ARV Industry Day RFI.pdf

ARV - Market Survey 2 Distribution A December 2022

UNCLASSIFIED: DISTRIBUTION A. RELEASE TO PUBLIC

Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV)

Market Survey and Request for Information

Market Survey: The Army Contracting Command – Detroit Arsenal (ACC-DTA) is conducting this Request for Information (RFI) as a Market Survey to determine the level of interest among small and other-than-small business contractors to participate in a future potential competitive solicitation and obtain feedback on the draft Performance Specification (P Spec) for the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV). This action could result in one or more future solicitations for the ARV in support of United States Marine Corps (USMC) and Program Manager for Light Armored Vehicles (PM LAV).

Purpose: The purpose of publicizing this market survey is to aid in the continued development of a future acquisition strategy, identify the number of interested small businesses and other-than-small businesses, gather information for planning purposes about the capabilities of each industry source as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.201(e), and obtain feedback on the draft P Spec. This RFI will also aid in the development of future industry day(s) for the ARV.

Background: ACC-DTA along with PM LAV are working on a potential future contracting strategy and competitive solicitation for the ARV. The ARV is a new and purpose-built combat vehicle system, mobile on land and water, and capable of service as a battlefield ‘Quarterback’, as a gatherer and coordinator of battlefield data and intelligence to provide a complete and accurate Common Operating Picture to battlefield commanders. ARV will employ transformational sensor, communications, and combat capabilities to collect and communicate information, while integrating robotics and artificial intelligence technologies into manned-unmanned teams. The ARV will enable a crew to sense the operating environment and convey that information using advanced on-board sensors and networked communications systems that are augmented by unmanned systems in order to detect, recognize, identify and report threats at extended ranges. The ARV will provide the Fleet Marine Force with the survivable, mobile, networked, sustainable, maintainable and lethal platform optimized for naval transport and amphibious employment in the littoral operating environment.

The ARV Family of Vehicles (FoVs) is expected to consist of six (6) Mission Role Variants (MRVs): Command, Control, Communications, & Computers-Unmanned Aerial System (C4-UAS), Organic Precision Fire-Mounted (OPF-M), Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS), 30mm Autocannon and Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Logistics (LOG), and Recovery (R).

The draft P Spec attached to this survey captures the main body of the ARV and C4UAS variant specifications.

This action is expected to be solicited under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes:

Definition NAICS Code Military Armored Vehicle, Tank, and Tank Components 336992

Proprietary Information. The Government acknowledges its statutory obligations under 18 U.S.C. §1905 to protect confidential information provided to the Government.

Pursuant to this statute, the Government is willing to accept any trade secrets or proprietary restrictions placed upon qualifying data forwarded in response to this survey and to protect such information from unauthorized disclosure, subject to the following:

• Qualifying data must be clearly marked TRADE SECRETS or PROPRIETARY and be accompanied by an explanatory text, stating the rationale to protect the information.

• Only mark the data that is trade secrets truly proprietary.

• Do not mark data that is already in the public domain or is already in possession of the Government or third parties on an unclassified basis.

• Proprietary data transmitted electronically must have the TRADE SECRETS or PROPRIETARY legend on both the cover of the transmittal e-mail as well as at the beginning of the file. Proprietary information contained within the correspondence shall use the legends: “PROPRIETARY INFORMATION BEGINS” and “PROPRIETARY

INFORMATION ENDS.”

Disclaimer. The Government is not responsible for marking contractor data. To ensure protection of contractor data, please ensure it is marked in accordance with Section 4 above. Additionally, marked data that is already in the public domain or in the possession of the Government or third parties, or is afterward placed into the public domain by the owner or another party through no fault of the Government, will not be protected once in the public domain. In the event the Government needs to reproduce the protected data for distribution purposes between Governmental offices all data will be reproduced with restrictive legends in place. Additionally, prior to receiving copies of protected information, Government personnel will sign a Non- Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which both alerts personnel of the proprietary nature of the information being provided as well as the seriousness of the Government’s obligations to protect such information.

Clarification of this Request. This request is a Market Survey and not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an announcement of a forthcoming solicitation, nor is it an attempt to seek potential Offerors to be placed on a solicitation mailing list. No solicitation document exists at this time. Providing a response to this notice is completely voluntary and no reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this market survey or any follow-on requests for information. The Government will not rank submittal or provide any reply to interested firms. Information provided regarding the ARV as presented in this Market Survey is subject to change.

Data submitted in response to this market survey will not be returned.

