Inactive

I. DISCLAIMER Requested Information This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and considered a follow up to Fires C2 RFI #1, 1 NOV 2023 (W15P7T24R0008). Program Executive Office Command, Control, C... I. DISCLAIMER Requested Information This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and considered a follow up to Fires C2 RFI #1, 1 NOV 2023 (W15P7T24R0008). Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC) requests that all interested parties from Industry, Government Science and Technology, and Academia respond with their feedback to the Contracting Approach and updated Statement of Objective (SOO). This RFI shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid, Request for Task Execution Plan, Request for Quotation, or a Request for Proposal. There is no obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI or its responses. Responses to this RFI will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. There is no payment for direct or indirect costs that are incurred in responding to this RFI. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. Responses must address the requirements outlined below. II Summary of Effort Program Executive Office Command Control Communications - Tactical (PEO C3T) and Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) will establish a contract vehicle for the development of the modern digital fires products needed to improve decision making and accelerate kill chains against a near-peer threat. The contract vehicle will support modernization of both the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (JADOCS) as a Fires Safety Critical Baseline with shared common services and backend architecture. Further information on the contracting approach is provided in attachment 1. A. Fires Safety Critical Baseline (FSCB) The government has determined the AFATDS AXS and JTIC2S collective capabilities/development effort is considered a Fires Safety Critical Baseline. As such, special attention is needed for development of safety critical components and modules that extend beyond what would be required for non-safety critical baselines. Adherence to specific practices and guidelines as outlined in the Joint Software Systems Safety Engineering Handbook (JSSSEH), MIL-STD-882E, DODD 5000.01, DODI 5000.02, Defense Acquisition Guidebook and other relevant policies is expected and the past experience of interested partners with working on safety critical baselines will be investigated as part of any competitive follow on action related to this work. This FSCB capability will leverage a common back-end architecture, Open Application Programming Interface (API) and a common/intuitive role-based user interface shared by all Fire Support C2 and Mission Command Systems using Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) software. The government is in the process of selecting a common TAK baseline (i.e., TAK-X, WebTak, etc. ) that AFATDS AXS and JTIC2S will leverage and maintain as a standard. B. AFATDS AXS Current Development The Army is developing the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) Artillery Execution Suite (AXS) as a micro-service, open architecture, hardware agnostic, application based, Fires solution (see Attachment 02). It provides an enduring architectural approach to enable mission adaptability and upgrades. AFATDS AXS is planned to divide the current capabilities provided by the AFATDS 6.8 baseline into three sub-products at echelon (Fire Support Element, Technical Fire Direction, and Tactical Fire Direction). Current development is executed by the Development Command-Armament Center (DEVCOM-AC). DEVCOM-AC will develop the initial Fire Support applications, microservices, data models and supporting development technical artifacts for Fire Support functions at Division. It is the government’s intent that these Fire Support Element capabilities and the supporting infrastructure be expanded to meet all FSE functionality of the existing AFATDS application in addition to building upon this the necessary Tactical and Technical Fire Direction capabilities needed to fully supplant the legacy AFATDS in the field today. The future effort in its entirety will be managed by the vendor library approach. The government will likely require that the work performed under this vendor library approach leverage the DEVCOM AC product as its start point to enable a compressed software (SW) deployment timeline. C. JTCI2S Current Development The Army plans to replace the legacy Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (JADOCS) with a new program referred to as Joint Targeting Integrated Command and Coordination Suite (JTIC2S). JTIC2S will provide joint and organic Army fire support management for joint, coalition, and echelon target development and management via access to joint and multi-domain target intelligence databases. JTIC2S enables commanders at brigade through theatre levels throughout the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Special Forces and Coalition partners, to integrate targeting efforts into a single federated user interface via a joint fires/targeting common operational picture (COP). This digital integration of U.S. and allied fires will provide a capability for nominating, vetting, and validating suspect targets, determining methods of engagement, matching weapons effects to desired target battle damage, conducting targeting and risk mitigation in a coordinated and collaborative digital environment for both deliberate and dynamic targeting. JTIC2S will provide digital targeting development in coordination with the Intelligence warfighting function and Mission Command Warfighting function enabling access across multiple means of transport. It will also have capability to process a high volume of fires in a contested Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) environment, similar to how United States Forces Korea (USFK) support Republic of Korea (ROK) forces in the counter-fire fight today. Current development is carried