Inactive

Updated on 5/5/2025 to post Questions and Answers to the RFI A. DISCLAIMER This request for information (RFI) is for information and planning purposes only. This RFI does not constitute a formal solic... Updated on 5/5/2025 to post Questions and Answers to the RFI A. DISCLAIMER This request for information (RFI) is for information and planning purposes only. This RFI does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals and responses to this notice will be treated as information only. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of a solicitation. No award will be made as a result of this request and responses to this notice are not offers. Respondents are advised that the Government is not under any obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI, nor is the Government bound to any further actions related to this matter. Those who respond to this RFI may not receive feedback with regard to their submissions other than acknowledgment of receipt if a request for an acknowledgement is requested by the submitter. NOAA may request RFI respondents to participate in one-on-one market research sessions either in person or via teleconference. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will solely be at the respondents’ expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitations, request for proposals (RFP), or request for quotations (RFQ). The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Government and will not be returned. Information provided to the Government will be treated as business sensitive if appropriately marked. Any confidential, proprietary, or privileged information should be clearly labeled. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a respondent as confidential, proprietary, or privileged will be appropriately controlled. No basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result from a response to this RFI or Government use of any information provided B. INTRODUCTION The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO) is conducting market research to gather feedback from industry and to assess the capabilities of the marketplace to provide Consolidated Antenna and Ground Systems Services (NCAGSS). NOAA is interested in vendors providing experiences, insights, feedback, lessons learned, and/or case studies on the following: Providing consolidated antenna sustainment and maintenance services for legacy assets. Building out new capabilities and capacity as directed in LEO, GEO and SWO ground system domains Supporting Antenna-as-a-Service (NAaaS) transformation initiatives, and New and emerging antenna and ground system technologies. Through the NAaaS transformation initiatives, NESDIS seeks to achieve cost savings and efficiencies by consolidating and managing existing and new antennas as non-mission unique assets; to enable multi-mission, multi-orbit use; and when necessary, to leverage use of commercial Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) providers for additional coverage and/or capacity. To accomplish these objectives, NOAA is seeking information to determine the feasibility of a requirement to deliver commercial products, services, solutions to perform antenna and ground system upgrades; build new antennas when required; decommission and remove existing antennas; and as needed, install a common service antenna infrastructure that supports the latest services including maintenance and sustainment services to ensure extensibility, reliability, and continued information technology security policy compliance. C. BACKGROUND The mission of NOAA/NESDIS is to provide timely access to global environmental data from satellites and other sources to promote, protect, and enhance the Nation's economy, security, environment, and quality of life. To meet its mission responsibilities, NESDIS acquires and manages the ground system for the Nation's operational environmental satellites and provides ground system services to partner missions. The NOAA/NESDIS antenna enterprise is comprised of antennas at the Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station (WCDAS) in Wallops Island, VA; the Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station (FCDAS) in Fairbanks, AK; the Consolidated Backup (CBU) Facility in Fairmont, WV; and the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, MD. The ground system supports spacecraft in various orbital regimes including Geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), Polar and Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and Lagrange Point Orbit. The NOAA/NESDIS antenna enterprise network simultaneously supports satellites actively collecting weather data as well as satellites in a backup on-orbit storage mode and satellites in transfer phase. Spacecraft include those owned/operated by NOAA, non-NOAA US partner missions, and foreign owned partner missions. C.1 Commercially Provided Antenna Services The recently established NAaaS program will provide services to support current programs (as identified above) and future programs, including: LEO: Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) and international partner missions. GEO: Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) and international partner missions. SWO (Space Weather Observations): SWO SOL - A & B and international partner missions. The NAaaS infrastructure is envisioned as a common service platform that will operate in the cloud, utilize multi-mission tools and network-centric standardized equipment, and will strive for increased operator efficiency. In support of these objectives, commercially provided antenna and ground system services may support the development, sustainment, and maintenance of the following common service attributes: Transition of legacy antennas to multi-mission common service assets. Common service tri-band frequency antennas for LEO missions. Phased array antennas to support telemetry, command, and control (TT&C) for multiple missions. Establish digital ground capabilities (e.g. software defined radios, digital Intermediate Frequency (IF). Cybersecurity (common Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) boundary, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) compliance). Enterprise level, cloud-based services: Antenna and ground system health and status, monitoring and control. Mission Management, Planning and Scheduling. Mission Operations (TT&C). Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Trending and Analysis. C.2 Government Furnished Property The Government currently has existing functionality available and can provide specific capabilities as Government Furnished Property (GFP), upon NOAA acquiring services. For the RFI, respondents are encouraged to identify additional Government resources that could be supplied to reduce cost and/or increase operational efficiency. C.3 NAICS Codes Potential North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes that may apply include Engineering Services (NAICS 541330), Industrial Design Services (NAICS 541420), Computer Facilities Management Services (NAICS 541513), Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing (NAICS 334220), and Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction (NAICS 237130). Other Computer Related Services (541519), All Other Telecommunications (517919), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Other Communications Equipment Manufacturing (334290) C.4 Cyber Security FISMA/NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy requirements from Special Publication 800-53 are needed to support all NESDIS and NOAA partner missions, including but not limited to Zero Trust, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Binding Operational Directives, phishing resistant MultiFactor Authentication (MFA), federal information processing standards (FIPS) 140-3 encryption at rest and in transit, and an IPv6 network. The requirements include the following: NOAA current networking capabilities and interfaces to mission operations including transition to IPv6. FISMA/NIST 800-53 Cybersecurity and Privacy Requirements for a new NAaaS FISMA boundary categorized as High for integrity and availability, including but not limited to Zero Trust, CISA Binding Operational Directives, phishing resistant MFA, FIPS 140-3 encryption at rest and in transit. Supports the latest FISMA/NIST Special Publication 800-53 Cybersecurity and Privacy Requirements to support all NESDIS and NOAA partner missions, including but not limited to Zero Trust, CISA Binding Operational Directives, phishing resistant MFA, FIPS 140-3 encryption at rest and in transit, and an IPv6 network to support all NESDIS and NOAA partner missions. D. REQUESTED INFORMATION All interested organizations are invited to respond, regardless of size or market share. Responses are requested to include a brief summary of your business' relevant experience in providing the same or similar services offered to the general public, non-government entities, or Government agencies. The Government is not requesting generic capability statements, but specific responses tailored to the stated objectives and questions below. Responses to this RFI should be concise and include only the most relevant material. Respondents are encouraged to address all or as many questions as possible. Respondents should feel free to address only questions related to their individual areas of expertise and address as many, or as few, questions as desired. All responses shall only contain UNCLASSIFIED material. Has your company been involved in the development of critical components of an antennas High Power Amplifier (HPA), Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), Multiband Feeds, Antenna Motor Control, Monitoring and Control (M&C), etc.), the integration and installation of complete antenna systems, and/or providing sustainment and maintenance services for antennas? If so, what feedback would you have for NOAA as it relates to this RFI’s stated objectives. What sustainment and maintenance approaches would you employ to allow for rapid and cost-effective technology refresh/tech insertion/modernization while minimizing operational impact to ongoing missions? How would your company minimize the Sustainment and Maintenance burden (e.g., minimize accrual of technical debt, labor cost and required skillsets)? What insights has your company gained from implementing or providing antenna-as-a-service? Please share key takeaways and lessons learned from recent projects. What systems, services, capabilities, equipment, or technologies (present, developing, or future) would enable the desired evolution path toward the NAaaS architecture? What feedback can you provide to help NOAA better understand how new and emerging technologies, such as Flat Panel Antennas (FPA, also called Phased Array Antennas or Electronically Steered Antennas), optical communications, signal digitization, software-defined radios, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, can be effectively implemented to meet its requirements? Provide feedback on how a common service antenna infrastructure can be installed to support the latest FISMA/NIST Special Publication 800-53 Cybersecurity and Privacy Requirements for all NESDIS and NOAA partner missions, including but not limited to Zero Trust, CISA Binding Operational Directives, phishing-resistant MFA, FIPS 140-3 encryption at rest and in transit, and an IPv6 network. What anticipated NAICS codes would be appropriate for the proposed services and is your company listed under these codes? Is your company registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database? What is your business size under the NAICS code(s) identified? Does your company currently have a Governmentwide acquisition contract related to the proposed services (i.e., General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP), NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) contract, etc.)? If so, please provide the contract number and description. What percentage of the total value of effort would include small business participation? Please provide a rough estimate of the total/annual costs as well. Please provide information regarding the utilization of globally dispersed optical communications and information regarding the advantageous utilization of hybrid data centers. E. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS After reviewing this RFI, please include any questions, comments, or concerns no later than 15 days prior to the submission deadline. All questions received will be gathered, reviewed, and may be answered in a future posting or amendment to this RFI. F. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Submissions are requested to be limited to no more than 20 pages with a minimum font of 12 point on 8.5 x 11-inch paper in PDF format and to be submitted no later than 3:00 pm EST by May 5, 2025. All responses shall be emailed to the point of contact. The subject line of the submission email shall be formatted as follows: “[Company Name] RFI Submission for NOAA NCAGSS” Submissions are requested to also include: a. Contact Information. Provide company name, mailing address, phone number, fax number, company website, CAGE code, Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number, and contact information for designated points of contact. b. Business Type. Identify your business type and any socioeconomic categories such as Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Service Disabled-Veteran Owned Small Business, Woman-owned Small Business, HUBZone Small Business, and 8(a).