Description
GENERAL INFORMATION This is a Request for Information (RFI) only, as defined in FAR 15.201 (e), to obtain information about pricing, delivery, and other market information or capabilities for planning purposes. This RFI is not a request for competitive proposals; therefore, responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Companies that respond will not be paid for the information submitted. No telephone calls will be accepted requesting a bid package or solicitation. There is no bid package or solicitation at this time. In order to protect the integrity of any future procurement, additional information will not be given and no appointments for presentations will be made in reference to this RFI. All information received shall be safeguarded from unauthorized disclosure. Please do not submit any proprietary or classified information. All responsible sources may submit information in response to this RFI that shall be considered by the agency. Responses to this RFI are due no later than April 10, 2008. If late information is received, it may be considered by the Government depending on agency time constraints. Please note: the Government is not required to provide feedback to RFI responders. Note: There is no guarantee that any submitted topic will become a project and responders to this RFI will have no competitive advantage in receiving awards related to the submitted topic area. The information submitted in all responses may be utilized to help the Government define future requirements. If the Government develops a project that addresses any submitted or similar topic, the resulting procurement will address technology and business specific requirements as defined by the Government. INTRODUCTION The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) is one of the significant operational arms of NOAA. Through its headquarters office in Silver Spring, MD and Aircraft Operations Center in Tampa, FL, OMAO operates, maintains and manages the ships and aircraft used by NOAA programs to collect the critical airborne environmental observations critical to meeting NOAA's extensive mission. BACKGROUND OMAO has operated aircraft in support of the NOAA National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center and the Hurricane Research Division for several decades. These mission flights are generally in support of the Hurricane Reconnaissance Mission and the Hurricane High Density Core Mission. Since 1976, NOAA has operated two Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft to provide this support. These missions provide life and property-saving products including tropical cyclone outlooks, forecasts, watches, warnings, and storm surge products for the U.S., twenty-four countries in the Americas and Caribbean, and the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern North Pacific Ocean. NOAA seeks information on similar industry charter aircraft capabilities in support of the NOAA Aircraft Recapitalization Plan. The overall program objectives are to improve hurricane track and intensity forecasts, increase the average lead-time for hurricane landfalls and improve hurricane wind speed forecasts through the collection of meteorological data within the hurricane environment. To achieve these objectives, observations must be taken within the hurricane core including the geographic location of the hurricane center during specific synoptic periods (reconnaissance). By obtaining high-density observations of the 3-dimensional structure of developing and mature tropical cyclones (high density core), NOAA can produce forecast products using the Hurricane Weather and Research Forecasting (HWRF) modeling tool. DESCRIPTION and REQUIREMENTS The aircraft flight profiles necessary to capture necessary airborne data requirements of these missions require flying into all regions of tropical cyclones up to Category 5 Hurricanes at various altitudes from 1500' up to and including the service ceiling of the aircraft. These flights include hurricane eyewall and rainband penetration and flight within heavy convective activity. Long range and long endurance capabilities are required to reach the target storm environment and still allow a minimum of four to six hours loiter time before returning to staging base. Subject aircraft must have the payload capacity and electrical-capacity (stated under Aircraft Requirements) to support four scientific data stations on each aircraft per flight and four associated mission personnel to operate these stations. To complete NOAA hurricane research and reconnaissance requirements, the following aircraft performance and instrumentation, observational and availability specifications are required for each proposed aircraft: Aircraft Minimum Requirements: 4 Engine turboprop or turbojet aircraft 3000 nm range 11.5 - hour endurance 30,000 foot MSL or greater service ceiling 7,000 pound payload capacity Operational speed range: 180 - 360 KTAS VHF and UHF communication capability C-band 180-degree swath forward-looking nose weather avoidance radar C-band 360-degree radar: beam width of 1 deg azimuth 3. 