out by the Development Command- Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center (DEVCOM-C5ISR). DEVCOM-C5ISR will decompose and containerize current JADOCS capabilities and develop the initial backend services and user applications for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for JTIC2S (see Attachment 03). It is the government’s intent that further refinement of the foundation, development, and integration of future requirements will be managed in the vendor library approach. The government will likely require leveraging this MVP as a starting point to enable a compressed SW deployment timeline. D. Common Fires Framework Today AFATDS and JADOCS exist as two separate and distinct C2 systems. At different points throughout the history of these programs, the concept of combining them as a single application was considered. However, it was ultimately abandoned given the extensive re-work that would have been necessary and the impact on delivering capabilities to support the conflicts of the 2000s and 2010s. With both AFATDS and JADOCS modernizing at the same time, a unique opportunity presents itself that has caused the Army to re-look the topic of system consolidation. Instead of building AXS and JTIC2S as two disparate systems with their own technical architectures, the decision has been made to build these capabilities using a shared TAK environment and foundational services. This approach enables maximum re-use of common functionality needed by both, AXS and JTIC2S, while still enabling unique functionality that pertains only to targeting or fires planning and execution to be built. Role based access control will be leveraged to ensure that JTICS2 and AXS users are presented with a customized interface to the functions needed to perform their mission. PM MC is acting as the facilitator between the DEVCOM AC and C5ISR Center teams. PM MC will foster the environment to enable both teams to co-exists and work together. Both teams will build the common framework and unique applications, for both AXS and JTI2S, to provide the initial operational capabilities to their respective user community as outlined in Section B and C above. III. MODERNIZING COMPLEX PROGRAMS a. Past Government experience indicates that a single vendor model is not appropriate for the complex nature of this work. For this effort, the government will leverage a vendor library model to ensure a “best of breed” environment is available for optimally addressing the unique challenges of this task. b. It is the intent of the government to develop a contracting solution that can enable the establishment of a vendor library organization. The government would require this organization to deliver products such as software, charter, Plan of Actionand Milestone (POAM), processes, and leadership roles for contractors. c. The government intends that this organization leverage, inherit, and continue the current development efforts and open APIs of AFATDS AXS & JTIC2S MVP capabilities at the time of transition. IV REQUEST FOR INFORMATION A. A white paper providing: a. Comments, concerns, constructive inputs, and trade space on data rights for any software developed or leveraged as part of the system(s) design and implementation. b. Comments, concerns, and constructive inputs regarding development and implementation of Open Application Programming Interface (API). c. Comments, concerns, and constructive inputs on the mechanics and optimization of Lead System Integrator (LSI) or CI/CD Lead Vendor selection: i. Role (e.g, technical leadership only vice both LSI and developer roles) ii. Duration (range from short term 6-9 months to 1/multiple years). d. Comments, concerns, and constructive inputs on concurrent IDIQ award w/1st Task order or in serial (IDIQ award followed by 1st task order later). V. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS A. COVER SHEET to include the following company information not to exceed 1 page. Company Name, CAGE Number (if applicable), Address, Point of Contact E-Mail Address, Phone, Company Web Page URL. State whether your company is a small business such as 8(a), small, disadvantaged business, woman-owned business, HUBZone small business, Veteran-owned business, or service disabled veteran owned business. Also include a statement as to whether your company is domestically or foreign owned (if foreign, please indicate the country of ownership). B. RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS. The Government is requesting interested sources to submit a white paper which provides comments, concerns, and constructive inputs as requested in Section IV. White paper shall be arial font, size 12, and not to exceed 5 pages (title page/acronym lists are not included in this page count). Since White Papers will be shared outside the Government with multiple supporting contractor organizations, submissions should confirm there is no issue with the release of any proprietary documentation provided. C. Questions or requests for clarification shall be submitted via email by 1700 EST on 29 February 2024 to the points of contact listed in section named "Points of Contact" with the email subject line ‘Fires C2 Systems RFI #2 Questions’. All responses shall be submitted to same points of contact by 1700 EST on 15 March 2024 with the email subject line ‘‘Fires C2 Systems RFI #2 Response’. RFI Feedback After the Government reviews all vendor submissions there may be additional need for further follow-on questions. If so, the Government reserves the right to contact those vendors and ask for clarifications. Points of Contact: Ryan Reddy, PM MC Acquisition Specialist, ryan.k.reddy.civ@army.mil Crystal Ross, Contract Specialists, crystal.l.ross17.civ@army.mil Jon Bauman, Contracting Officer, jonathan.m.bauman2.civ@army.mil Attachments: Attachment 01 – Updated Statement of Objectives Attachment 02 – FSC2 Combined (AFATDS AXS and JTIC2S) High-level Architecture Attachment 03 - Fires C2 RFI #1, 1 NOV 2023 (W15P7T24R0008) Attachment 04 - FSC2 IDIQ RFI2_Question Responses