Draft - CfWP Topic 0014 - Autonomous Hyperspectral Defenses.pdf

Solicitation: BAA-21-R-NCFT Call #: 0014 Topic #: N2102 Common Operating Environment

FEDERAL AGENCY NAME: Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) on behalf of the Army Futures Command (AFC), Network Cross-Functional Team (Network-CFT)

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: BAA-21-R-NCFT

Originally published on beta SAM: 30 October 2020 Last Updated: N/A

CALL ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 0014

CALL SCHEDULE: Dates: TBD

Event BAA Released on beta.SAM.gov Call: TBD White Paper (WP) Submission Opens WP Submission Closes (TBD) Government begins notifying Vendors of WP evaluations:

• Selected for Further Consideration (Invitation to participate in the no-cost technological demonstration)

• Not Selected for Further Consideration Technological Demonstration Government begins notifying Vendors of results of technological demonstration:

• Selected for Further Consideration (Invitation to submit proposal)

• Not Selected for Further Consideration

Government begins accepting proposals from selected Vendors Government begins notifying Vendors selected for award (if any)

*White papers received after the due date/time shall be governed by the provisions of FAR 52.215-1(c) (3).

BAA TYPE: This is a call for WPs only and will be governed by the two-step process described in General Information of the BAA-21-R-NCFT. Offerors that submit a proposal without first submitting a WP will not be eligible for award.

WP INSTRUCTIONS: Detailed instructions on format for WPs and the two-step submission process can be found in the overarching BAA.

TWO-STEP BAA, CALL ANNOUNCEMENT

BAA-21-R-NCFT, WHITE PAPER CALL #0014

Title: Autonomous Hyperspectral Defenses Date: 04 April 2024

*Please note the Government reserves the right to skip step two of phase one and go directly to Phase Two after white paper evaluations.

WP SUBMISSION: All WPs shall be submitted via Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) Joint Communications Marketplace (JCM) Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) Industry Community, via https://jtnc.experience.crmforce.mil/TEMIndustry/s/.

TECHNOLOGY AREAS OF INTEREST:

Army Futures Command (AFC), Network-Cross Functional Team (N-CFT) and Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S), Program Manager Electronic Warfare (PM EW&C) in support of Network Modernization priorities, Department of Defense (DoD) Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) Strategy, and the Army’s EW priorities, is issuing this call for WPs in association with BAA Topic Number 0014 - Autonomous Hyperspectral Defenses. To be eligible for consideration and possible contract award, the WP shall be of basic research, applied research, and/or that part of development not related to the development of a specific system or hardware procurement in the following “Technology Areas of Interest” specific to this call:

A. BAA TOPIC NUMBER: N2102: Common Operating Environment

WHITE PAPER CALL #0014

Operational Description of the Problem:

The Army has been shifting from a counter insurgency (COIN) operation focus, were they had spectrum advantage over adversary entities within their respectable geographic locations. Commanders had the ability to broadcast continuously and when they needed to know what was going on within their area of operations (AO). Focusing on large scale combat operations (LSCO) and multidomain operations (MDO), the Army has come to understand based on what is happening within the European theater (Russia and Ukraine), the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) will be used against friendly forces. Because of the decades of conducting COIN operations, commanders need to:

• Understand how the EMS and organic transmit and receive devices, power generated capabilities, natural phonons, adversary effects, and environmental conditions will affect how their unit operate in the spectrum.

• See themselves within the EMS to provide units the ability to conduct emissions control (EMCON), electromagnetic protection (EP), defensive electromagnetic attack (DEA), and enhance survivability during any phase during operations.

• Manage how units operate and/or maneuver within the EMS to provide ability to optimize, scale, and prioritize their usage of the ESM while conducting operations within the units AO.

While the Army is conducting command and control (C2) on the move, spectrum awareness will be key to survival in a contested and congested electromagnetic operation environment (EMOE). The Army needs for mesh networked sensors transient data to a central repository, that can be assessed and

Important Please assess the entire solicitation carefully prior to any response. The Network-CFT BAA utilizes a two-phase process to solicit offers and select a source for award.