5 deg elevation, -30db side lobes, 70 kW transmitted power, PRF 200, pulse width 6us; scan speed of 2-4 rpm. Vertical Scanning Doppler radar: Reflectivity: Accuracy: + or - 2 dBZ or less Resolution: 0.5 dBZ or less Maximum Unambiguous Range: 50 km or more Spatial Sampling, range coverage 0 - 50 km: - 1.5 km or less horizontal & vertical sampling at 30 km range - 0.1 km or less beam width and pulse depth at 2 km range (to allow for high resolution measurements) Minimum detectable signal: - 12 dBZ or less at 10 km Maximum detectable signal: 70 dBZ or more 3- Dimensional Wind Field through the Eyewall Vector Velocity Accuracy: + or - 1 m/s or less (including the effects of independent samples, aircraft velocity and pointing knowledge) Resolution: 0.1 m/s or less Maximum Unambiguous Velocity: + or - 50 m/s or less Maximum Unambiguous Range: 50 km or more Spatial Sampling, range coverage 0 - 50 km: - 1.5 km or less horizontal & vertical sampling at 30 km range 0.1 km or less beam width and pulse depth at 2 km range (to allow for high resolution measurements) Scientific electrical power requirements: 60 KVA Scientific data station requirements (each): Scientific Data recording for 40 digital channels accommodating standard avionic and scientific protocols and 90 analog channels. Scientific data processing and display of all data collected at 10 stations including avionic data, calculated meteorological parameters, data from nose radar, vertical and horizontal scanning radar, scientific data input and output via Satellite Communication, video camera recording and display. Environmental Observations / Measurements Required (each flight): - In-situ state variables (pressure, temperature, humidity, east-west wind component, north-south wind component, vertical wind component, location, altitude) at data rates up to 40 Hz and available to other data systems via intraplane telecommunications. - In-situ cloud microphysics observations from a few meters to 10 centimeters. - Radiometer-based imaging of clouds - Water vapor content - Precipitation at high spatial resolution - Radar-based precipitation mapping (360 degrees) around aircraft - Three-dimensional mapping of precipitation and winds over short time intervals around the aircraft (vertical scanning Doppler radar) - Ability to launch government-furnished expendables (GPS dropwindsondes, airborne expendable ocean probes, e.g., bathythermographs, current probes, and conductivity, temperature and depth probes-AXBT, AXCP, AXCTD, respectively) while retaining aircraft pressurization (to sample the atmosphere to the ocean surface, and to 200m below the ocean surface). Launch capability to deploy GPS dropsondes at rates up to one per minute. Expendable specifications available upon request. - Capability to carry a number of government-furnished remote sensors (passive and active) at the same time in a suite (e.g., radiometers, scatterometers, Lidars, interferometers). - Moderately high bandwidth communications with the ground (500k baud). - Digital satellite data and voice communications Availability (annually): Two aircraft with the above requirements are required to be available and must be able to support simultaneous tropical-cyclone related flights for the entire hurricane season (annually from June 1 - November 30), within 15 hours of notification from NOAA. Up to 600 flight hours may be required per aircraft during this 6-month period. Indicate the period of mission unavailability (in days, including transit time) to complete any required scheduled maintenance for each aircraft to fly 600 hours during the 6 months hurricane season, and the time (in flight hours or calendar days) when this requirement would have to be met (i.e., one 10-day maintenance period after 300 flight hours). INFORMATION REQUESTED IN RESPONSES Please include with your response: Descriptive Literature Performance Specifications Technical Specifications Limited pricing information including GSA schedule pricing and contract number Statement of aircraft availability Price per hour per aircraft Daily charge per aircraft Crew charges (each aircraft) per flight hour and per day, if not included in above Any other charges that would be incurred by the Government for the use of proposed aircraft for stated availability period Scientific modification costs* Description of ability to meet the requirements of this RFI Business Size *If proposed aircraft are incapable of obtaining any of the environmental observations required above, provide a rough order of magnitude (ROM) to equip each aircraft with the capabilities necessary to meet the observational requirements including engineering, hardware, software, modification, FAA-type Certification, labor and parts costs and timeline to complete these modifications. Aircraft must be able to maintain issued FAA Airworthiness Certificate after modifications. RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS Limit RFI responses to 25 pages. Responses must be unclassified and contain no proprietary information. Responses are preferred in the following format: TITLE: Hurricane Reconnaissance and Research Flight Support SUBMITTER INFORMATION: Responses should include the company name, location of home facility, telephone number, and mail and e-mail addresses of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss the submission. SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTATION RFI responses should be submitted electronically in a pdf format to the undersigned point of contact.