TCS SATCOM C2 RFI - SAM.Gov FINAL.pdf

Request for Information (RFI) for

Aerial Targets Branch (EBAY) Targets Control System (TCS)

Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Command & Control (C2) Capabilities

Solicitation Number: TBD

Agency: Department of the Air Force Office: Air Force Materiel Command Location: AFLCMC/EBA - Eglin

Notice Type: Request for Information

Posted Date: 15 AUG 2024

Response Date: 29 AUG 2024

Archiving Policy: Manual Archive

Archive Date: -

Original Set Aside: N/A

Set Aside: N/A

NAICS Code: 517410, Satellite Telecommunications

PSC/FSC:7G22 – IT and Telecom Network: Satellite and RF Communications Products

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION for the Aerial Targets Branch (EBAY) Targets Control System (TCS)

Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Command & Control (C2) Capabilities

1.0 Description

The mission of the Aerial Targets Branch is to enable realistic air-to-air and surface-to-air testing. The Air Force Life Cycle

Management Center (AFLCMC), Aerial Targets Branch (AFLCMC/EBAY) is issuing this RFI in effort to understand market availability and maturity of potential solutions for proliferated low earth orbit (P-LEO) capabilities that can work with the existing Aerial Targets and C2 system and meet future mission objectives. In preparation for a projected draft RFP to be issued first quarter of fiscal year 2025, EBAY requests additional information about the capabilities of existing and planned

P-LEO SATCOM systems with low latencies.

1.1 THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY

This Request for Information (RFI) is for market research purposes only, to understand potential industry solutions and identify qualified sources. The U.S. Government has not made a final decision regarding procurement and release of this RFI should not be construed as a commitment to procure any items. All submissions become U.S. Government property and will not be returned.

The Government encourages all responsible businesses, including small businesses, joint ventures, and teaming arrangements, to respond to this RFI. However, the Government will not pay for any costs incurred by respondents in preparing and submitting their responses.

Respondents are solely responsible for properly marking and clearly identifying any proprietary information or trade secrets contained within their response. Proprietary information received in response to this RFI will be safeguarded and handled in accordance with applicable Government regulations.

This RFI does not constitute a request for proposal and is subject to change. Submission of any information in response to this market research request is voluntary. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and will not form a binding contract or agreement. The Government will not accept unsolicited proposals or be obligated to pursue any particular alternative because of this RFI.

Responses to this RFI will not be returned and not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if issued. It is the responsibility of potential offerors to monitor the SAM.gov website for additional Government information pertaining to the EBAY Target Control System (TCS) SATCOM C2 effort.

Please note that the U.S. Government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred in responding to this RFI.

2.0 Background Information

The Air Force TCS delivers C2 of full scale (QF-16) and subscale (BQM-176A) aerial targets, with on-board threat representative Electronic Attack (EA) payloads, to enable realistic air-to-air and surface-to-air test in support of DoD advanced weapon systems development, USC Title 10 LFT&E (for new systems), and WSEP assessment (of fielded weapon systems).

The TCS currently provides the capabilities to track and control up to 6 unmanned aerial targets (QF-16 and/or BQM-167A), and additionally track: 4 shooters, 4 missiles, and as applicable, 4 airborne platforms (for over-the horizon target C2) and 2 support aircraft (e.g., for gathering information on boat traffic).

The TCS subsystem hardware and software (source & executable code) are owned and maintained by the Government. The software is continuously developed following agile practices with multiple version releases per year. In addition, the

Government has both unlimited rights and Government purpose rights to the technical data package (TDP) associated with the TCS subsystems.

Objective: The Targets C2 System must support future (5th/6th GEN) LFT&E requirements and be range agnostic to control and track targets in multiple locations without large amounts of physical infrastructure to be built and maintained. There is a need to modernize the TCS and reduce the reliance on range infrastructure to support the rapidly advancing DoD weapon systems requirements.

3.0 Requested Information

The Government is seeking to incorporate SATCOM capabilities to reduce infrastructure reliance and provide untethered communication network architecture. AFLCMC/EBAY is only interested in current and planned service offerings, not hypothetical possibilities nor services that require substantial investment on the part of the Government.

If a capability is planned for the future, provide the corresponding roadmap dates to completion. Please provide a brief response to the following questions:

1. When and where do you plan to begin offering services? What are your roadmaps to global satellite coverage, global gateway points of presence, and global spectrum licenses, including planned dates and locations?

2. What types of terminals will be available that are compatible with your service? Will there be multiple sources of terminal equipment, or will there be a single source? What form factors will be available, and what will be their respective communication performance, reliability, and environmental attributes?

3. Can two user terminals communicate with one another directly in your system, without having a gateway station in the path?

4. Does your system support user terminal mobility, including both "at the halt" and "on the move"? Does the system require knowledge of the user's location in advance of placement or movement, or during movement?

5. What is your system's performance target for maximum data rate per user terminal? What are the committed uplink/downlink data rates that you can provide? What would constrain this performance?

6. How does your system design address weather impairments?

7. Do your satellites and terminals automatically adjust power, modulation, and coding to achieve the optimal data rate for the conditions, or leave that to manual operators?

8. What is your system's approach to service availability? What is your minimum availability commitment? Do you offer higher availability commitments for certain customers?

9. What is your system's end to end latency, jitter, and packet loss rate performance targets (minimum, maximum, and average)? Are any of these guaranteed, and if so how is that guarantee enforced?

