Request for Information: Adaptive Squad Architecture

Request for Information

Adaptive Squad Architecture

Industry Engagement #1

Date: 24 July 2019 Amended 8/21/2019: See section VII. Industry Day
I. INTRODUCTION

a. Program Executive Office Soldier (PEO-S) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for industry partners to review and provide comments / questions / feedback on the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) Adaptive Squad Architecture (ASA) concept and system-level Interface Control Documents (ICD). This is part of an approximately 18 month iterative process between the Government and Industry to arrive at a set of common standards and ICDs that will comprise the Government owned ASA. The Government's objective is to begin using the ASA NLT January 2021 as the foundation for achieving the Soldier as an Integrated Weapons Platform and the Squad as an Integrated Combat Platform.

b. The purpose of the ASA is to create a Government owned Soldier and Squad architecture that enables the rapid but deliberate delivery of integrated capabilities to the force, initially focused on the close combat Squads, in order to ensure lethal overmatch against current and future threats. The ASA will be comprised of a set of common standards and ICDs, an Architecture Assessment Tool (AAT), and Configuration Management (CM) Database. Key focus areas of the ASA will be establishing common standards and ICDs for power management; data management (on each Soldier, between Soldiers in the Squad, and between Squads); physical equipment interfaces; and size, space, and weight management at the Soldier and Squad level. The MOSA approach is also intended to reduce the weight carried by Soldiers/Squads by having an architecture that facilitates combining multiple capabilities into a single hardware device and eliminating legacy hardware by developing software applications that can be used on existing peripherals.

c. The purpose of this RFI is to begin the socialization of the ASA with our industry partners and to provide industry an opportunity to collaboratively shape the ASA. This RFI is the first step in an open, collaborative process between the Government and industry in an effort to arrive at a common understanding of the ASA and how it will be utilized by the Government on future contracts for Soldier and Squad capabilities beginning NLT January 2021.

d. This RFI includes standards and ICDs currently in use or in development within PEO Soldier and its subordinate project/product offices along with some sample problem statements. I Industry will have the opportunity to review these standards and ICDs using the problem statements as context, provide feedback, ask questions, and compare/contrast what is being used within their own companies. Providing this information will help identify missing data/information and inform industry as to what the Government is currently using for interface/integration controls.

e. Participation in this RFI is not - required for any current or potential industry partners. Non-participation in this RFI will not disqualify vendors from participating in any future RFIs or Industry Days/Engagements. All submissions, regardless of a company's size or status, will be reviewed by the Government.

f The Government may conduct Industry Days as a follow-on to this RFI.

g. Disclaimer: This RFI is for informational purposes only. This is not a request for proposal (RFP) to be submitted. It does not constitute a solicitation and shall not be construed as a commitment by the government. Responses in any form are not offers and the government is under no obligation to award a contract as a result of this announcement. No funds are available to pay for preparation of responses to this announcement. Any information submitted by respondents to this technical description is strictly voluntary.

II. DESCRIPTION OF EFFORT

The Key Points for Industry to understand about ASA are as follows:

a. The primary stakeholders for the ASA are the acquisition community which directly supports the Soldier and Squad, namely the Science and Technology (S&T) partners, the combat developers, the materiel developers, and industry partners.

b. The ASA is driven by the following requirements:

i. Integration planning, or the ability to do systems engineering at the Soldier and Squad level.

ii. The need to discover and de-conflict interfaces (between equipment, protocols, sub-systems) across the Soldier and Squad.

iii. Configuration management of the entire Soldier system and for each of the positions in the Squad.

iv. A single, authoritative, Soldier and Squad level equipment, technical database, maintained by, and for, all stakeholders.

v. The need to conduct quantitative-based comparisons (quantitative assessments) of proposed new (or upgraded) equipment in its ability to provide significantly greater benefit to the Squad over legacy equipment.

III. PROGRAM OBJECTIVE

The objective of the ASA is to define the technical architecture for the Soldier as an Integrated Weapons Platform and the Squad as an Integrated Combat Platform. The ASA is a Government owned architecture that documents all existing and future Soldier and Squad variations, to include all interface controls between Soldier/Squad systems and any external systems. The ASA enables systemic modernization and quantitative assessment of new capabilities on the overall effectiveness of Soldiers and Squads. The ASA is intended to allow industry to develop capabilities that can be immediately plugged into the architecture without further integration.

