SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Market Research to Refine the composition, data content, and acquisition approach for the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) Demonstration project as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) Phase 2 program
- Notice Date
- 6/5/2013
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- ACC-RSA-AATD - (SPS), ATTN: AMSRD-AMR-AA-C, Building 401, Lee Boulevard, Fort Eustis, VA 23604-5577
- ZIP Code
- 23604-5577
- Solicitation Number
- W911W6-13-R-0008
- Response Due
- 7/15/2013
- Archive Date
- 8/4/2013
- Point of Contact
- hope mcclain, 757-878-2993
- E-Mail Address
-
ACC-RSA-AATD - (SPS)
(hope.a.mcclain@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Request for Information: This is a Request for Information (RFI) as defined in FAR 15.201(e). This request is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this RFI will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement, or the Government use of such information. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) is conducting market research to refine the composition, data content, and acquisition approach for the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) Demonstration project as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) Phase 2 program. 1 Introduction: The AMRDEC is currently developing an open system architecture (OSA) definition for the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family of systems (FoS) under the JCA Science and Technology (S&T) effort. JCA is following the Modular Open System Approach (MOSA) principles and leveraging existing and emerging OSA related efforts (including the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACETM) consortium). JCA in its final form will comprise a model, guidance documents and an ecosystem. JCA version 1.0 is not projected to be available until the end of FY15; however, it is the Government's desire to perform a proof of concept demonstration starting in FY14 with a partial version (V0.X). 2JCA Background: The JCA Program has five overarching program goals: Increase affordability Reduce time to field Enable new technology integration Accommodate mission performance requirements Address applicable mandates JCA enables a software product line (SPL) approach and defines the key interfaces as well as the software components of an avionics system that can be reused across the entire FVL FoS. This enables the achievement of higher level Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) affordability goals that would not automatically be achieved if developers or Program Offices worked independently. In following the MOSA principle of establishing an quote mark enabling environment, quote mark the JCA S&T effort teamed with the Navy and Industry to stand-up an open, consensus based, standards body. The Open Group managed FACE Consortium is an Industry and Government partnership to establish a standard Common Operating Environment (COE) for capability-based applications across Department of Defense (DoD) avionics systems. JCA will comprise the following: JCA Model - The JCA Model represents a collection of existing widely used and Industry-accepted standards, the reference architecture, and supporting documentation. The JCA Reference Architecture is a conceptual framework identifying a set of avionics subsystems, avionics components, their interfaces, their allocated functionality, common semantics and composition rules at the Domain, Subsystem, and Component levels. Guidance Documentation - The Guidance documentation will cover Security/Information Assurance, Contracting, System Safety and Airworthiness, and Systems and Software Engineering. Ecosystem - The Ecosystem will utilize efforts developed within the FACE Consortium and Army/Navy FACE Academic Project to provide the simulation tools, integrator and developer toolkits, conformance testing tools, a repository of JCA artifacts, and a reference application. 3JCA Demonstration: The purpose of JCA Demonstration is to verify that the JCA concept is valid and to reduce risk to follow-on efforts that will be implementing JCA. The JCA Demonstration approach is: Procure software that is portable across multiple Operating Environments (OEs) Procure software that is interchangeable and defined through models Exercise 3rd party component development through use of the Ecosystem The JCA Demonstration will utilize the JCA standard V0.X to procure a software component from multiple vendors that will be integrated on multiple OEs hosted on multiple General Purpose Processors (GPPs) built to the FACE Technical Standard. The choice of OEs will be driven by budgetary cost and technical considerations. The hardware and OE selections will be unknown to the developer(s) until after contract award. For this demonstration the Government will serve as Systems Integrator with all supporting equipment and personnel resident at the Aviation Systems Integration Facility (ASIF) on Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Government Lab will include a software developer's workstation with all the necessary C/C++ compilers for the OEs selected. It is the intent of the Government to have at least one vendor utilize the proposed FACE Ecosystem, specifically the Software Developer's Toolkit (SDK) and Conformance Test Suite. The JCA software component being procured is a Data Correlation & Fusion Manager (DCFM) defined as a FACE Unit of Portability (UoP). The DCFM UoP will be specified through a combination of textual descriptors and a data model provided in the quote mark Supplemental Package. quote mark See quote mark Section 5 Response Requirements quote mark on how to obtain. The data model defines the external interface for the UoP. The objective is to auto-generate programming language specific data structures and messages from the data model (the FACE SDK has this capability.) The UoP developed under this program is not intended to transition to follow-on efforts; therefore, it is not being procured with any intention of an airworthiness certification (not required to be built to Design Assurance Levels A-C). However, airworthiness certification considerations need to be understood and documented throughout the program including the ability to support test case reuse after code recompilation (e.g. through a portable test harness). It is important that the UoP perform the functionality specified, however the primary focus of the demonstration is on the portability and interchangeability aspects. The integration and demonstration will occur at the ASIF and the vendor will be expected to provide on-call support. The Government expects to obtain government purpose rights to the source code and supporting information for any software developed under the proposed JCA Demonstration to