Portable TACAN System
AFLCMC/HBAG REQUEST FOR INFORMATION:
Seeking Technology Development Candidates for a
Portable TACAN System
•1. Description
The AFLCMC/HBAG is seeking information on Technology Development Candidates for a Portable Tactical Air Navigation System (TACAN) that could be rapidly deployed, as described in paragraphs 6 (Mobility Requirements) and 7 (Deployability Requirements), to austere locations that may have limited airfield infrastructures or support systems.
There is an unmet need for a robust man portable TACAN system. The Government is interested in system(s) that are small, light and highly mobile in support of various airfield operational scenarios. The Government is seeking detailed information on both existing systems as well as technology development candidates that may offer a wide array of aircraft navigational options. Trade space considerations and suggested enhancements to existing systems that could be included as part of a prototype development program should be described in the responses. Innovative solutions that meet or exceed the requirements are encouraged.
•2. Disclaimer
This is a Request for Information (RFI) only, which, as part of market research, is being issued in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 15.201(e). This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes to obtain information related to general programmatic topics, price, delivery, product line capabilities analyses, and demographic/other market information. This is not a solicitation/Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a solicitation and no contract shall be resultant from this synopsis.
AFMC AFLCMC/HBAG will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI.
Responses will be treated as information only and will not be used as a proposal. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this RFI, is strictly voluntarily.
•3. Background
Air Traffic Control and Landing System (ATCALS) provides vital mission support to enable USAF forces to deliver responsive and effective global vigilance, global reach and global power. ATCALS must respond to the joint operational need to deploy, employ, sustain, and redeploy aviation assets in multiple geographically separated and environmentally diverse regions at will.
The USAF Expeditionary ATC Technology Development effort seeks to provide navigational capability options by iterative experimentation on the requirements trade space to rapidly develop and field expeditionary ATC capabilities to the warfighters by leveraging current and emerging technologies in radar, automation, network and communication. A robust and portable TACAN system is the second focus area of this technology development effort.
•4. Expeditionary ATC Technology Development
To rapidly bring expeditionary ATC capabilities to the warfighters, this overarching Technology Development effort is planned to identify systems or develop prototype systems that can be used to demonstrate the operational utility and to mature the technical requirements. A future contracting activity will follow to acquire production units suitable for fielding.
•5. Overarching Expeditionary ATC Technology Requirements
•5.1 Shall have no impact on aircraft instrumentation nor require any aircraft system modifications
•5.2 Shall continue to operate in GPS challenged and/or denied environment
•5.3 Shall have internal monitoring and automatic capability to shut off when system detects that it is out of tolerance as well as provide an indication of defective major components.
•5.4 Shall be modular and scalable to enable rapid seamless addition of future sensors and/or new functionalities
•6. Portable TACAN Requirements
•6.1 The term "portable" for the purposes of this RFI is intended to mean as small and lightweight as possible
•6.2 The system shall be compatible with all airborne TACAN interrogators/transponders currently in use
•6.3 The system shall provide acquisition range, i.e., lock on (distance measurement and azimuth) capability at a range of forty (40) nautical miles at an elevation angle of one half (0.5) degree above the screening angle and reception range out to one hundred (100) nautical miles at line of sight, two hundred (200) nautical miles is preferred
•6.4 The system shall provide Continuous lock-on (azimuth and distance measurement) for fifteen (15) nautical miles within plus or minus five (5) degrees or less of the approach course
•6.5 The system shall provide identification, distance measurement, and azimuth to at least fifty (50) aircraft simultaneously with a seventy percent (70%) reply rate to interrogating aircraft transponders
•6.6 The system shall provide a standby condition until interrogated by the using aircraft; when interrogation occurs, full power should automatically be transmitted within sixty (60) seconds
•6.7 The system shall provide course alignment within plus or minus three and one-half (3.5) degrees of the correct magnetic bearing except for the approach courses which shall be within plus or minus three (3.0) degrees
•6.8 The system shall provide radial roughness and scalloping within plus or minus four (4.0) degrees of the radial
•6.9 The system shall provide radial course bends within plus or minus four (4.0) degrees of the correct magnetic bearing
•6.10 The polarization effect of the system shall be within plus or minus four (4.0) degrees
•6.11 The system shall provide no more than one condition of azimuth and/or distance measurement unlock of not more than two search cycles in any five nautical miles of radial flight with a ground speed of one hundred fifty (150) knots.
•6.12 The system shall comply with all current versions of applicable standards including ICAO Annex 10, MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-291, MIL-STD-461, MIL-HDBK-217 and STANAG 5034
•6.13 The system shall accept an input from VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) equipment to inhibit/synchronize ID transmissions with a VOR.