Request for Delivery of Performance Specification (P Spec): The P Spec referenced in this RFI are Distribution D. For access to the P Spec please email Ms.

Allegra Steinberg at allegra.w.steinberg.civ@army.mil and Ms. Melissa Brown at mailto:allegra.w.steinberg.civ@army.mil melissa.c.baysbrown.civ@army.mil. Please note access is Limited to Department of Defense (DOD) & US DOD Contractors only.

Instructions for Completing the Questionnaire. Potential vendors who deem themselves qualified and who would be interested in competing for this action, if and when there was a request for proposals, are asked to complete the following questionnaire and provide written responses electronically via email to the ACC-DTA point of contact, Ms. Allegra Steinberg at allegra.w.steinberg.civ@army.mil and Ms.

Melissa Brown at melissa.c.baysbrown.civ@army.mil. ACC-DTA will not accept any telephone inquiries or comments regarding this survey. All questions, comments, and/or concerns must be submitted via email to the points of contacts listed above or included in your survey response. Responses to questions may be posted on beta.SAM.gov;

accordingly, questions shall not contain proprietary or classified information. The Government will use its best effort to remove contractor identifying information when posting the question and answer.

Response Format. Request that electronic responses be provided in Microsoft Word 2016 or earlier, or compatible with Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader 9.0 or earlier.

Responses shall be limited to 10 pages, text in Times New Roman 12 pitch, with one-inch margins. Only one response per company will be reviewed. The subject line shall include the Organization Name and “Response to ARV Market Survey.”

QUESTIONNAIRE

Interested Organizations are asked to complete the following questionnaire and provide electronic responses back to ACC-DTA’s POC, Ms. Allegra Steinberg and Ms. Melissa Brown, no later than 1400PM EST, 10 February 2023; responses received after this date and time will not be reviewed or tallied. If desired, responses may solely address the question number so as not to repeat the question in each response. Please spell out acronyms in their first instance. Also, clearly mark any confidential information per the accompanying market survey guidance. Please answer all of the questions in this Questionnaire; avoid using “not applicable” (N/A) type answers.

Administrative Information

i. A brief (no more than two pages) company description, summarizing the organization’s history and pertinent industry experience. (Company Description: CAGE code, location of facilities, mailing address and website).

ii. Are you currently registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) and the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE)?

iii. In addition to the CAGE code provided in Section 3, please list any applicable NAICS codes your organization believes applies. Please create a similar table in your response and put an “X” in the cell(s) that are applicable, per NAICS code. List your organization’s size status for each of the NAICS code your organization provides; each mailto:melissa.c.baysbrown.civ@army.mil row should have an “X”. If one of the NAICS codes provided is not representative of the type of industry in which your entity does business, please place an “X” in the last column. Visit http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/Size_Standards_Table.pdf for more information, if needed.)

NAICS

Code

Other- Than- Small- Business

Small Business

Small Disadvantaged Business

HUBZone Small Business

Veteran- Owned Small Business

Small Disadvantaged , Veteran- Owned Small Business

Women- Owned Small Business

Other This NAICS Code is not representativ e of the type of industry in which my entity does business.

iv. Does your organization currently have an active SECRET Facility Clearance? If no, is your organization currently in the process of obtaining one?

v. Has your company’s Cost Accounting System been approved by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) for accumulating and billing costs under Government contracts? If yes, when was it last approved?

vi. Has your company’s Purchasing System been approved by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)? If yes, when was it last approved?

b. Information pertaining to the questionnaire respondent

Note: The respondent should be an individual who is duly authorized to manage any/all technical issues and/or questions and be an individual who is authorized to manage any/all contractual issues and/or questions.

i. What is the name of the Survey respondent?

ii. What is the position title of the Survey respondent?

iii. What telephone number(s) can the respondent be reached?

iv. What email address can be used to contact the respondent, if necessary?

v. Is the respondent duly authorized to manage both technical and contractual issues and/or concerns?

Technical Capability Questions

For the purposes of this survey questionnaire, “contract” shall be defined as:

A. a single Government or Commercial contract; or, B. a single delivery order placed under a Single Award or Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) delivery order contract (FAR 16.501-1); or, C. a single delivery order placed under a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), (FAR 8.405- 2);

D. a single delivery order placed under a Single Award or Multiple Award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) (FAR 8.405-3 or FAR 13.303); or

E. a single order placed under a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) (FAR 16.703).

1. Yes/No: Has your organization been responsible for Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD), Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), and/or Production of a Vehicle Program similar to ARV?