10. What type of user terminal position tracking services do you offer (i.e. GPS)?

11. What minimum separation distance between user terminals is needed to avoid mutual electromagnetic interference?

12. What is your system's approach to contention and congestion among users in an area? What is the maximum number of users that can be accommodated in an area of what size? What happens to users' performance as the number of users in an area grows? How do you enforce user density limits? What does the user experience when these limits are exceeded?

What features of your system can be used to mitigate contention and congestion?

13. Does your system offer priority and/or precedence service for certain customers? How does that service enforce the offered priority and/or precedence of such customers? Is preemption involved, and if so when (under what conditions) does it occur? How are multiple priority customers handled in the same area if they collectively exceed system capacity?

14. Does your system respect, enforce, or otherwise support Quality of Service indicators in traffic, such as packet header markings, flow types, session setup flags, and the like? If so, what indicators are observed and how are they mapped to corresponding behaviors?

15. What is your system's approach to mitigating interference among your own users, as well as between users of your system and users of other systems operating in the same spectrum band? Does your system design incorporate any protections against interferers?

16. What is your system's approach to cybersecurity? How are network elements protected from compromise? How are interfaces protected from intrusion? How are software and hardware products that are incorporated into the system vetted with respect to supply chain integrity?

17. What is your system's approach to subscriber authentication and confidentiality? How are control plane and user plane data flows protected from inspection by non-intended receivers, and from spoofing by false network elements? Is user location information required in your system, and if so, how is it handled?

18. What network management information does your system provide to authorized customer entities? To user terminal administrators? How is this information secured against unauthorized collection?

19. What is your approach to service packaging and pricing? Please describe the packages you offer or plan to offer, giving particular attention to relevant parameters such as throughput minimums and maximums, average and marginal price per byte transferred, total data transfer caps if any, and corresponding overage costs or other ramifications if any.

20. Could you please provide any other relevant information you are willing to share regarding system capabilities, features, and roadmaps?

21. Could you please provide costs for any hardware/equipment that may be necessary to enable SATCOM?

4.0 Submission Details:

AFLCMC/EBAY requests responses not to exceed 20 pages (single-spaced, 12-point font, and 1 inch margins, in Microsoft®

Word). These responses may be followed up with comments/questions from the Government team within 30 days of receipt.

We highly recommend requesting a meeting to provide a capability briefing on how you can meet TCS SATCOM C2, if you meet the prerequisites previously listed.

. The following vendor information must be provided:

• Name of Company

• CAGE code

• SAM unique EID

• Mailing address

• Phone number

• Email

• Point of contact for further clarification or questions

• Background/Brief history highlighting past relevant experience on similar systems

You may also provide up to 25 (twenty-five) PowerPoint slides, capability briefing or other graphical charts to further explain your concepts and an operational view (OV-1) that provides a high level graphical and textual description of your system design and/or operational concept.

Questions regarding this announcement shall be submitted in writing via email to the Contracting Officer (CO), Capt Cameron

Newton, at cameron.newton.2@us.af.mil and the Contracting Specialist (CS), Nicholas Ardito, at nicholas.ardito@us.af.mil.

Questions will be answered by the Government and posted to the SAM.gov website; accordingly, questions shall NOT contain proprietary or classified information. The Government does not guarantee that questions received after 28 AUG

2024, 4:00 PM Central Time will be answered.

mailto:cameron.newton.2@us.af.mil mailto:nicholas.ardito@us.af.mil

Final respondent white papers and related graphical/textual descriptive data should be submitted to the Government NLT

29 AUG 2024, 4:00 PM Central Time.

5.0 Summary

All respondents are requested to provide their status as a U.S. company, large business, small business, small disadvantaged business, or women-owned small business, per NAICS code 517410. Respondents should also indicate the type and percentage of work that would be subcontracted, including portions intended for socio-economic concerns of interest to the

Government. Respondents are requested to disclose their status as a Foreign-owned/Foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated use of foreign national employees on this effort.

Respondents must be registered in the Government's System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov to do business with the Air Force. Unclassified responses to the information requested are due no later than 29 AUG 2024, 4:00

PM Central Time, and should be submitted via secure email to the Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO), Captain Cameron

Newton, at cameron.newton.2@us.af.mil. Proprietary information must be clearly marked on the outside container and materials inside. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for release of any proprietary information not properly identified.

All information received in response to this RFI will become Government property and will not be returned. Should there be objections to the envisioned disclosure of technical and cost/price data submitted to the Government, please contact the PCO immediately in writing with the basis of the objection. The Government may release technical and cost/price data submitted to Government contracted advisors for review and analysis. The support contracts include DFARS clause 252.227-7025, and the Government support contractors are considered coverage Government support contractors, who will only access the information for the purpose of furnishing independent and impartial advice or technical assistance to the Government and will take all reasonable steps to protect the sensitive data from unauthorized release or disclosure.

Appendix: NONE

Type: Other (Draft RFPs/RFIs, Responses to Questions, etc.)

Posted Date: 15 AUG 2024

Contracting Office Address:

AFLCMC/EBAY, 207 West D Avenue, Bldg. 349, Eglin AFB, Florida 32542 United States

Place of Performance:

207 West D Avenue, Bldg. 349, Suite 122, Eglin AFB, Florida 32542 United States

Primary Point of Contact:

Capt Cameron D. Newton

Contracting Officer cameron.newton.2@us.af.mil

Phone: (850) 883-0356

Secondary Point of Contact:

Nicholas Ardito

Contracting Specialist nicholas.ardito@us.af.mil

Phone: (850) 883-3386 https://www.sam.gov/ mailto:arthur.chappelka@us.af.mil mailto:nicholas.ardito@us.af.mil