating solutions (past performance, scalability, security posture, pricing, etc.)?

Best Solution

Is the government planning to pursue an OTA, BPA, or full FAR-based acquisition in the future based on this RFI?

TBD

Could the Government provide additional information and clarification on the SATCOM portion of the requirement to aid industry in proposing a suitable solution? Specifically, could the Government confirm whether the provided SLA applies to the satellite link or only to the terrestrial path, and whether a maximum information rate or best-effort service level is acceptable for the satellite link?"

Terrestrial and Sat. Best effort numbers given and the cost estimate to achieve maximum information.

Support: 24/7/365 technical support with guaranteed response times for different severity levels. – Will the support team be expected to operate at one of the military installations or can they be at the provider’s location of choice? What are the response times anticipated to be?

Location of choice that best supports the anticipated response time. No requirement on estimate response times. Give best available options.

Network Requirements, Cybersecurity: Can the Government share if the existing network is RMF accredited per NIST SP 800-37 for information systems and to what level? Cost will vary widely depending on current networks’ compliance with these requirements The network will have an ATO IAW all applicable DOD instruction and policy

Service Level Agreement, Support: Will the Government define severity level response times and location where support is to be provided (Critical (P1), High (P2), Medium (P3), Low (P4) for example)? Will work be performed at the Contractor Offsite or Onsite, at one of the Government Locations depicted?

Severity level response times are not defined. Location of choice that best supports the anticipated response time. No requirement on estimate response times. Give the best available options.

Is this Global Communications Backhaul solution a replacement or augmentation of an existing contract vehicle or set of contract vehicles, if so please elaborate?

If selected, the Backhaul comms or a portion of a proposed solution would be folded into an existing contract.

What is the maximum allowed latency required for each location over satellite?

SpRCO looking for best capability with high availability, low packet loss and low jitter

What is the maximum allowed acceptable packet loss rate?

Low

What is the maximum jitter allowed?

Low

Will rack space and power to be provided for equipment install?

Only local network equipment will be housed within the system, any long-haul blackside equipment will need to be hosted at an external facility

Is there a proposed in service state?

No, Start in FY26/27 with an operational state NLT FY28

Can the actual location specifics be provided (GPS or building number)?

Not for all, sites are being selected. Italy - Camp Darby // Vandenberg SFB (34.82426498990028, -120.50389517000563). See other Q&A for list of sites

Do the Operating locations need talk to each other in a ring configuration or do they talk to HG?

Hub-spoke

Do the branch offices talk to each other in a ring configuration or do they talk thru the HQ?

Hub and Spoke

Do the Operating locations talk to the Branch Offices in a ring configuration?

Hub and Spoke

Will they accept the nearest POP to their listed locations?

Yes

Is 99.95% uptime SLA enough for them? I don’t want to actually ask this question so we don’t disqualify ourselves Standard Availability

What A to B connections are needed for this network? Is it: Schriever -> All Other Locations? Or is it a full web of connections between the 8 identified sites like the table on the right?

Hub and Spoke