All interested parties are encouraged to read this entire pre-solicitation announcement. It is the intent of the US Army Contracting Command, CECOM Contracting Center Washington office to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) using Full and Open Competition on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD) Project Manager Close Combat Systems (PM CCS) for Autonomous Mine Detection Systems (AMDS). AMDS is envisioned to be integrated onto current and future man-portable Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) (e.g., Man Transportable Robotic System) organic to Infantry and Engineer units. This AMDS Program effort includes system design, development, fabrication, integration, testing, logistics and documentation necessary to deliver an end-to-end solution for engineer missions. This contract is envisioned to include Technology Development (thirty-six months) of the AMDS and an optional System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of twenty-four months. During the Technology Development phase, the contractor will be expected to design and fabricate five prototypes to accomplish Government Developmental Testing. During the SDD phase, the contractor will fully refurbish and re-test the previously tested five prototypes and provide support for Government Developmental and Operational Testing. The Governments overall Acquisition Strategy has not been determined and will be DICTATED IN PART BY THE RESPONSES received. Industry is encouraged to provide feedback on the availability of products and services that meet the requirements outlined in the draft Statement Of Work (SOW) and draft Performance Specification (PS). Industry is also encouraged to provide feedback on the technical requirements and ways to reduce proposal and contract costs. In anticipation of issuance of this RFP, an Industry Day will be held at the Fort Belvoir Officers Club, 5500 Schultz Circle, Building 20, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060. Industry Day will begin at 0730 hours on 13 NOVEMBER 2008 with a general session for all participants which may require up to seven hours. The purpose of the general session is to facilitate exchange between the Government and Industry on the Army AMDS efforts. Informal comments and questions on the Armys draft SOW and PS for the AMDS program will be sought from industry. Draft versions of the Statement of Work and Performance Specification are being developed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the proposed requirement and will be posted in approximately one week at the Interactive Business Opportunity Page (IBOP) website for industry to review prior to the meeting: https://abop.monmouth.army.mil. Interested parties will be required to register at the website prior to accessing the documents. The draft documents may be used as a guideline by industry to help determine what products they have that are in compliance with military needs. Written comments/questions from industry are welcome and must be emailed to the two addresses shown below, along with a copy to Crystal Espinoza, e-mail
[email protected]. Email comments/questions no later than five business days prior to the Industry Day. Contractors should RSVP by 6 November 2008, via e-mail, of their intent to attend the meeting in order to facilitate visitor processing upon arrival. Please provide the names, citizenship, company being represented, and point of contact information (business mailing address and telephone number) for each attendee. For RSVP notification, please contact: Edward McAuley, via email:
[email protected], or Eloisa Lara, via email:
[email protected]. EMAIL SUBJECT: AMDS Industry Day. Directions and information on hotels and travel accommodations will be provided directly to registrants. The Government will not reimburse interested sources or responders to this notice or documents posted under this announcement, for any costs incurred in responding, or for subsequent exchanges of information. Information submitted does not constitute a proposal, but will be considered an exchange of capabilities and ideas. The Government does not intend to publish the questions and comments received as a result of this announcement; however, the feedback received will be considered in finalizing the requirements. If interested in this opportunity, please continue to monitor the website identified above for updates to this requirement. It is expected that the RFP will be posted on or about 5 January 2009 to the IBOP website at https://abop.monmouth.army.mil.