A -- INTEGRATED FLIGHT MANAGEMENT (IFM) ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION (ATD)

Notice Date

November 20, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL -- Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514

ZIP Code

13441-4514

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-PRDA-02-04-IFKA

Response Due

June 15, 2004

Point of Contact

Joetta Bernhard, Contracting Officer, Phone (315) 330-2308, Fax (315) 330-7790, Email Joetta.Bernhard@rl.af.mil

Description

Joetta A. Bernhard, Contracting Officer, (315) 330-2308, email: Joetta.Bernhard@rl.af.mil; Mr.Edward DePalma, Program Manager, (315) 330-3069, email: depalmae@rl.af.mil. The Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is soliciting white papers for new concepts, tactics and tools to support the mobility operations at Scott AFB. The technology developed under this effort will feed into an integrated flight management capability for Air Mobility Command (AMC) and/or the Agile Transportation initiative (AT21) for US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) at Scott AFB. The scope of this announcement is to acquire necessary technologies and their integration to support the Integrated Flight Management (IFM) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) and the AT21 Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The goal for the IFM effort is to advance the search, retrieval, handling, use and dissemination of raw resource data and refined information that is required by AMC as it pertains to their mission planning and the optimal use of the available mobility resources. Specific areas within AMC addressed by this PRDA are: NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) Data Search and Retrieval; Flight Plan Processing; Diplomatic Clearance information from the U S State Department Foreign Clearance Guide to Mission Planning; Automated Data Search and Retrieval; Dynamic Planning and Scheduling. The goal for the AT21 effort is to develop decision support tools to better manage the Defense Transportation System (DTS) usage under all levels of operations so as to increase efficiency, lower costs to the CINCs (Commanders in Chief), and improve QOS (Quality of Service) for mobility customers. Specific areas within TRANSCOM addressed by this PRDA are: Improved Mode Determination and Asset Scheduling; Asset Visibility; Situational Awareness. Technologies to be considered for all of the above will include, but are not limited to, software agent development, mark-up language application, knowledge base design, natural language recognition technology and enterprise publish/subscribe functions. To test and evaluate this technology, the AFRL/Rome Research Site is host to a Virtual TACC (Tanker Airlift Command Center) that replicates the data systems of the AMC mission planners. Using the VTACC will streamline the Test and Evaluation process and aid the developer by providing the timely feedback of real customer data that is required to ensure a successful product. IFM NOTAMs. NOTAMs are warnings that apply to the flight of aircraft and the operations of airfields. NOTAMs can identify a restricted area of airspace, the closure of a runway, the limitations of an airport's ability to accept or handle aircraft, and a variety of other air traffic concerns. The FAA and DOD have an operational relationship in the assembly, storage and access to these notices. Though the data are stored and available within a database, mission planners have a need for an intelligent retrieval of these NOTAMs that can be tailored to their mission needs. AFRL has produced an in-house capability (IDiON -- Intelligent Distribution of NOTAMs) that uses a publish/subscribe (P/S) function to keep planners current on changes as they affect selected ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) codes that designate airports within their mission profile. This PRDA effort would follow up and further develop the AFRL work to produce and field an intelligent search feature to the IDiON P/S service. This search would refine the retrieval function by scanning and recognizing the textual content within the notices that state the purpose and application of the individual NOTAMs. In addition, this scanning and recognition functionality should be augmented with spatial and temporal relationships derived from sortie data, to include waypoint data, diversion data, dynamic flight planning data, and other related factors. Post processing of this information should be targeted toward interactive warning/notification of controllers, aircrews, and ATC agencies, plus publication or dissemination of this information for preflight/in-flight use. Solutions should be constructed in open systems architecture and scaleable to support AF, national, and international use of these products. An inherent difficulty in dealing with these NOTAMs that the offeror must be made aware of is NOTAM ownership. Neither the FAA nor the DOD "owns" these notices, it is the issuing agency (whether domestic or international), that own and are the only ones authorized to change their content. Alterations to the NOTAM content is not permitted, however if there is a way to automatically assess the NOTAM content for ambiguities or other flaws, the owner could be queried to clarify or correct their content. This capability of course leads back to the scanning and recognition functions that are to be developed. Flight Plans. Contemporary flight planning requires consideration of a rapidly growing, extremely dynamic (near real-time) set of constraints to produce a viable route of flight. This dynamic information is received/derived from a wide range of sources, but most commonly is derived from Air Traffic Control or Command and Controls systems connected to the national and international airspace control networks. Many of these constraints are obtained via cyclic publications of paper documents, charts, or electronic representations of that data (such as DAFIF/AFIF publications). However, a growing number of these constraints are dynamically produced and disseminated via electronic messaging or distributions systems. In addition, the frequency and duration of these constraints is becoming shorter and more dynamic as the saturation and complexity of the international airspace system grows. It is essential to receive, store, and process these constraints as dynamic inputs to