• Phase One – Step One: Submission of White Papers *Step Two: Technological Demonstration (By Invitation Only)

• Phase Two – Submission of Proposals (By Invitation Only) https://jtnc.experience.crmforce.mil/TEMIndustry/s/ dynamically visualized on a tool (e.g., Electronic Warfare Planning Management Tool (EWPMT)). The spectrum managers (25E’s), electromagnetic warfare (EW) (17 series) can use this visualization of the EMS to inform commanders what they currently look within the EMS. The current program of record (PoR), spectrum situational awareness system (S2AS), is currently a FY25 startup (Product Manger electronic warfare integration (PdM-EWI)). Knowing what formations look like within the EMS, commanders additionally need networked sensor architecture, with common data format that can be consumed by and with other mission command systems. Additionally, they must be able to have the ability to employ countermeasures (e.g. counter-unmanned arial systems (C-UAS), DEA) to protect their formation against adversarial actions.

Use Case 1: A joint task force (JTF) division is deploying to an unnamed area of operations (AO) in support of contingent actions with joint and multinational partners in a combatant command (COCOM) area of responsibility (AOR). During movement operations, the division was having intermitted communication between subordinates, because of the heavily congested and contested EMS. Based on the speed and tempo of the events, Spectrum managers and EW were unable to make timely assessments of the electromagnetic operational environment (EMOE), based on the displacement of sensors and point of correlation of data, to inform the commander what was contributing to the interference of subordinate unit communications.

Use Case 2: The division cyberspace electromagnetic activity (CEMA) cell is establishing the area of interest for S2AS monitoring the EMS within the unit’s AO, to include all subordinate, attached, and tactical controlled (TACON) units. Additionally, other operational controlled (OPCON) units are setting up DEA capabilities within the area of AO. The Commander asks the CEMA cell to provide them a daily update on how the unit is propagating within the EMS and be the centralized cell to manage and control (at times) DEA systems that other subordinate units have emplaced. The CEMA cell needs EWPMT to add additional databases with hyperspectral imagery, accurate foliage/man-made objects, and more in-depth weather data to simulate and model, when planning or during employment of effects will be able to achieve their maximum effectives.

Technical Description of the Problem:

• Cognitive burden of distinguishing and identifying signal characteristics of multiple simultaneous signals.

• Curating relevant data to the user based on need for situational awareness of the EMOE.

• Obtaining and connecting to authoritative databases.

• Structured, flexible, and rapid sensor-to-management-to-effects architecture.

• Common and structured data that can be ingested by mission command systems.

• Integration within a mission partner environment (MPE).

Required Capabilities:

• Platform mounted (e.g., ground, arial) low profile sensor(s) with cognitive capability to process, assess, and define objects (foreign to friendly) operating within a unit's EMS footprint through S2AS and EWPMT. [Use Case 1]

• Integration of authoritative databases from multiple sources to include weather effects, foliage, and man-made objects to enable model and simulate. [Use Case 2]

• Agnostic algorithms to identify, classify, and baseline various electromagnetic signals from many sources in near real-time. [Use Case 1]

• Agnostic algorithms to model and simulate the impacts of terrain, foliage, manmade objects, rf spectrum, and weather on friendly communications in near real time. [Use Case 2]

• Provide integrated sensor data into electronic warfare planning and management tool (EWPMT) for spectrum awareness, including environmental metrics (e.g., terrain, weather, man-made objects) calculated, then extend interoperability to countermeasures to deny or destroy foreign emissions within a specified or predetermined distance. [Use Case 1 &2]

• Integrate into legacy sensors, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), government-off-the-shelf (GOTS), DEA capabilities, and publish consumable data to other mission command systems.

[Use Case 1 &2]

Technical Constraints/Dependencies:

1. Spectrum requests needed for transmitting devices used for outside demonstrations, testing, and STPs. Requests need to be submitted NLT local frequency request policy or procedure.

2. Machine Learning models of radio frequency (RF) signals will be trained and developed in the PEO IEWS Project Linchpin development pipeline.

Enclosures (References):

• FM 3-12, Cyberspace Operations and Electromagnetic Warfare, August 2021

• ATP 3-12.3, Electromagnetic Warfare Techniques, January 2023

• S2AS A-CDD, April 2023

** The vendor shall identify any current ongoing same/similar efforts associated with the proposed white paper solution/technology area. The vendor shall provide the contract/agreement number and a brief description of the effort.

WP QUESTIONS/ANSWERS: Government will publish WP Q&As in the JCM TEM Industry Community applicable Topic Collaboration Group area. Instructions for the Q&A session shall be posted to the JCM TEM Industry Community (https://jtnc.experience.crmforce.mil/TEMIndustry/s/) when the call is issued.