If yes, please provide:

i. Contract Number; where prior relevant experience is under a broader IDIQ, BPA, or FSS-type contract, the respondent shall not just cite the broader IDIQ, BPA, or FSS-type contract. Rather, the respondent shall include the specific individual delivery order(s), or work directive(s) which it considers to be reflective of relevant prior experience;

ii. Contract type;

iii. BRIEFLY describe (< 4 sentences) the primary purpose of the contract;

2. Does your organization envision participating within the identified scope of this market survey? If YES, in what capacity do you envision, as a prime or subcontractor?

Also, what role(s), manufacturer, integrator, etc? Be specific as possible.

3. Government or commercial contracting activity’s point of contact information (telephone number and e-mail address) in ACC-DTA needs to validate/support the provided information.

4. Identify any issues, questions, concerns or feedback you foresee in the outlined procurement strategy?

5. Do you have any questions or concerns with the identified scope or strategy for the

RFP?

6. Would attending a Virtual or In-person Industry Day mitigate those concerns?

7. Would an open question and answer session before or after a virtual Industry Day help clarify your company’s interest in participating in this contract? Does your company have any suggestions on what could be covered in a virtual industry day besides a review of the P Spec for the main body and C4UAS?

8. Do you have any other pertinent information that you’d like to add that might otherwise be useful for the Government to meet the purposes of this Survey?

Draft Performance Specification Questions

These next RFI questions are to be considered in reference to the ARV Family of Vehicles (FOV) and the C4 Unmanned Aerial System (C4UAS) Performance Specification (P Spec) that accompanies the publication of these questions. Feedback and industry questions on any aspect of the Performance Specification is welcome. The following areas of consideration and questions are intended to advise industry on the feedback the Government is most seeking relating to the ARV Performance Specification.

1. Provide any additional SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power and Cost) and/or computing resources (RAM, hard drive storage, processing speed) required, above and beyond what is already needed to accomplish other ARV requirements, in order to enable each of the following specifications related to recording video and audio: ARV-PSPEC-1105, ARV-PSPEC-318, ARV-PSPEC- 1108, ARV-PSPEC-317, ARV-PSPEC-707, and ARV-PSPEC-616.

2. Will your design follow the Open Standard for Radio Frequency (RF)

Convergence, Modular Open Radio Frequency Architecture (MORA)? Will your design follow any of these architectures: Vehicular Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY), System of System Analysis (SOSA), Field Artillery Computing Equipment (FACE), Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA) and/or C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS)? Do you have a plan on how you will demonstrate that the use of Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) supporting standards were used to a maximum extent possible throughout development? Feedback or industry thoughts as to how to best enable an Open Systems Architecture within the ARV is welcome.

3. What are your plans in providing an open business model and system architecture that allows major system components to be severable at the appropriate level for incremental addition, removal, or replacement over the system’s life-cycle? In this regard, what are your thoughts in selling technical data that is proprietary AFTER the USMC Acquisition Objective has been purchased for the intent of being able to manage life cycle support potentially without the assistance or support of the OEM?

4. In a world where we are constantly trying to stay one step ahead in our security posture, how does your design and maintenance program manage cyber-related risk and meet National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) continuous monitoring requirements? What steps are you taking to vet suppliers, code authors and other subcontracted support to avoid the introduction of cyber threat vectors into your products?

5. Does the architecture you would intend to propose for ARV only include hardware and software components that are approved for DoD use? If not, what would be your plan to gain approval prior to system testing?

6. How do you plan on vetting components (e.g. sensors or other Information Communication Technology) for use on the ARV for both Non-Secure Internet Protocol Router (NIPR) and Secure Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) data? What is your level of experience in vetting components for incorporation into DoD procured systems?

7. Considering Technical Data deliverables, to include Technical Manuals examples being Bills of Materials, and drawings, do you plan to require your Tier 1 and other suppliers to provide complete breakdowns of major sub-assemblies? For all Tech Data deliverables, is there enough information to incorporate Advanced/Additive Manufacturing practices to aid in timely repairs, as well as reach-back to expertise needed, regardless of vendor tier level?

8. What experience does your company have, to include lessons learned on past projects, for providing Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) for vehicle level systems, troubleshooting, technical advisement, parts/supply support, and special tools and test equipment to ensure minimum downtime for fielded assets? How was the transition to organic support conducted? Please include associated metrics of scale and performance of these measures. Please also include how you contracted for such support in the past. Considering that such support would be provided in dispersed locations to support fielding, what contract types were utilized? Please offer any insight into how CLS was optimized over the life of contracts.