allow further experimentation with the development environment. Anticipated Funding is $800,000 to be split among all participants with the anticipation of a minimum of two efforts being pursued. The schedule for JCA Demonstration is in Table 1. Task Start Finish RFI Released 6/1/13 7/15/13 BAA Released 10/1/13 12/2/13 Award 3/24/14 UoP Development 4/8/14 7/31/14 UoP Integration 8/4/14 10/24/14 Testing/Demo 10/1/14 11/28/14 Report Due 12/1/14 12/1/14 Table 1: JCA Demonstration Schedule For the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), the Evaluation Criteria may include, but are not limited to, the following: 3.1Suitability of the proposed products (source code and reports): a.Ability of the Data Correlation & Fusion Manager software component to: i.Perform the functionality specified ii.Execute on multiple FACE COEs b.Extent to which Intellectual Property/Data Rights claims restrict future use of the products 3.2Merit of the proposed approach: a.Methods to be used and justification for their selection b.Appropriateness of the proposed approach to produce the proposed products c.Use of automated tools to convert the data model into programming language specific data structures and messages 3.3Ability to perform the work: a.Suitability of qualified personnel to perform the proposed work. i.Experience developing data fusion, data correlation, or other similar software components ii.Experience developing software components using machine readable data models iii.Experience developing software for real-time safety-critical embedded systems b.Suitability and availability of qualified facilities (if applicable) to perform the proposed work. 3.4Cost. a.Realism of the proposed man-hour, material, and other costs to accomplish the proposed effort (see FAR 2.101 - quote mark Definitions, quote mark Cost Realism). Cost to the Government of any required GFE/GFI or facilities will also be included in the evaluation. Criteria 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 are equal and more important than 3.4. Based on a review of industry responses to this RFI, the Government will decide whether it is appropriate to issue the BAA as a small business set-aside. At this time the BAA will likely include business arrangements for the JCA Demonstration either as procurement contracts under the authority of the Armed Services Procurement Act or cooperative agreements under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2358. 4Submission Content: The response to this notice should include, but is not limited to, the following: a) Identify any areas of concern/improvement regarding the discussed JCA background section b) Identify any areas of concern/improvement regarding the proposed JCA Demonstration approach, including business arrangements c) Identify any areas of concern/impacts the method of UoP specification has on airworthiness certification d) Identify any aspects of the UoP data model that is insufficient for software development e) Identify any areas of concern/improvement with using the FACE SDK f) Identify any areas of concern regarding software compilation in the Government Lab g) Thoughts on Intellectual Property and Data Rights for the software component development under this effort to include source code with supporting information, portable test harness, and documentation h) Identify any areas of concern/improvement regarding the proposed Cost and Schedule i) Identify any areas of concern/improvement regarding the proposed Evaluation Criteria j) Identify preferred Operating Environments and justification as to why they are preferred Respondents are expected to have knowledge of FACE work products. For more information reference the Open Group website at http://www.opengroup.org/face 5Response Requirements: This is a market research announcement for informational and planning purposes only and does NOT constitute a Request for Proposal, nor is it to be construed as a commitment by the Government. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to pay for any information, or otherwise reimburse responders for any costs associated with their respective submissions in response to this RFI. All submissions will be treated as information only. Respondents will not be notified of the results of any review of this RFI; however, clarification of submissions may be requested by the Contracting Officer. Participation in this effort is strictly voluntary. The Government estimates that responses of twenty-five (25) pages or less should be sufficient to address the information sought in this RFI. A corporate capability brief may be included as an attachment, but should not exceed five (5) typed pages. This attachment will not be counted against the response page limitation. AMRDEC is interested in obtaining responses to the questions posed in quote mark Section 4: Submission Content quote mark above. Please do not send information on specific products. Responses to this RFI are requested by close of business 15 July 2013. Unclassified responses should be submitted electronically via the AMRDEC Safe Access and File Exchange website (https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/SAFE/) in Microsoft Office format or as a portable document format ( quote mark.pdf quote mark ) file. Use the following email address as prompted by the site: robert.c.waible.civ@mail.mil. If proprietary or copyrighted information is submitted, please include a statement authorizing the Government to copy and use it within the Government for evaluation purposes. Appropriately marked proprietary information will be properly protected by the U.S. Government. Classified information should not be submitted. AMRDEC's SAFE site is not approved for transmission of classified information. The contracting point of contact is Mr. Rob Waible, Bldg 401 Lee Blvd, Fort Eustis, VA 23604-5577, (757) 878-2062, robert.c.waible.civ@mail.mil. OFFERORS DESIRING A COPY OF THE SUPPLEMENTAL PACKAGE, MUST REQUEST IT IN WRITING BY EMAIL. REQUEST MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CERTIFIED DD FORM 2345 (http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/pdf/registration/DD2345.pdf) AND DIRECTED TO THE ATTENTION OF MR. ROBERT WAIBLE. The Supplemental Package contains the Capability Requirements Specification, JCA Demonstration Scenario, Component Interaction Diagram, and the Data Correlation & Fusion Manager Data Model.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/3acf5cbe6bef856b1d35eee34c4fcee6)
- Place of Performance
- Address: ACC-RSA-AATD - (SPS) ATTN: AMSRD-AMR-AA-C, Building 401, Lee Boulevard Fort Eustis VA
- Zip Code: 23604-5577
- Zip Code: 23604-5577
- Record
- SN03080896-W 20130607/130606001803-3acf5cbe6bef856b1d35eee34c4fcee6 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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