WP PREPARATION, SUBMISSION, AND REVIEW PROCESS: Instructions for submissions of WPs, including response content and format, are covered in Section B of the baseline BAA, BAA-21-R- NCFT. The submitted white paper should not exceed eight (8) pages.

TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL (TRL): For all the subtopic areas listed above, the maturity of the proposed technology should be at a TRL 6 or higher (please see enclosed TRL definitions). If the proposed technology is not TRL 6 or higher at the onset of the prototype project, the vendor shall include a detailed analysis of how the technology will be TRL 6 at the end of the prototyping effort.

WP EVALUATION CRITERIA:

The Government will evaluate WPs to determine which have the potential to best meet the Network- CFT’s needs utilizing a two-part evaluation criterion as follows:

• Part One (1): WPs will be evaluated using “Go” or “No-Go” gate criteria listed below.

The “Go” or “No-Go” requirements are listed below which will determine if the WP receives further consideration. If during the evaluation one of the “Go” or “No-Go” requirements is not met, that evaluation will automatically receive a “No-Go” determination and will not receive further consideration.

o Affordability. The Government will review the Offeror’s Rough Order of

Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for affordability. Affordability targets for any single award will be capped at $2M for Base and $2M for Option, however the Government will review the ROMs to determine the best value based on the proposed approach.

o TRL. The Government will review the Offeror’s TRL to ensure it meets requirements as detailed in the Call for WP. Offeror must meet at a minimum TRL 6 at delivery.

o Schedule. The Government will review the Offeror’s proposed schedule to ensure the Offeror meets the period of performance when the Government specifies a Not-to-Exceed schedule. The Not-to-Exceed schedule for this effort is 24-Months (one 12-month base period, which means vendors can deliver their prototype before 12-months, and one 12-month option period). If either the base or option period proposed exceeds 12-months, the white paper will be considered “No-Go” and not receive further consideration.

o Compliance with all white paper submission requirements outlined in BAA-21-

R-NCFT.

• Part Two (2): WP will be evaluated using the following factors, which are listed in descending order of importance:

o Importance to Agency Programs (Relevance/Potential for Impact). The Government will review the Offeror’s description of the technology proposed on how it solves the capability/gap/problem presented, the relevance to the Highly Desired/Desired Capabilities, scalability of the solution, and assess its worth in relation to the stated “Technology Areas of Interest.” WPs will be scored as highly likely, likely, or marginally likely to address the stated operational and technical descriptions of the problem.

o Technical Merit/Challenge (Innovative or Revolutionary Technology (Scientific & Engineering Viability)). The Government will review the Offeror’s technology proposed to satisfy the technical challenges and design objectives by reviewing the Offeror’s enabling technology (innovative or revolutionary approach); feasibility;

technical risk and mitigation plan; alternatives (other technical data/information conveyed); technology maturation (the ability to achieve technology maturity); and time to field solution. WPs will be scored as fully or partially meeting or exceeding the stated Highly Desired and Desired capabilities.

o Schedule. The Offeror’s schedule will be evaluated based on the reasonableness of the allocation of time to meet major activities/milestones, deliverable, metrics measures of success, potential risks, and mitigation plans. WPs will be scored as having a preferable, acceptable, or questionable schedule for delivery.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEMONSTRATION EVALUATION CRITERIA:

Note: The process outlined below is subject to change.

“Technology demonstration” entails a prototype sample presented by an Offeror to showcase the proposed characteristics of the offered product described in the whitepaper as well as expand on aspects of the product that cannot adequately be described by specifications, purchase descriptions, or white paper (e.g. ease of use, quality of user experience, etc.). Demonstrations of capabilities not yet ready for a practical demonstration may be provided by an in-person paper or slide show presentation. This demonstration is also an opportunity to clarify and expand upon concepts not fully explored in the white paper and to field Government questions about the proposed prototype solution.

The Contractor must present the technology demonstration during the time specified in the Invitation to Demo. Individual time slots will be allotted to the Contractors selected to attend. If the Contractor fails to present the technology demonstration on time the Government will reject the invitation to continue through the selection process

1. Unless otherwise specified in the solicitation, technology demonstration shall be:

(1) Presented at no expense to the Government.

(2) Operated and maintained by the Contractor during technology demonstration evaluation.

2. The Government will not be liable for any damages to technology demonstration during evaluation or shipping.

Rules & Expectations

The Contractor’s technology demonstration will be observed during a 45-minute session. Time slots will be provided to afford Contractor’s time to prepare for the demonstration at the venue.

