Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

Solicitation Name: Eglin AFB, AIR FORCE SEEK EAGLE MODELING, ANALYSIS, AND TOOLS SUPPORT (SEMATS) 3 Notice Type: Sources Sought – Request for Information The Department of Defense, United States Air F... Solicitation Name: Eglin AFB, AIR FORCE SEEK EAGLE MODELING, ANALYSIS, AND TOOLS SUPPORT (SEMATS) 3 Notice Type: Sources Sought – Request for Information The Department of Defense, United States Air Force (USAF), Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Air Force Test Center (AFTC), Services Management Office (PZZ), is currently conducting market research seeking capabilities statement from potential sources. This is NOT a pre-solicitation notice pursuant to FAR Part 5, but is a market survey to identify sources that possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience necessary to meet the Air Force’s requirements. The Air Force Test Center (AFTC) 96th Test Wing is designated as the lead engineering and analysis organization for nuclear and non-nuclear technical support. As described in AFPAM 63-129, the United States Air Force (USAF) created the SEEK EAGLE program as the Air Force standard process for aircraft stores certification, and designated the Air Force SEEK EAGLE Office (AFSEO) as the cognizant engineering agency. The mission of the AFSEO is to "Deliver war-winning capability by expanding compatibility of state-of-the-art weapons on current and future generation aircraft, and by providing accurate combat weapon delivery software." Compatibility expertise includes providing the manpower and engineering tools, data, rationale, and mission planning software applications necessary to safely load, carry, and employ legacy and developmental stores (weapons, tanks, pods, etc.). The majority of this expertise is focused on fleet aircraft with externally carried weapon systems. Newer aircraft include an expanded capability to carry weapon systems both internally and externally and also include unmanned and "smart" technologies. As these technologies mature and war-fighting capabilities increase, the number of potential weapon configurations on any given aircraft grows exponentially. Combined with legacy and upgraded legacy weapons, addressing aircraft-store compatibility issues becomes more of a concern because carriage and employment of these weapon systems can significantly reduce safe airspeeds and maneuvering capabilities requiring modified weapon delivery tactics. To understand the overall effects on aircraft performance and weapon employment characteristics, extensive modeling and simulation, test and analyses (both ground and flight), are required to assure safety-of-flight for the aircrew. Expert skills and technological developments are needed for future aircraft stores integration to provide maximum operational capability for all aircraft. The dynamic nature of the SEEK EAGLE program demands the availability of a highly skilled workforce with flexibility and experience, committed to accomplishing current tasks and also working toward the development of tools to meet tomorrow's challenges in aircraft and technical support. The AFSEO must augment its organic, highly technical workforce with contracted skills and expertise to support the full spectrum of the AFSEO mission. The skills and expertise required for this support consists primarily of professional engineers, analysts, project managers, software developers, programmers and testers, modelers, ordnance technicians, system administrators, and IT specialists. Given the unique skillsets, experience and timeliness required to perform the SEEK EAGLE mission, the Government expectation is that potential offerors will commit to retaining a significant majority of the incumbent workforce. Administrative and functional support is also required to ensure effective contract execution. The SEMATS 3 contractor shall provide technical support for specific tasks as assigned, in addition to ensuring adequate resources are dedicated to satisfy the requirements of the activities and tasks as assigned. The minimum security clearance level required for personnel providing services on this contract is ‘SECRET.’ The Contractor is responsible for supplying personnel with the appropriate security clearance levels required to support the AFSEO mission up to and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Programs. The Contractor is required to obtain materials, equipment, and supplies as needed to complete the tasks. The Contractor may be required to travel within the Unites States and to international locations as mission requirements dictate. In addition to Eglin AFB, the Contractor will be required to provide full time contractor support (approximately 2 – 4 Contract Man-year Equivalents/Full-Time Equivalents) to facilitate AFSEO operations conducted at Edwards AFB, CA. In support of the AFSEO mission, the contractor will perform functions in the following areas: (1) Project Management to include Customer Requirements Development, Project Planning and Execution; (2) Software Development and Sustainment of Software Tools and Applications to support the AFSEO mission; (3) Multi-Disciplinary Computational Technologies/Modeling and Simulation (M&S) support to include Computer Aided Modeling and Stores Integration, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), High Performance Computing (HPC) Software Development; (4) Compatibility