Inactive 8(a) Set-Aside (FAR 19.8)

Description: This announcement serves as a Sources Sought Notice (FA700021R0089) issued for the purpose of market research as described by FAR 2.101 and in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulati... Description: This announcement serves as a Sources Sought Notice (FA700021R0089) issued for the purpose of market research as described by FAR 2.101 and in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10 for an upcoming acquisition at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). This Sources Sought is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation or a commitment or obligation on the part of the Government to issue a solicitation. This is NOT a Request for Proposal (RFP), and nothing shall be construed herein or through the Sources Sought process to commit or obligate the Government to further action. DO NOT submit a quote or proposal in response to this notice. The Government will not pay for any information submitted in response to this notice. Vendors responding to this notice bear all risks and expenses of any resources used to provide the requested information. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this notice is purely voluntary. The 10th Contracting Squadron is conducting market research to identify capable, experienced, and potential interested sources to provide Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) manpower to support the USAFA SUAS program. Program Objectives: This is a non-personal services contract to provide Operations, Maintenance and Training support to the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) Center in Colorado. The Government shall not exercise any supervision or control over the contract service providers performing the services herein. Such contract service providers shall be accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn is responsible to the Government. The USAFA UAS Center is an Air, Space and Cyber Power program with a broad emphasis on the development of combat Air and Space Force leaders coupled with multi-domain combat academic understanding, experiential learning, and operational familiarization through the utilization of the USAFA Joint All Domain Environment (JADE) Lab in concert with its fleet of SUASs. This is combined with operational support for interdepartmental (across Dean of Faculty Departments) research in SUAS technology development areas such as, swarm, autonomy, low observable & unconventional shapes, control systems, payloads, along with development and evaluation of tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). The intent is to provide USAFA with the needed concurrent support for administrative, logistical, RQ-11/20 maintenance, flying operations supervision and aircrew records management support (ARMS) together with ground and flight instruction in support of SUASO/SUASI qualification award and operation of the JADE Lab. As of July 2020, the primary SUAS is the RQ-11 Raven but the program will phase towards the RQ-20 as the primary SUAS by 2022. A fleet of six to ten Group 1 and/or 2 SUAS will be adopted as the UAS program grows to support interdepartmental research programs. At any given time the Contractor may be required to provide personnel to simultaneously support up to three separate flying sites while operating the JADE Lab. Contractor is required to provide SUASI qualified personnel with experience in the RQ-11 and/or RQ-20 in order to meet contract requirements. If contractor does not have RQ-11 or RQ-20 experience, contractor may obtain RQ-11 or RQ-20 training through AeroVironment or AFSOC certification course at the Contractor’s expense. The Contractor will be certified locally by the USAFA SUAS Director. This Sources Sought is open to all qualified 8(a) small businesses. The proposed North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this action is 611512: establishments primarily engaged in offering aviation and flight training. These establishments may offer vocational training, recreational training, or both; the size standard is $27.5 million. Estimated Award: Fall 2021 Estimated Total Contract Value: $3 million Contract Vehicle: Firm Fixed Price Estimated Ordering Period: Base + 4 Option Years (OY) (Each OY performance start date aligns with the start of the academic spring semester and includes the following fall semester of the same calendar year) This notice is provided as information to the marketplace and is an invitation for an expression of interest and demonstration of small business capability to perform the anticipated work. Information provided in response to this posting will be used in this assessment. All 8(a) small businesses capable of providing the types of tasks described herein are invited to respond by completing the Company Capabilities & Market Research Questionnaire. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought notice is voluntary and will not be released to the public. Respondents may elect to have their company point of contact information released in a future posting to promote dissemination of information for subcontracting purposes. Response Instructions: Responses are due no later than 27 Sep 2021, 2:00 p.m. MDT by e-mail. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. Questions and responses should be addressed to the primary contact, Melissa Staudacher, Contracting Officer, melissa.staudacher@us.af.mil or the alternate point of contact, Valerie Mancias, Contract Specialist, valerie.mancias@us.af.mil No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized in SAM.gov. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any synopsis or solicitation. Interested companies are invited to complete the following: Company name: Small business status and date of business-type certification: Mailing address: CAGE code and DUNS number, as registered in SAM: Point of Contact: (Provide company point of contact by name (including telephone number and e-mail). Indicate if the company point of contact information is to be released in a future posting to promote dissemination of information for subcontracting purposes.) NACIS: Provide business size and NAICS code(s) Level of interest in this requirement: Highly likely to propose, may propose, or unlikely to propose. Company Capabilities & Market Research Questionnaire: CONTRACT PERFORMANCE: How long have you been in business? Have you ever performed Government contracts? Have you ever performed this type of work in the past? Since this program will directly involve USAFA cadets, timeliness and professionalism are essential. Can you provide a brief synopsis which verifies experience in a professional, military environment? Description of your company’s relevant experience, capability, and past performance; may include examples of prior services provided of similar level of scope and complexity. May submit information on up to three (3) recent contracts that would be consider relevant in demonstrating company capabilities to perform the proposed effort; maximum 1 page in length per contract. To be recent, the contract must be ongoing, or must have been performed or completed during the five years leading up to the date of this sources sought notice posting. Provide contract number, contract title and NAICS code used. Explain what aspects of the cited contracts are deemed relevant to the proposed effort and to what aspects of the proposed effort they relate. This may include a discussion of efforts accomplished to resolve problems encountered on prior contracts as well as past efforts to identify and manage program risk. Provide information on any potential workload and staffing restrictions that may be encountered if similar contracts are being performed concurrently. Subcontracting Arrangements: Discuss current and potential teaming or subcontracting arrangements and how small business plans have and will be utilized. Describe the scope of previous teaming/subcontracting partnership, the role of the prime contractor in that partnership and the percentage of effort assigned to each partner. What portions will be subcontracted? How much of the work will be performed by your company? Does your company have a formal certification process for crew members to ensure they are qualified to operate the aircraft to meet all of the USAFA requirements? Can you provide documentation to demonstrate certification? Given the ongoing and current global COVID-19 pandemic, please describe your company’s policies and procedures in place to support contract mission success. Are you able to provide remote contractor support? Are employees able to provide support via telework? Are there any costs associated with requiring your employees to telework? Do the employees have adequate access to whatever software/hardware/IT platforms necessary to achieve SUAS mission success? EVALUATION FACTORS: For the SUAS contract, the Government is considering doing a trade-off with past performance being more significant than price. Past performance should include performance as a Prime Contractor or Subcontractor. In addition, the Government would also require staffing approach and transition plans as part of the technical proposal. What are the benefits and/or challenges to using this approach? How has past performance been measured in other source selections in which your company has participated? What benefits and/or challenges would a staffing approach and transition plan provide to the Government? (i.e. Contractor retention rates/employee benefits) Are there any other meaningful discriminators the Government should consider for evaluation factors? CONTRACT TYPE: The Government is anticipating awarding a Firm-Fixed Price contract type with one-year base period with four one-year option periods. The Government will anticipate a 30 day Phase-In Transition period and include clause 52-217-8 Option to Extend Services, not to exceed six months. What are the benefits and/or challenges to this type of contract? For SUAS, what type of performance objectives are meaningful to industry that would assist in reasonable pricing strategies at the task order level? Please feel free to provide any additional comments/recommendations. The following documents are attached to help you better understand the requirement and potential task order requirements. Documents are samples only. Attachment 1- DRAFT SUAS Performance Work Statement dated, 10 Sep 2021