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. Solicitations are not available at this time. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. This is a Government Market Research effort in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part Ten (10) quote mark Market Research quote mark and FAR Part Fifteen (15) quote mark Contracting by Negotiation quote mark . This notice does not constitute a commitment by the United States Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever nor does its issuance in any way restrict the Government as to its ultimate acquisition approach. All information submitted in response to this RFI is voluntary. The United States Government will not award a contract on the basis of this notice; will not pay for information requested; nor will it compensate any respondent for any costs incurred in developing, preparing, or submitting a response to this notice. Any information provided by the Government at this time is preliminary and may be updated or changed prior to a formal release of a RFP, if any is issued. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI). It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this announcement. This RFI falls under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541712 with a size standard of $40,000,000.00. Under this NAICS code, please specify if you are a Small Business; Small Disadvantaged Small Business; Section 8a Small Business; Woman-owned Small Business; Service Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business; or HubZone Small Business. Please indicate all that apply. The Army Contracting Command-Redstone (ACC-RSA) is exploring options for contractor performance to provide engineering services relevant to the design, development, fabrication, factory acceptance testing, and delivery of a 120 kilowatt solid state laser source subsystem capable of integration with the US Army's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD). Responses to this RFI will be incorporated with other market research. The Government will determine whether or not to proceed with an acquisition and, if it does decide to proceed, the best acquisition strategy that will meet the needs of the Government. As part of the RFI response, the Government would like to know the assessed Technology Readiness Level and laser performance results your company has demonstrated to date. Beam quality shall be presented in the power-in-the-bucket format assuming an angular bucket radius of 1.5*l/D where l is the laser emission wavelength and D is the laser source beam diameter at the exit aperture. Rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost and schedule estimates, and an initial list of Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) are required. Address mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal management design, fabrication, integration and testing capabilities required for solid state laser sources with an average output power level of 120 kW or greater. Explain your company's process for implementing the requirements of Army Regulation (AR) AR 380-49 (Industrial Security Program) as supplemented by the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), Department of Defense Manual (DoDM) 5220.22-M to support the classified laser development and demonstration activity. A. Initial Statement of Technical Objectives - The United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC)/Army Forces Strategic Command (ARSTRAT) Technical Center is considering a 120 kW high energy laser subsystem to be integrated into the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) in FY19. HEL MD is an Army Technology Demonstrator that can host various high power lasers for demonstration in a tactical environment. The goal of this effort is to have a laser completed by late Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 and ready for integration into HEL MD. The following are some of the major laser subsystem and interface requirements that must be met for integration with the HEL MD Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) A4 enclosure: - The Laser Subsystem (LSS) weight shall not exceed 1621 lbs. - The LSS volume shall be totally contained in a shrink wrapped volume of less than 48 ft3. - The LSS shall have an output laser power of not less than 120 kW. - The LSS shall have an electrical to optical efficiency of 34% or better. - The LSS shall require no more than 233 kW of heat removal during operation. - The LSS shall be able to support the system magazine of 200 seconds and 28% duty cycle. (For example, after a continuous 200 second lasing event, the LSS shall be fully recharged after 514 seconds.) - The LSS Power-in-the-Bucket (PIB) Figure of Merit: 77%. Of the total laser power shall be contained in a 1.5*l/D angular radius bucket. - The LSS wavelengths shall be within 1023-1075 nanometers (nm) with a beam diameter of no more than 27 +/- 3 millimeters (mm) at 1/e2 intensity. - The peak irradiance of the LSS output beam shall be less than 37.5 kilowatts per square centimeter (kW/cm2). - The LSS shall contain an Internal Alignment Laser (IAL) which has wavelength within 600-660 nm. The IAL shall align the LSS with the beam control optics before firing. - The LSS shall operate when the LSS is tilted up to 10% grade in any direction. - The LSS shall change states between firing at sub-second rates. - The LSS shall be provided power from the onboard generator, onboard batteries, or shore power. - The LSS shall interface with a refrigerant cooled (R134a) heat exchanger that is part of the HEL MD platform thermal management subsystem. - The LSS shall shut down within 20 milliseconds (ms) upon loss of any operationally critical or safety critical discrete control signal. - The optical beam jitter at the output aperture of the LSS shall have a root-mean-square 1 sigma value of less than or equal to 4 milliradians (mrad) at 10 Hertz (Hz) or below, transitioning to 4 microradians (urad) at 300 Hz and above. - All LSS safe, system safe, arm, and fire commands shall be via 24 volt direct current discrete control signals. B. Program Security: The Prime Contractor will be required to establish, implement and maintain program security in accordance with a contract DD254 and any subsequent delivery order DD254(s). This includes the management of personnel, documentation, Automated Information Systems (AIS), facility controls, and all subcontractors. The Prime Contractor shall also provide security technical documentation to ensure compliance with AR 380-49 and the NISPOM. The Prime Contractor shall flow down these security requirements to the appropriate subcontractors. C. Technical Support: The Prime Contractor shall provide expertise and materials to design, develop, fabricate, integrate, and test high power solid state laser source systems within the contractor facility. Individual component or subsystem software models may be Government-provided through associate relationships with development contractors. Government-provided models will be Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) compliant. The Prime Contractor shall provide a simulation environment using their own simulation tools that supports multilevel secure operation to allow systems to function at unique security levels while maintaining the integrity of system-specific information. QUESTIONS FOR POTENTIAL RESPONDERS: 1. What is your company's past experience in building high power lasers (1 kilowatt and above)? What is the highest power laser delivered by your company to date? What was the output laser wave length (or band)? Was it continuous or pulsed? If pulsed what was the pulse length and duty cycle. What was the measured Power-in-the-Bucket performance? The Power in the Bucket Metric is described by the following technical paper: Characterization of High Power Lasers, John M. Slater, Brian Edwards, Schafer Corporation, 2309 Renard Place SE, Suite 300, Albuquerque, NM, USA 87106; MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA, USA 02420 2. What is the experience level of your personnel with respect to high power lasers? 3. How many and what type of high power lasers is your company currently supporting in the field (military or industrial)? 4. Does your company produce high power lasers for military systems? What is the ratio between your military and commercial high power laser revenue. 5. Does your company produce or have a capability to produce most or all of the subassemblies and components required, or is your expertise primarily as a system integrator. 6. Are the vendors supplying your critical optical components foreign or domestic? 7. What high energy laser technology and architecture do you recommend to meet the performance and technical objectives of Section 1? 8. What are the technical and programmatic advantages and risks of your approach? 9. What is your estimated development schedule? 10. Given your estimated development schedule, what is your estimated cost to build and test your design? POINTS OF CONTACT: 1. Questions related to various aspects of this RFI may be e-mailed to: Army Contracting Command-Redstone (ACC-RSA) Robert C. Porter
[email protected] Technical questions directed to the above address will be forwarded to the appropriate technical point of contact for response 2. The Government requests that interested businesses submit a capability package to the following address: Robert C. Porter
[email protected] RESPOND BY: 28 APRIL 2015 Contracting Office Address: US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Deputy Commander, ATTN SMDC-CM-AP, P.O. Box 1500, Huntsville, AL 35807-3801 Point of Contact(s): robert.porter, 256-955-5985