•7. Mobility Requirements
•7.1 Shall be capable of transport by 2 person in accordance with MIL STD 1472
•8. Deployability Requirements
•8.1 Equipment stored in portable containers
•8.2 LRUs shall meet the lift criteria as defined in MIL-STD-1472G for 2 persons or less, or have self-contained support equipment for moving
•8.3 The design and construction shall permit setup, siting, leveling and aligning in no more than 60 minutes by two 1C8X3 5 skill level members under all weather and environmental conditions
•8.4 Shall be capable of setup and operations in worldwide austere locations in all course grained and fine-grained soil conditions as defined in FM 5-472/NAVFAC MO 330/AFJMAN 32-1221(l), Materials Test, App B, Unified Soil Classification System
•8.5 Shall not require permanent foundations (e.g., concrete, cement, etc.)
•8.6 Shall be operable in all parts of the world and in most operating conditions. Some of the more extreme operating conditions include minus fifty-four degrees Celsius (-54°C) to seventy-one degrees Celsius (+71°C), up to ninety five percent (95%) humidity, rain/snow/ice, sea level to thirteen thousand one hundred (13,100) foot altitude and fifty-six (56) mile per hour winds
•8.7 Shall be capable of being powered by a standard Mobile Electric Power (MEP) generator, Advanced Medium-sized Mobile Power Sources (AMMPS) generator, battery, solar, and a commercial generator that meets standard military MEP or AMMPS generating sources requirements. The system shall operate via worldwide commercial power. Power-generating equipment shall be included as part of overall system size and as part of setup time
•8.8 The system SHALL have an emergency power system for minimum 2-hour operation if mains supply fail
•8.9 Shall have lightning protection IAW AFI 32-1065 and MIL-STD-464C section 5.5
•8.10 Shall provide grounding, bonding, shielding IAW NFPA 70 article 250 and lightning protection IAW NFPA 780 using MIL-HDBK-419A section 1.11 Military Mobile Facilities as guidance
•8.11 Shall transmit and operate in ATCALS approved military frequency bands (e.g. 960-1215 MHz, 108.10 -111.96 MHz, 329.15 - 335.00 MHz)
•9. Other Requirements
•9.1 Spectrum management and use will be IAW DoD 4650.01, Policy and Procedures for Management and Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, to include the Spectrum Supportability Risk Assessment (SSRA) requirement
•9.2 Shall comply with overall electromagnetic environmental effects (E3), including interference and spectrum management guidance
•9.3 Shall operate in its intended operational electromagnetic environment (EME) without suffering or causing unacceptable performance degradation due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from/to other equipment in the same environment and should be immune to all EMI/ radio frequency interference
•9.4 All applicable equipment shall comply with national and international spectrum standards and guidance on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum
•9.5 Shall be designed to reduce security risks and vulnerability to Electronic Attack
•9.6 System shall provide cybersecurity protections at the moderate /moderate /moderate categorization level for confidentiality/integrity/availability IAW DoD's Risk Management Framework
•9.7 No Ozone Depleted Substance (ODSs) shall be used during the manufacture, fabrication, operation, or disposal of the equipment
•9.8 HAZMAT required for the manufacture, operation, maintenance or existing at disposal of the system or its support equipment, will be identified along with instructions for safe handling, storage, and disposal of materials and the appropriate material safety data sheets
•9.9 Reliability/Availability/Maintainability (RAM)
•9.10 Operational Availability (Ao) shall be equal to or greater than (≥) 98 percent per year for the total system
•9.11 Mean Time Between Critical Failure (MTBCF) shall be ≥ 2,000 hours
•9.12 Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) for other than critical failures shall be equal to or less than (≤) 30 minutes
•9.13 Maximum Time to Repair (MaxTTR). MaxTTR shall be ≤ 1.5 hours to the 95th percentile
•9.14 Shall require no more than one on-site visit per year for preventive maintenance
•10. General Requests and Questions
•10.1 Provide a brief description of your company's expertise and qualifications for providing a portable TACAN system.
•10.2 Provide a brief description of your company's expertise involving ATC systems.
•10.3 Provide information on hardware modification and acceptance test of systems and their internal modules, maintenance and retrofit of previously produced systems.
•10.4 Identify the commercial and military sales history for any proposed systems including date, customers and quantities.
•10.5 Provide any additional information you consider relevant to providing a portable TACAN system or proposed modified system.
