REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

PURSUANT TO FAR 15.201(e) – THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY.  This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future.  This request for information does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever.  Further, the Government is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals.  Responders are advised the U.S. Government will not pay any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. 

Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response.  The Government will not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified.  Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. 

Failure to respond to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future associated RFP that may be issued.  If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the System for Award Management (SAM) website:  www.sam.gov.  It is the potential vendor’s responsibility to monitor this site fort the release of any follow-on information.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE/TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The Navy’s Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) Family of Testers, managed by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), PMA260, is the Navy’s standard ATE for support of electronic systems and is also a DoD designated ATS Family. The CASS Family primarily provides support for naval aviation systems (Navy air and Marine air) at the intermediate maintenance level of support both ashore and afloat in addition to naval aviation repair depots and international program’s repair sites. The CASS Family of Testers is now defined by three generations of Family members and variants grouped by:

– Mainframe CASS
– Reconfigurable-Transportable CASS or RTCASS
– Electronic CASS or eCASS.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst (NAWCADLKE) intends to issue a solicitation for CASS Family of Testers for Performance Based Logistics support that include: AN/USM-636 Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) to include the Hybrid configuration, Radio Frequency (RF) configuration, Communication-Navigation-Identification (CNI) configuration, High Power Device Test Sets (HPDTS) as well as CASS subsystems and ancillary devices.  AN/USM-702 Reconfigurable Transportable Consolidated Automated Support System (RTCASS); and AN/USM-730 ECASS to include: eCASS Hybrid (HYB), Radio Frequency (RF), High Power (HP), and Electro Optic (EO) configurations The CASS, RTCASS and ECASS systems, ancillary components and OTPS’s are installed at Fleet as well as land-based sites in CONUS (Continental US) and OCONUS (Outside Continental US) locations. In addition, this acquisition will include parts support during installation and de-installation support for all ECASS, CASS and RTCASS variants. Sustainment support of numerous repairable and consumable items, obsolescence and reliability management, CASS and RTCASS Station reclamation of assets, and sustainment engineering support.

The Government team will also consider breaking the procurement into three lots based on the three requirement’s or any combination of the three if it is decided that is in the Governments best interest.

1. Mainframe CASS
2. Reconfigurable-Transportable CASS or RTCASS
3. Electronic CASS or eCASS
    

SCOPE – CONTRACTOR RESPONSE TO RFI

The Contractor response to this RFI is expected to consist of a description of the Contractors ability to provide PBL support to the CASS FOT.  All comments or discussions pertaining to improving or enhancing the procurement should be submitted. Topics that are of interest to the Government are:

1. Would there be a benefit to Government to have this contract awarded as three or two lots as opposed to one? Explain merits/challenges of each. Address the GFE that will be required to support the strategy of lots.
2. If interested in one or two of the lots, please discuss why not interested in the other lot and the benefits to the Government of breaking up this requirement
3. Address the pros and cons of one single Product Support Integrator (PSI) for all three CASS variants
4. Address the pros and cons of having more than one PSI if that is your intended strategy?
5.  Ideas on providing this PBL significant cost savings.
6.  Cost sharing/Profit sharing ideas to incentivize efficiencies in this contract.
7.  Innovative technology refresh and obsolescence ideas. 
8.  Transition challenges from previous contracts to this contract.
9.  Upon contract award, should a ramp-up period be included? If so, how would it be accomplished?
10.  Upon award, how much time would a contractor need from date of award to achieve full performance capability?
11.  What approach would you recommend for FMS and Non-Fleet customer support?
12.  Potential risks and recommended mitigation?
13.  What would be the optimal timeframe for length of this contract? Please explain
14.  Innovative ideas for reliability improvement/failure reduction
15.  Elaborate/discuss any ideas or suggestions not covered in questions 1 through 14 above.

REQUESTED INFORMATION

Section 1 of the response shall provide administrative information, and shall include the following as a minimum:

• Organization name, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), phone number, fax number, and name and e-mail of designated contractual point of contact.
• Business type (large business, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a)-certified small disadvantaged business, HUB Zone small business, woman-owned small business, very small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business).

Section 2 of the response shall provide technical information, and shall include the following as a minimum:

• Interested parties shall respond with existing capabilities or products that meet all or a subset of the aforementioned attributes.  Reponses that include information detailing potential tradeoffs or alternative solutions is encouraged.
• If applicable and able, respondents shall include a list of Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Justice (DoJ) or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programs of record that currently employ their solution.  It would be helpful if a sponsor POC for each program, with email address and phone number could be identified.
• Respondents are requested to provide their estimated time it would take to submit a proposal After Request for Proposal release.

HOW TO RESPOND

Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a PDF Document Format.  Responses shall be limited to 10 pages and submitted via e-mail to the Contract Specialist, Stephen Winkler @ [email protected]. The Contracting Officer, Eric Waterman, shall also be copied on email submissions at [email protected]. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and must be clearly marked.  Product specifications, sketches, or listings of authorized distributors will not count toward the page limitation.  Responses are due no later than 30 Days after posting.                                                                    

Responses to this RFI will not be returned.  Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review.  It is the potential vendor’s responsibility to monitor the SAM (www.sam.gov) site for the release of any follow-on information.