The technology demonstration evaluation will consist of the following:

Activity Time Allotted Setup/Tear Down: Up to 5 min Technology demonstration Fixes: 10 min if needed Presentation: 45 minutes Total Technology demonstration Time:

45-60 Minutes

The Government will allow the Contractor to prepare their equipment in a classroom prior to beginning of the event. It is recommended not to show up more than 60 minutes prior to demonstration time to prevent crowding of the classroom.

The Government will allow each Contractor up to 5 minutes to move their equipment from the classroom to the demonstration area which is approximately 30 feet from the classroom door.

The Government will allow each Contractor up to 10 minutes to fix any problems encountered between the classroom and demonstration area. After 10 minutes has elapsed, the timer will start for the 45-minute formal evaluation.

The Government will provide the Contractors a space to deliver their technology demonstration. This area will consist of a table, podium, and a projector with screen. The Contractors should expect 3-4 Government leaders presiding over the demonstration event with supporting technical evaluators seated behind. Contractors invited to attend the event will only be allowed in the demonstration area during their allocated time until the day has concluded.

Please note, the Government reserves the right to eliminate the technical demonstration and go directly to a Request for Proposal OR hold the technical demonstration virtually.

EXPECTED NUMBER OF AWARDS: The Government reserves the right to award as many (or as few) contracts as it deems appropriate. There are no set percentages of funding allocated to each investment category.

AWARD INFORMATION: The Army may elect to award a base period with an option period as follows:

• Base Period: Design and Build a Prototype (Up to 12 Months)

(a) The Offeror shall deliver the prototype(s) necessary to prove their technology proposed.

o A Safety Assessment Report (SAR) shall be delivered with the prototype.

Before the completion of the base period, the Government will assess the technology proposed, looking at the broad areas of technical performance and suitability for experimentation with Army units. Based on this assessment, the Government may decide to exercise the option period. Additionally, the government will require specific artifacts as deliverables, which include but not limited to the following items:

- Software design documentation.

- Interface design documentation.

- Interface control documentation.

- Overall test plan.

- Data flow diagrams.

• Option Period: Follow-On Training and Experimentation (Up to 12 Months)

(a) If the Option period is exercised, the Contractor will take the Government feedback from the phase 1 training event and further refine the software prototype functionality in preparation for a Soldier Touch Point (STP) event(s).

(b) The Contractor shall provide follow-on training and experimentation for the improved of finalized prototype solution at a STP event(s). The Contractor shall propose the number of days required to train personnel on their proposed solution.

(c) The Contractor should also be prepared to deliver user and training manuals, as well as technical support necessary to demonstrate the prototype.

(d) Technical support necessary to make repairs and replace parts as required to keep the proposed technology operational throughout this phase.

The Rough-Order-of-Magnitude (ROM) shall be broken out by base and option period, as the Government may only fund the base period and not the option period.

ANTICIPATED FUNDING: Base and Option period awards under this call are expected to range from $0 to $2M; however, the Government reserves the right to award smaller or larger contracts or assistance instruments. The Government reserves the right to select all, part, or none of the WPs received, subject to the availability of funds.

NOTE: The funding profile is an estimate only and not a contractual obligation for funding. All funding is subject to change due to Government discretion and availability. Potential Offerors should be aware that due to unanticipated budget fluctuations funding in any or all areas may change with little or no notice.

ANTICIPATED TYPE OF CONTRACTS/INSTRUMENTS: The Government reserves the right to award the instrument best suited to the nature of research proposed.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The contract(s) will have one (1) 12-month base period and one (1) 12-month option period. The option period is not guaranteed and is subject to funding availability.

CALL AMENDMENTS: Offerors should monitor the beta SAM site, via https://sam.gov/, and Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) Joint Communications Marketplace (JCM) Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) Industry Community, via https://jtnc.experience.crmforce.mil/TEMIndustry/s/, for additional notices to this Call that may permit extensions of the WP submission date or otherwise modify this announcement.

APPLICABILITY OF BASELINE BAA: All requirements of BAA-21-R-NCFT apply. For complete information regarding BAA-21-R-NCFT, refer to the BAA announcement as posted on beta SAM. It contains information applicable to all calls issued under the BAA and provide information on the overall program, proposal preparation and submission requirements, proposal review and evaluation criteria, award administration, agency contacts, etc. If there is conflicting information, this call for white paper and instructions contained herein takes precedent over the BAA.

http://www.fbo.gov/

Rules & Expectations