Aircraft Defensive Electro-optical Protection Technologies (ADEPT)

What they want

• Technical Area 1, Hardware & Executable Analysis of Threats (HEAT): study foreign electro-optical (EO) guided missiles, launch equipment and high-speed loitering drones to build threat models for countermeasure design
• Technical Area 2, Advanced Countermeasure Engineering (ACE): ongoing science and engineering support to characterize new threats, run laboratory and open-air tests and build digital threat models
• Create and improve countermeasure technologies (expendable, directed energy and novel concepts) that raise aircraft and aircrew survivability
• Skills named include threat hardware and software exploitation, laser-based and open-air testing, modeling and simulation, missile and flare signature modeling, high-performance computing and prototype countermeasure hardware
• Deliver software, hardware and unused materials developed or bought under the contract, plus data items listed in Attachment 4 (the contract data requirements list)
• Support ground and flight tests, including test plans and safety and technical reviews; the call says field and flight tests are anticipated
• Write your own statement of work? (SOW), at most 10 pages per technical area, in response to the Government's statement of objectives (SOO)

What they'll judge offers on

• Technical Merit: (1) understanding of the scope of the technical effort, (2) soundness of the technical approach, including related experience and qualifications of technical personnel, (3) potential to advance technology and meet mission and agency needs, (4) potential to transition results to future Government needs, including any proposed restriction on technical data or software
• Cost/Price: realism of the proposed cost; second order of priority

What to include when you submit

• Email both contracting points of contact, say you want to submit a proposal and include your company CAGE code (Commercial and Government Entity code, a company ID), to get the DoD SAFE link
• Propose to at least one technical area; send a separate proposal for each technical area
• Send the technical/management volume and the cost/business volume as separate volumes, each valid for 180 days, and cite announcement number FA2377-26-R-B011 and the technical area
• Write the technical/management proposal in Microsoft Word, in 10-point Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri, double-spaced, on 8.5 by 11 inch pages with one-inch margins
• Include a statement of work for each technical area that suits contract use and holds no proprietary information
• Attach prior work in this area, available equipment, facilities, base support you want and resumes of the people who will work on the effort
• Send cost files as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that show the formulas for overhead, general and administrative and other cost bases
• Break out cost by direct labor hours, labor and overhead rates, materials, subcontractors, special tooling, consultants, travel and computer use, and add a project funding profile by Government fiscal year
• Include a copy of your approved DD Form 2345 with the proposal
• Complete and digitally sign the Section K representations and certifications (Attachment 6)
• Identify any technical data or software to be delivered with less than unlimited rights, and list asserted data rights in Attachment 6
• Give complete information on previous or ongoing work associated with this acquisition, for the organizational conflict of interest review
• Include a subcontracting plan if the effort exceeds $900,000; small businesses are exempt
• Send no classified proposal material

After award, you must have

• Staff who need base or Government network access must be U.S. citizens unless the contracting officer approves a written waiver From Attachment 3 - AFRL SOW -PWS Supplemental Requirements.pdf: …must be U.S. citizens. For the purpose of base and network access, possession of a permanent…

Current contractor

No incumbent is named. This is Call 03 under the MSDEW announcement, and the Air Force plans two awards, one for each technical area.

Not in the notice text

• The technical requirements (the statements of objectives for both technical areas) and the security specification (DD Form 254) are controlled and not posted; qualified U.S. contractors get them by request through DoD SAFE.
• Attachment 4 (contract data requirements list) came through only as a placeholder message, the question-and-answer spreadsheet was attached but not read, and the middles of Attachment 3 and the model contract (Attachment 7) were left out.
• What facility and personnel clearance level a bidder must hold is not stated beyond the TS/SCI and SAP program level and the DD Form 254.
• The cost, fixed fee and contract value in the model contract are marked To Be Determined.
• The model contract's evaluation section (Section M) is blank, so how Selectable proposals are ranked for award is not detailed.