sUAS Fleet Management

SMALL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM (SUAS) FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MARKET RESEARCH DESCRIPTION : The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), as part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is conducting market research on the current availability and technological capabilities of vendors to provide fleet management systems to enhance USBP’s Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) program. THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS MARKET RESEARCH OR OTHERWISE PAY FOR INFORMATION RECEIVED. This research is issued solely for information, planning purposes, and market research only; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP. This market research does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. CBP is not seeking proposals at this time. CBP will not pay for any costs associated with responding to this market research. Not responding to this market research does not preclude participation in any future RFP. If a solicitation is released, it will be posted to the System for Award Management website (http://www.sam.gov). All submissions become the property of the Government and will not be returned. The information obtained from industry’s responses to this notice may be used in the development of an acquisition strategy and future RFP. INTRODUCTION : The USBP is a sub-component of CBP whose mission is to prevent the illegal flow of people and contraband into the United States via air, land, and sea. USBP’s primary mission is to conduct law enforcement activities along the U.S. border and between official U.S. ports of entry. As the Nation’s single, unified border agency, USBP’s mission is vitally important for the protection of the American people and the national economy. USBP represents the first line of defense of America’s borders. One of USBP’s strategic objectives is to establish and maintain effective control of air, land, and maritime borders with the appropriate mix of infrastructure, technology, and personnel. An integral component to this situational awareness is the planned use of SUAS to provide reconnaissance surveillance, and target acquisition capability to USBP along the southern and northern borders. BACKGROUND : CBP established a SUAS Program of Record in Fiscal Year 2018 to procure, deploy, and sustain a mix of Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL), Fixed Wing (FW), and Hybrid platforms. CBP’s approach to SUAS has provided it the ability to quickly procure and deploy mature, cost-effective systems to meet the urgent need for technology on the U.S. border. The SUAS program’s fleet currently includes a range of SUAS to fulfill CBP requirements. PURPOSE : This market research seeks to obtain information from industry about the availability and capabilities of vendors to provide fleet management, maintenance, flight data and pilot data tracking to enhance USBP’s SUAS program. The specific Technical Topic Areas (TTAs) of interest for this market research are: Asset tracking of systems, spare parts, location management: Comprehensive automated system tracking. System maintenance tracking: fleet management software will apply artificial intelligence (AI) to generate service logs and predict maintenance needs, to assess, diagnose and optimize vehicle performance across the entire fleet. Predicting maintenance needs for scheduling. Provide real-time visibility into vehicle health, flag suboptimal performance, identify impending failures and automate fleet distribution. Pilot certification tracking. Flight data recording: Ensure flight logs are stored securely and accurately. This data should be offboarded from the aircraft rapidly and automatically. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Certified: Implement controls in accordance with FIPS 199 categorization. Vendors who respond to this market research are requested to provide information in Attachment A – Vendor Company Data, and Attachment B – Vendor Demonstration Agreement. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS (COO) : SUAS are responsible for monitoring an Area of Coverage (AoC) that is comprised of the instantaneous field of view and the total field of regard. The SUAS elevate imaging devices to maximize the AoC and overcome natural (e.g., terrain features, vegetation, tree lines) obstacles within and along USBP’s varied operating areas. The number of SUAS deployed within each USBP sector varies based on geography, availability of equipment and trained operators, and operational need. When deployed, the systems provide the SUAS operator with video data that enables the detection, identification, classification, and tracking of an Item of Interest (IoI) in rugged, remote, rural, urban, riverine, and coastal environments. The SUAS also support vectoring of USBP agents to the immediate vicinity of the IoI for interdiction and event resolution, and, if the SUAS has illumination capabilities (laser illuminator), provide covert IoI illumination to assist agents in prepositioning themselves for intercepting the IoI. The SUAS are deployed in myriad environmental and climatic conditions including day/night, dense thick foliage, extreme temperature ranges (-20° F to 120° F), high salt air conditions, dirt and fine dust conditions, humidity (> 90%), rain, fog, snow, ice, high winds (up to 30 knots), sandstorms, and electrical storms. Operations are performed in 20 diverse USBP sectors (Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, Big Bend, El Paso, El Centro, San Diego, Tucson, Yuma, Swanton, Spokane, Detroit, Buffalo, Blaine, Grand Forks, Havre, Miami, Houlton, New Orleans, and Ramey). Working in these challenging operational, meteorological, and topographical environments, USBP has a need to optimize and sustain a prescribed material availability (Am) of SUAS per given areas of responsibility. Because of this COO the solution needs to be assessable from any location for system uploads and Agent access. TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS : The CBP Program Management Office Directorate (PMOD) SUAS Executive Agent requests to evaluate technology solutions addressing the TTAs delineated above. CBP intends for the Technology demonstrations to be performed at the Unmanned Technology Operations Center (UTOC), located at 45 Seitz Ct, Summit Point, WV during the approximate dates of January 15-26, 2024. The intended technology demonstration dates are approximate and subject to change. Vendors interested in participating in these demonstrations should be prepared to demonstrate technologies at/beyond Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL-7). The Government is not bound or obligated in any way to any special consideration to the vendor(s) on future contracts as a result of participation in this demonstration. The vendor(s) shall not refer to this demonstration as implying government acceptance or approval for advertising purposes. The Vendor(s) also acknowledges that the Government makes no commitment to buy the products or services involved, or to give the vendor(s) special consideration in any future acquisition in which the vendor(s) may submit a bid or proposal. Not all Vendors that respond to this RFI may have an opportunity to participate in a product demonstration. A Government request to participate in a product demonstration will be based on the Government’s need for additional information regarding the Vendor’s system in an operational environment, and the availability of Government resources. Participation in the product demonstration, however, will have no bearing on a Vendor’s ability to respond to any future RFP. Vendor demonstrations of products shall be rendered at no cost to the Government, and the vendor(s) shall waive any claims against the Government for compensation for this demonstration. The Vendor shall provide all necessary equipment for the product demonstration, as no Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) will be provided. In order to participate in the technology demonstration, Vendors will be required to sign and return the attached Vendor Demonstration Agreement. A limited number of slots will be available for vendor demonstrations during the week of technology demonstrations Vendor demonstrations will be limited to a maximum of 4 hours each Additional vendor demonstrations may be scheduled for future dates if necessary and there are resources available. This invitation is being generated to connect CBP end users, technology innovators and the interagency communities with opportunities to assess state-of-the-art technology in an operational setting to facilitate demonstrations that are designed for law enforcement end user/operators. RESPONSE : Your firm is requested to submit its response electronically no later than November 17, 2023, to [email protected]. Your firm is asked to provide its response using Attachments A and B. Attachment A and B responses should be submitted as either PDF or Word documents. Attachment A: Vendor Company Data Attachment B: Vendor Demonstration Agreement