9. For Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) Plus what metrics do you use, and what experience and or lessons learned from previous projects do you have? To the extent possible, please provide the system you provided CBM support on so the context can be discerned. What existing or past agreements have you had with suppliers to provide pass-thru CBM+ data to support a whole system maintenance concept? Considering the ARV Performance Specification, what metrics what you propose for a CBM based concept?

10. Considering the ARV Performance Specification, and the architecture you would propose in response: At what level would you design Line Replaceable Units (LRUs)? What is your design process for determination the level of replacement that could occur at the field level? At the Depot level?

11. Do you intend to utilize foreign national firms or individuals in the development of the ARV? If so, in what capacity and how will they be vetted? Do you have existing trade authorizations that might be leveraged? Describe how you would manage the program in this consideration, particularly how information would be firewalled that couldn’t be released to such individuals or entities.

12. Provide insight on the successful execution of a Reliability & Maintainability (RAM) management program on a prior system for which your company was the lead-developer or lead integrator. Include (a) which defense or commercial standards/guidance formed the basis of your RAM management program and the depth of RAM expertise overseeing the outcomes, (b) whether early RAM activities on prior programs typically commenced in sufficient time to influence the system design (PDR/CDR) and (c) to what extent a multifunctional team was utilized to integrate reliability processes (e.g. Failure Modes & Effects Analysis), ensuring systems were developed and manufactured to be highly reliable over their life cycles.

13. Which threshold requirements in the specification are technical risk drivers?

Please provide the rationale and recommended change to the threshold level that would reduce the risk? When detailing the technical risk, please include the delta in design time, cost and schedule as compared to the recommended level, in the judgement of your firm.

14. Are there any requirements in the specification that require clarification? Please include how the requirement might be better defined to clearly convey the requirement.

15. Please explain or elaborate on your planned process and rationale for Space, Weight & Power, cost (SWAPc) analysis to meet the Tier 1 (Key Performance Parameter (KPP) - critical) and Tier 2 (Key System Attribute (KSA) - essential) requirements by using the trade space in the Tier 3 through Tier 5 requirements.

If you are utilizing a particular tool or process to perform this analysis, please provide information in this regard.

16. How do you intend to qualify components prior to integration into the vehicle as well as hardware and software, to meet the Operational Mission Summary/Mission Profile (OMS/MP) environmental section and throughout the P-SPEC. How are you validating subcontractor claims, of for example, MIL-STD- 810 and MIL-STD-464 tested equipment? How will you validate firmware, drivers, middleware, OS integration, validation, build, and performance measurement from vendor software or even internally developed software, as well as Off The Shelf for software products or hardware that may contain firmware that will be integrated into your ARV design, for Quality and Cyber Threat purposes? In the context of the software requirements of the Performance Specification, please identify any requirements that would benefit from additional clarification.

17. What processes and procedures do you have in place to test, validate, and support all foreign-developed software? How will you ensure that code developed from sources not approved for DoD Systems is not incorporated?

18. Advise on recommendations to manage software updates to the ARV. Please consider any supplier software you would integrate, any middleware you might develop, and any Government provided software. If applicable, please relate any experience your firm has with Government systems in this regard and how updates have been managed.

19. Does your design concept employ a steel hull and a primarily steel armor, non-steel alloys, or some combination? Please provide basic, non-classified information regarding the design concept you’d propose for the hull and armor.

Ideally, a response to this item would include rationale and the options considered in selecting the material you did. If the proposed material represents what would be a new manufacturing process for your firm, please include how you facilitize and train your workforce to work with the new processes.

20. The ARV will require the use of MIL-STD-3040 and MIL-STD-3057 as the requirements for welds on ARV. These standards are significantly more stringent than have been used on prior requirements. Please advise of your ability to meet these requirements and how the incorporation of these requirements may impact cost and schedule of the design you would propose for ARV.

21. The ARV will be transported in naval vessels over deep water, will be deployed from deep water and littoral areas and will operate for extended periods in these and other austere environments. What design elements will be incorporated to ensure that the ARV will be able to operate in these conditions for extended periods? In your response, to the extent possible, please articulate what design aspects will be applied to components to extend their service life in these types of conditions.

ACC-DTA and PM LAV want to thank you for your participation and interest in the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV)

Please contact Ms. Allegra Steinberg at allegra.w.steinberg.civ@army.mil and Ms.

Melissa Brown at melissa.c.baysbrown.civ@army.mil with any questions or to provide the written feedback for this market survey.

mailto:melissa.c.baysbrown.civ@army.mil