•11. Program Management Requests and Questions
•11.1 Describe the qualifications of your engineering staff who have experience in the development of portable TACAN systems
•11.2 Describe your company's experience with Field Service and technical support
•11.3 Describe your company's experience with modifications to include incorporation of Military Standard (MIL STD), and configuration management of baseline changes
•11.4 Describe your company's experience with Quality Assurance Testing, Customer Acceptance Testing, Interoperability Certification Testing, and Joint Interoperability Testing support
•11.5 Describe your company's experience in developing or updating Technical Data Packages (TDP)
•11.6 Describe your company's policy in providing TDPs to the Government
•11.7 Describe your company's process for tracking program risks and mitigation steps utilized on past contracts that reduced risks to an acceptable level
•12. Technical Requests and Questions
•12.1 Provide a description of your portable TACAN system or proposed modifications to existing system. Present as much detail as possible on each of the system components and any modifications that will be required to current off the shelf components.
•12.2 Explain any limitations and challenges for meeting the proposed portable TACAN system. Present as much detail as possible on trade space issues (e.g. antenna size versus range).
•12.3 Has the system been installed for operation at an airfield and subsequently redeployed?
•12.4 Does the system require U.S. Air Force aircrew training beyond that required for traditional navigation systems?
•12.5 Are all maintenance and status functions available remotely?
•12.6 Describe the operational environmental extremes for which your system can meet the capabilities that you have described.
•12.7 Describe the non-operational (e.g. storage/shipping/handling) environments that your system can withstand without degradation.
•12.8 Describe limitations for coverage at the minimums and maximums.
•12.9 Describe your system's power requirements.
•12.10 Are technical orders available or in development to U.S. military specifications for a USAF 1C8X2 technician?
•12.11 Are operator and maintainer training available or in development to U.S. military specifications for a USAF 1C8X3 technician?
•12.12 Are current DoD cybersecurity standards (Risk Management Framework) incorporated or in development?
•12.13 Describe any significant opportunities that your proposed system would achieve to support expeditionary ATC operations if other trade spaces are considered beyond those described in this RFI.
•13. Logistics Requests and Questions
•13.1 Describe your company's standard approach for storage of systems while they are awaiting retrofit or awaiting shipment.
•13.2 Describe your company's experience or approach for system warranty coverage.
•13.3 Describe your company's experience in the safe packaging and handling.
•13.4 Describe your company's past involvement with Department of Defense (DoD) logistics requirements and discuss your success record in meeting those requirements on previous DoD contracts.
•13.5 Provide a description of your company's most complex project, which is like this project. Focus on overall management, and mitigation of identified risk factors.
•13.6 Describe the transportability requirements of the system proposed, to include its weight and size.
•14. Cost and Schedule Information
With the understanding any pricing or cost data is not final but general in nature and not demanded but considered extremely helpful, the following questions are requested:
•14.1 What is your estimated price for an off the shelf system?
•14.2 What is your estimated price for the development and demonstration of one functionally-representative prototype system?
•14.3 Based on previous production experience, would you be able to produce 20 systems in a five (5) year period? What would be your estimated unit production costs for the five-year period?
•14.4 What is your estimated schedule for the development and demonstration of one functionally-representative prototype system?
•14.5 Provide any other relevant cost information. While not restricted to the following, relevant cost information could include:
•14.5.1 Top three anticipated cost-drivers
•14.5.2 Anticipated breakout of hardware and software costs
•14.5.3 Any other price/cost information you are willing to share
All cost and/or pricing information will be held in the strictest confidentiality.
•15. Ombudsman
An AFLCMC Ombudsman has been appointed to consider and facilitate the resolution of concerns from offerors, potential offerors, and others for this acquisition. Before consulting the Ombudsman concerned parties should first address their concerns, issues, disagreements, and/or recommendation to the Contracting Officer for resolution. In addition, AFFARS 5352.201-9101, Ombudsman, will be included in this acquisition's solicitation and contract. The AFLCMC Ombudsman can be contacted at the following telephone number: (937) 255-5512 or email: peter.sandness@us.af.mil.
•16. Response Format
There is no limit on the number of pages you respond with, however all responses must be responded to as letter sized pages using 12-point, Times New Roman font and minimum one-inch margins in Microsoft® Word or compatible format. Responses to this RFI are required in the English language and received by close of business on, 26 August 2019. All responses shall be unclassified and reviewed to ensure consideration of operational sensitivities. All RFI responses and correspondence related to this matter are to be e-mailed to the Contracting Officer, Richard Williams (richard.williams.66@us.af.mil) with a copy also sent to Capt John Phinney (john.phinney.1@us.af.mil)
Richard Williams, Contracting Officer , Phone 781-225-5125, Email Richard.williams.66@us.af.mil - John Phinney, Capt., Program Manager, Email john.phinney.1@us.af.mil
