THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION NOTICE. This synopsis is issued for information and planning purposes only. The Air Force will not be responsible for any costs incurred by interested parties in responding to this source sought notice. The Air Force is conducting market research to determine capability and interest of commercial firms in performing the Aerial Delivery function at Charleston AFB, SC; Dyess AFB, TX (Abilene area); McChord AFB, WA (Tacoma area); and Pope AFB, NC (Fayetteville area). The following are basic performance requirements for the Aerial Delivery function: (1) Rig and prepare aerial delivery loads; (2) Inspect, clean, store, repair, and pack cargo/extraction parachutes; (3) Drop Zone (DZ) recovery; (4) Participation in airdrop malfunction investigations; and (5) Onload/Offload aircraft. There are approximately 93 Government personnel overall performing the work at these four locations. Request interested contractors submit a capability package to include the following information: (1) Name and address of company; (2) Business Size (Large, Small, disadvantaged, HUBZone, or women owned, etc); (3) Company Point of Contact to include telephone number, fax number and e-mail address; (4) Contract references relating to Aerial Delivery Flight Services to include: Contract Number; agency supported, whether or not contractor was a prime or a subcontractor, period of performance, original contract value, final or current contract value, technical monitor and phone/fax number, POC with current phone/fax number, and a brief description of the effort; and (5) Information demonstrating the company?s ability to perform aerial delivery services as described above. Please limit the capability package to 20 pages. Additionally, the Government is interested in determining the practices of firms engaged in producing, distributing, and supporting aerial delivery services such as terms of warranties, buyer financing, maintenance and packaging, marking, and quality control/assurance. Your submission must be clear, concise, and complete and submitted by COB 31 Oct 06 via e-mail to
[email protected]. It is anticipated that the period of performance will be a basic year plus four one-year option periods. For purposes of this synopsis the small business size standard is $6M and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 488190. The Headquarters Air Mobility Command (HQ AMC) announced an initial performance decision for the Command-wide Aerial Delivery function. Competition between the Agency Cost Estimate (ACE) and the cost of private sector performance determined contract performance to be the most efficient and cost effective method of operation. On 20 June 06, HQ USAF/A1MS approved AMC?s request to conduct a Streamlined Competition. In accordance with Air Force policy, the study must reach a performance decision, to retain in-house or convert to contract, within 90 days from the public announcement date of 21 Jun 06. During this 90-day period the Government conducted market research to develop an estimated contract price. This estimated contract price was then compared to the ACE in order to determine the most cost efficient method of operation. Again, this comparison deemed contractor performance more cost efficient. However, before a contract can be awarded, the Government must verify via typical acquisition procedures that contractor costs are indeed cheaper than the Government?s ACE. If the contract price is higher, the solicitation will be cancelled and the military authorizations converted to civilian for Most Efficient Organization (MEO) performance.