Engineering and Analysis support to include Fit and Function, Structural Load Engineering, Electromagnetic Compatibility/Electromagnetic Interface Engineering, Stability and Control Engineering, Flutter Engineering, Store Separations Engineering, Ballistics Analysis, and Safe Escape Analysis (5) Ordnance Delivery Planning and Software Development to support Aircraft Mission Planning Systems with emphasis on Safe Escape and Ballistics; (6) Technical Data Generation/Configuration Management to include Maintenance of Technical Data Libraries, Mass and Physical Properties Measurement, Store Technical and Mass Property (STAMP) Data Management, and Technical Order Distribution; (7) Organizational Support to include Information Technology and Engineering Workstation Computer Administration, Software Engineering Process Development/Improvement, and Store Compatibility Enterprise Management. Interested sources who believe they can meet these requirements should provide a statement of capabilities that provides the following information related to their demonstrated experience and capabilities: (a) Contract information and/or program information describing your experience in the past three years relative to the objectives and tasks identified above. Please include the contract award amount and the average number of Contract Man-year Equivalents/Full-Time Equivalents providing services. (b) Demonstrated capability in each area in the functions identified above, if applicable. All interested organizations are encouraged to submit capabilities packages addressing the specific criteria identified above. The packages will be reviewed according to these criteria. Organizations which provide information that does not demonstrate those capabilities specifically associated with the criteria identified in paragraph (b) may be evaluated as not being capable of performing the required services. Proposals are not being requested or accepted at this time. The contract type anticipated by the Government is to be determined (TBD). The anticipated period of performance is five years. The proposed North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715, with a small business standard size of 1500 employees. In the response, interested sources should identify company name, point of contact, e-mail address, telephone, Federal CAGE Code, Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, facsimile numbers, and type and business size indicating whether you are a small or large business for the purposes of the assigned NAICS. It is the policy of the Government to provide maximum practicable opportunities in its acquisitions to small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business concerns. All prospective contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database to be awarded a DoD contract. No set-aside decision has been made. The resulting evaluation of all organizations providing capabilities packages will be considered in determining the acquisition strategy, specifically in determining for which (if any) small-business concerns this acquisition will be set-aside in accordance with FAR 19.5. Respondents are further requested to indicate their status as a Foreign-owned/Foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated use of foreign national employees for this effort. Limit your response to this market survey to a maximum of thirty (30) pages to be received NLT 2:00 PM., Central Time on 21 October 2021. Submissions can be-mailed to Matthew.Weller.1@us.af.mil and Heather.Stiles@us.af.mil Note: In accordance with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting, a small business firm must be able to perform at least 50% of the total requirement by employees within its own company. The AFTC has appointed an Ombudsman to hear concerns from potential offerors relating to this acquisition. The Ombudsman does not diminish the authority of the Program Director or Contracting Officer, but communicates contractor concerns, issues, disagreements, and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals or in the source selection process. Matters of a routine or administrative nature concerning this acquisition should not be addressed to the Ombudsman but rather the Contracting Officer identified below. For any other concerns, interested parties may call the AFTC Ombudsman, AFTC Vice Commander, 1 South Rosamond Blvd, Edwards AFB, CA 93524-3784, (661) 277-2810, facsimile (661) 277-7593. Collect calls will not be accepted. For further information, contact the Contract Specialist, Matthew Weller, AFTC/PZZC, matthew.weller.1@us.af.mil, with subject line “Eglin AFB SEMATS 3 Sources Sought”. Please ensure that only .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xsls, or .xls documents are attached to the emails; other file types may be deleted or filtered out by email filters. This sources sought synopsis is for information and planning purposes only. It does not constitute an IFB or RFP, and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. No costs will be paid for any charges incurred in responding to this synopsis. Information submitted should be addressed to: AFTC/PZZC Attn: Heather M. Stiles 205 West D Avenue, Suite 433 Eglin AFB, Florida 32542-6864 United States Place(s) of Performance: Eglin AFB, FL 32542 Edwards AFB, CA 93524 Primary Point of Contact: Heather.Stiles@us.af.mil Secondary Point of Contact: Matthew.Weller.1@us.af.mil