real-time (or near real-time) flight planning environment. This flight planning tool/environment should accommodate production of flight plans, in tradition formats (like paper output) and in electronic format(s) suitable for data link to aircraft and air traffic control networks. Electronic transmission must be consistent with protocols and business rules for international filing of flight plans, upload of flight plans to aircraft, and exchange of information with other ATC and C2 systems. In addition, the environment should support dynamic interaction/feedback to the users, which allows comparative analysis, collaboration of course of actions, and interactive optimization of the plan without "batch processing" type operations. Diplomatic Clearances. There is a growing burden that is being imposed on the relationship between foreign clearance officials who process and approve diplomatic clearances and the mission planners that make use of those clearances. The State Department maintains the standards and rules for diplomatic clearances through their Foreign Clearance Guide (FCG). Though the FCG is not, and cannot be, a static document due to the constant changes that impact it from the diplomatic world, there is very little that is not maintained through the old fashioned paper-based books, notes, and records method. In order to be more responsive to the mission planner, the FCG must be converted to a more useable online format. State Department officials have recently provided the foreign clearance guide in an on-line (web-accessible) format and have begun marking up the various pages with SGML at a coarse level of granularity. Automated Data Search and Retrieval. Raw data is the basis for generating the knowledge from which mission planners make decisions and commit to courses of action (COAs). The gathering of the data in a complete, accurate, and efficient way becomes ever more challenging as data sources and their content continue to multiply. The application of new data search and retrieval technology would relieve much of the uncertainty in the collection of raw data. Technology developed to search for and retrieve only those data that are relevant to a given mission would vastly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the mission planner. Researchers that design and develop this technology will be using field data from the VTACC to test against actual AF mission data which will demonstrate effectiveness in real world applications and shorten the lab to customer transition time dramatically. Dynamic Planning and Scheduling. Using data characteristics, real world variables, past experiences and a variety of other parameters it is possible to project confidence levels that a given COA will succeed or fail within a calculated margin of error. The projection length and confidence levels would be directly dependent on the accuracy of the data, the dependencies within and without the situation and the overall complexity of the environment. To the extent these can be measured and accounted for, it is this capability that is needed by the mission planners and the higher decision-makers to confidently assess and act to achieve an objective with minimal weakness, conflict, and risk. DARPA/AFRL research in the planning and scheduling field needs to be applied to a dynamic and active environment such as the TACC that has the raw data and the mission requirements to build and populate the framework for this new way of intelligently assessing and selecting a COA. The process for development, testing and insertion of new technology into the current AMC systems under this PRDA must follow a sequential path to assess effectiveness, compatibility, and relevance. Critical points in this process are listed below: a) Develop tools for modeling the existing processes within AMC against which the impact of improvements can be assessed; b) Provide tools and techniques to support the warfighter in the development, execution and assessment of mission plans; c) Integrate the tools and techniques that are developed into the AMC operational environment (VTACC); d) Assess the effectiveness and operation of the tools and techniques through a series of measured experiments and exercises. AT21. Improved Mode Determination and Asset Scheduling. The modes of transportation available to USTRANSCOM are broadly defined as land, sea and air. Each has advantages and disadvantages for a given situation. The key to making the correct choice is in applying only those parameters that are essential and fundamental to mode selection. Rather than rely on a customer's preference, the decision must be made based on the most efficient use of all DOD and commercial contract transportation options. A consistent and applicable criterion in determining how the DOD transportation assets are employed must be part of any technical solutions. USTRANSCOM will use this assessment capability to accurately determine the operational, economic and military factors that apply to a mode selection decision and then use them to optimize and rank both the multimodal and intermodal transportation choices available. Asset Visibility. To function optimally, USTRANSCOM must continuously update the type, location and status of DOD transportation assets to effectively plan their movement in support of DOD missions. This involves presenting the user with data from both stable statistical quantities such as cargo ship hold dimensions or aircraft runway requirements and data that is dynamically changing such as vehicle repair status or the space left for cargo on a soon to be departing barge. This asset data must be gathered, validated and presented to the transportation planner in a format that allows for a quick and accurate assessment of the asset status and how it can influence their transportation plans. Situational Awareness. Looking beyond the transportation asset itself, there are outside forces that influence the operational conditions. Knowing the operational environment that the transportation assets use is essential to transportation management. Rerouting aircraft to avoid designated no fly zones, THREATCON warnings or a natural disaster will all cause plan disruptions which impact transportation. This environmental data must be gathered, validated and presented to the transportation planner in a format that allows for a quick and accurate assessment of the environmental status and how it influences their transportation plans. There are obvious synergies between the IFM and AT21 components and the proposers are encouraged to use them to show how the technology developed for one can be leveraged to benefit the other and provide the government with a comprehensive application that benefits the total mobility operation. Deliverables will be technical reports, robust software prototypes and demonstrations. For additional information concerning this Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Program please contact: Edward DePalma, AFRL/IFTB, Phone: (315) 330-3069. Email: depalmae@rl.af.mil. It is intended that multiple awards be made under this PRDA. Principal funding of the PRDA and the anticipated award of contract will start in FY02. Individual awards will not normally exceed 36 months in duration with dollar amounts normally ranging between $250K to $2M. Total funding for the PRDA is $4.9M. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. An informational brief will be held at Air Force Research Laboratory for all interested U.S. organizations and personnel on 11 Dec 2001 in the auditorium of Building 106, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY at 9:00 AM. Pre-registration is required by 7 Dec 2001 and attendance will be subject to the display of a photo ID and being a US citizen. Participants who do not register will not be allowed into the briefing. Please register at: https://extranet.if.afrl.af.mil/prda/index.html. The briefing(s) and attendance roster will be posted at: http://www.if.afrl.af.mil/div/IFK/prda/prda0204/briefing.ppt (briefing) http://www.if.afrl.af.mil/div/IFK/prda/prda0204/roster.pdf (attendance roster). Questions should be e-mailed directly to the Contracting Officer, Joetta A. Bernhard, at: Joetta.Bernhard@rl.af.mil with a copy to Edward DePalma at: depalmae@rl.af.mil. Questions and answers will be posted to http://www.if.afrl.af.mil/div/IFK/prda/prda0204/questions.pdf within 48 hours after collection, thereby providing adequate time for the response. This allows for anonymous questions. Questions will be accepted for five (5) business days after the Pre-proposal Briefing. Offerors are required to submit (5) copies of a 15 page (or less) white paper with a cover letter indicating whether the offeror is a large, small, woman-owned small or small disadvantaged business, or historically black college, university, or minority institution. Small Business only should send one (1) copy of the cover letter only (1st Class Mail, Unclassified Only) to ATTN: Ms Janis Norelli, Director of Small Business, AFRL/IFB, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514. The white paper will be formatted as follows: Section A: Title. Period of Performance, Cost, Name of Company, White paper category; Section B: Effort objective; and Section C: Technical Summary. Offerors must mark their white papers with the restrictive language stated in FAR 15.609. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of the PRDA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Complete instructions for proposal preparation will be forwarded with the invitation for proposal submission. Evaluation of the proposals will be performed using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: 1) Overall scientific and technical merit including how the proposed technology addresses the needs of the mission planning process at AMC, the approach for the development and/or enhancement of the proposed technology and its evaluation 2) Related Experience -- the extent to which the offeror demonstrates technology and domain knowledge 3) The extent to which existing capabilities and standards are leveraged and the relative maturity of the proposed technology in terms of reliability and robustness 4) Reasonableness and realism of proposed costs and fees (if any). Also, consideration will be given to other factors such as past and present performance on recent Government contracts and the capacity and capability to achieve the objectives of this PRDA will be used. Criteria 1-3 will be used to determine whether white papers submitted are consistent with the intent of this PRDA and of interest to the Government. White papers will be evaluated as they are received. Individual white paper/proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or nonacceptability without regard to other white papers/proposals that are submitted under this announcement. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: Edward DePalma, Reference PRDA-02-04-IFKA, AFRL/IFTB, 525 Brooks Road, Rome, NY 13441-4505. Options are discouraged and unpriced options will not be considered for award. The cost of preparing white papers/proposals in response to this announcement is not considered an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost specified in FAR 1.205-18. Foreign-owned offerors are advised that their participation is excluded at the prime contract level. The work to be performed may require a SECRET/NOFORN facility clearance and safeguarding capability; therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET/NOFORN information at the time of award. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms on the Certified Contractor Access List (CCAL) will be allowed access to such data. For further information on CCAL, contact the Defense Logistics Service Center at 1-800-352-3572. Awards of efforts as a result of this PRDA will be in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements or other transactions depending upon the nature of the work proposed. The cutoff date for submission of white papers is 15 Jun 02 for FY02, 15 Jun 03 for FY03 and15 Jun 04 for FY04. White papers submitted after these dates will also be considered but funding may be limited. This PRDA is open and effective until cancelled. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors for this announcement. Routine questions are not considered to be "significant concerns" and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer, Joetta A. Bernhard, (315) 330-2308. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the Contracting Officer or Program Manager, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreement and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Linda Reed, Deputy Chief, Contracting Division, (315) 330-7748. W

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011123/ASOL009.HTM (D-324 SN5134K2)