RFI III - Section I ARP Due NLT 11May22.pdf

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3 May 2022

Request for Information (RFI) III Avionics Replacement Program (ARP)

RFI III – Section I (Section I responses are due on or before 12:00 pm CST on Wednesday, 11 May 2022)

NOTE: To be considered “capable”, the Government needs assurance the contractor can achieve US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification via Supplemental Type Certificates (STC) and Technical Standard Orders (TSO) compliance and their engineering department has experience with 3D CAD modeling and SysML. Failure to response to these questions will result in a determination that the contractor is not “capable”.

The purpose of this RFI is to request responses to the following sets of questions.

1. Please indicate your company’s past US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Supplemental Type Certificates (STC) experience with Avionics and the Technical Standard Orders (TSO) compliance of proposed solution for the T-6A Avionics Replacement Program (ARP). If your company has no experience or a solution has not been determined at this time, indicate your plan to meet the following two requirements from the SRD:

“The ARP system shall be FAA certified via a Supplemental Type Certificate and meet Military Airworthiness certification requirements for a USG approved MIL-HDBK-516C Military Type Certificate. The FAA certification serves as primary basis for Military certification.

To simplify the Supplemental Type Certification (STC) or Amended Type Certification process, FAA Technical Standard Order Authorization (TSOA) components shall be utilized to support the ARP effort if available.”

2. Does your engineering department have experience with 3-dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) modeling and Systems Modeling Language (SysML)?

a. If yes, describe your experience and tools (software, server, storage, infrastructure etc.) used in past developments.

b. If your company has no experience or a solution has not been determined at this time, indicate your plan to meet these capabilities.

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

AIR FORCE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT CENTER

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE OKLAHOMA

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only, which, as part of market research, is being issued in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 10 Market Research. This is not a solicitation, no solicitation exist.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Training Aircraft Section (AFLCMC/WLK) is seeking to identify sources that may be capable of providing Avionics Replacement Program for the T-6A fleet, located at five

(5) CONUS operating locations with a total of 442 aircraft.

With your company’s current understanding of the ARP technical solution for the T-6A aircraft, please answer the following questions (#3 through #8) in regards to what will be required for modifying the T-6A Aircrew Training Devices (ATDs):

Base OFT IFT UTD EPT EST Randolph AFB, TX 3 4 2 1 1 Laughlin AFB, TX 6 7 5 1 1 Vance AFB, OK 5 7 5 1 1 Columbus AFB, MS 6 6 4 1 1 Shepard AFB, TX 3 4 3 1 1 CSO Pensacola, FL 3 1 0 1 1 Totals* 26 29 19 6 6

*Fleet of 26 T-6A Operational Flight Trainers (OFT), 29 T-6A Instrument Flight Trainers (IFT), 19 T-6A Unit Training Devices (UTD), six (6) T-6A Egress Procedure Trainers (EPT) and six (6) T-6A Ejection Seat Trainers (EST)

3. The ATD program has a requirement to keep an optimized retrofit ratio between T-6A

ARP modified ATDs and unmodified ATDs so that the student pilot training pipeline flows smoothly.

a. What is your company’s ability to vary the rate of ATD retrofits over the four year period of retrofit to keep the ratio optimized?

b. What is the maximum number of ATDs your company could modify concurrently?

4. For the retrofit of ATDs with the ARP solution, what is your company’s estimate of the number of team members needed on a retrofit team?

a. How many hours will a retrofit team work each day while retrofitting ATDs?

b. When retrofits first start, how many consecutive work days will it take to complete an ATD retrofit, through Government Acceptance Testing (GAT) completion?

c. How many retrofits does your company estimate it will take before the learning curve for retrofit installs is fully realized?

d. Once the learning curve is fully realized and a steady state retrofit rhythm is established, how many consecutive work days will it then take to complete an ATD retrofit, through GAT completion

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5. Relative to the start of T-6A ARP technical reviews for the aircraft, what is the earliest that technical reviews could start for ATDs ARP solution while maintaining a:

a. Low schedule risk?

b. Medium schedule risk?

c. High schedule risk?

d. When does your company recommend starting ATD technical reviews relative to the aircraft technical reviews?

6. Describe the risk(s) that would be undertaken and outcome(s) that could result if the ARP technical reviews for ATDs were to start before the aircraft design for ARP was determined at the aircraft Critical Design Review (CDR). What steps could be taken to mitigate that risk(s)?

7. For a. through d. below, comment on the plausibility and schedule risk of the below for elapsed time between ARP ATD technical reviews. In addition, what elapsed time between the same events would your company recommend in order to sustain a low schedule risk profile?

a. Aircraft CDR to ATD SRR/SFR – 2 weeks

b. ATD SRR/SFR to ATD PDR – 3 months

c. ATD PDR to ATD CDR – 3 months

d. ATD CDR to Company Verification Testing (CVT) and Government Acceptance

Testing (GAT) – 7 months

8. What is your company’s estimate for long lead time ATD Kits for the ARP solution?

Please provide responses to RFI III – Section I questions via email to Welth Cooper at Welth.Cooper@us.af.mil and Gale VanDeventer at Gale.VanDeventer@us.af.mil on or before 12:00 pm CST on Wednesday, 11 May 2022.

mailto:Welth.Cooper@us.af.mil mailto:Gale.VanDeventer@us.af.mil