Naval Undersea Warfare Center - Other Transaction Authority Agreement for Undersea Technology Innovation Request for Consortium Agreement

Amendment 0001:

Answers Industry Questions
Revises the Request for Consortium Agreement and the Base OT Agreement
Extends the time for submission

Background

The Other Transaction Authority (OTA), 10 U.S.C. § 2371b, allows the Department of Defense (DoD) to "carry out prototype projects that are directly relevant to enhancing the mission effectiveness of military personnel and the supporting platforms, systems, components or materials proposed to be carried out by the DoD, or to improvement of platforms, systems, components, or materials in use by the armed forces." Constant innovation and rapid technology advances are occurring throughout the world. Partnerships with commercial industry, the civil maritime sector, and others will be used to leverage these approaches and increase flexibility and agility, reduce cost, improve technology and capability insertion, and decrease program development cycles. The OTA offers an alternative to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)‐based acquisitions, allowing for access to participation by non-traditional defense contractors with innovative solutions that may not normally desire to participate in government procurement.

Requirement

NUWC requires innovative technological solutions to address current and future security threats in the undersea and maritime environment. NUWC's intent is to competitively establish an Other Transaction (OT) Agreement with a single Consortium, a legal entity whose members will be comprised of both traditional and non-traditional defense contractors. As part of the selection of the single Consortium, the Navy will also evaluate the Consortium Manager (CM) proposed to run the operations of the Consortium based on its Consortium Management Agreement. The Consortium Management Firm will sign the Base OT Agreement on behalf of the Consortium.

Objectives of establishing the Base OT Agreement include: 1) minimizing barriers to entry for small businesses and non-traditional vendors to work with the Government and to identify and realize teaming opportunities among entities to promote integrated research and prototyping efficiencies, and 2) reducing the cost of prototype development.

Following selection of the consortium and its CM by the Navy, and upon execution of the Base OT Agreement, the Consortium will be responsible for further building membership by attracting, retaining, and mentoring members to prepare them to compete for forthcoming prototype projects that will be solicited by the Navy. The CM will also be expected to aid in building teaming arrangements among Consortium members, as needed, to best meet the requirements of individual projects.
Competing the Base OT Agreement, as well as competing each of the ensuing prototype projects among the consortium membership, will also satisfy the requirements of the authority granted in 10 U.S.C. § 2371b that permit the streamlining of potential future follow-on production awards resulting from successful prototype projects.