IV. CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS FOR INDUSTRY PARTNERS

In order to obtain feedback from potential industry partners, the following concepts/ questions may be addressed by any respondents to this RFI. The respondent does not have to respond to all concepts or answer all of the questions to make a response to the Government, nor does the respondent have to stay within the parameters of the framing of the questions themselves. The concepts behind ASA are as follows:

a. A SET OF HARDWARE AND EQUIPMENT STANDARDS: The ASA must specify a set of common hardware standards, interfaces, and connections to allow a system of systems to be built that may be integrated, interoperated, and interchanged as new technologies and mission needs arise. A hardware platform will provide a standard set of basic interfaces and controls, and allow developers to design features and capabilities around them.

b. A SET OF SOFTWARE AND DATA INTERCHANGE STANDARDS FOR SOLDIER/ SQUAD DEVICES AND NETWORKS: In an increasingly networked environment, consistent and reliable data exchange is critical for Soldier equipment to be useful in the field. By using standard interface protocols and a Software Development Kit, the ASA will ensure that new developments in information technology and software applications over time may be accommodated using the same system of systems approach.

c. AN AGILE ACQUISITION AND LOGISTICS SYSTEM: Within the context of the Squad, the Army will need a flexible system that provides new features to the Future Soldier. The ASA will allow a diverse and global array of developers to build capabilities, software, and equipment. As new hardware/software technologies and features are developed, the Soldier community will have to evaluate and introduce them to the Soldier and the Squad.

d. EQUIPMENT BASELINE: THE EQUIPMENT WORN, CARRIED OR CONSUMED BY THE INDIVIDUAL SOLDIER FOR EACH POSITION IN EACH VARIATION OF A SQUAD: This includes both common equipment kit as well as specific duty-position kit. The ASA will identify changes in equipment capabilities and potential interface issues through management of interface control documents and will control the equipment baseline to gain a better understanding of the operational impact of capability changes.

Questions to industry are as follows:

a. What does industry perceive to be the barriers to execution of the ASA concept?

b. What organizational barriers does industry believe exist to prevent success of the ASA and the ICDs for Government and industry use?

c. What does industry believe the main focus of the ASA should be?

d. What does industry believe the main points of integration within the ASA should be for the Squad?

e. What format or guide/template does industry currently use for ICDs (if industry uses them)?

f. Does industry consider the human factors aspect of integration and interfaces? If not; why not? If so; how does industry define those human factors?

g. Does industry have a standard way of making an architecture plug/play, or components plug/play? This would be so that if a new threat emerges, the Squad can adapt and overcome more easily.

h. How will the ASA benefit Industry?

i. What capabilities does industry have to design, develop, and implement new Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities for the Soldier? How could these new capabilities be pushed out to Soldiers in the field, or deployed into combat theaters of operation?

j. Does industry have a standard development kit that is used for software and application design and development?

k. Since the Government owns the ASA and associated ICDs, how does this impact industry in terms of flexibility, proprietary designs, data rights, etc.?

l. Does the ASA fully enable you to develop solutions to the problem statements with regard to understanding the electrical, mechanical and software connections, and size, weight and power allocations for your solutions?

m. Do you have easy access to all the elements of the ASA to facilitate the process to develop your solutions?

n. Are there elements missing that should be included?

o. What suggestions do you have to make the ASA better?

V. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

a. It is requested that all interested vendors provide the following information in response to this RFI no later than 60 calendar days after publication. Vendors shall submit their information to the Point of Contact for this RFI post, Karen Gibson at karen.gibson2.civ@mail.mil, by the stated time and date.

i. Offeror's Company Name and Address, Date of Submission, Point of Contact Name, Title, E-Mail Address, Phone Number.

ii. Business designation (Traditional Defense Contractor or Non-Traditional Defense Contractor (NTDC)). Definition of Traditional and Non-Traditional are as follows: Nontraditional Defense Contractor (NTDC)" as the term is defined in section 2302(9) of title 10, United States Code with respect to applicable authority, means an entity that is not currently performing and has not performed, for at least the one-year period preceding the solicitation of sources by the DoD for the procurement or transaction, any contract or subcontract for the DoD that is subject to full coverage under the cost accounting standards prescribed pursuant to section 1502 of title 41 and the regulations implementing such section. This includes all small business concerns under the criteria and size standards in Title 13, Code of Federal Regulations, part 121 (13 CFR 121).

iii. Any comments, questions, or feedback regarding the ASA and the ICDs.

iv. Answers to any questions to industry denoted within the RFI.

b. Submissions shall be no longer than 5 pages total, not including graphs and pictures. Document spacing shall be a minimum of single spacing, with a font size minimum of 10.

c. The Government will review submissions within 30 days of receipt. Questions or feedback generated from the submission reviews will be issued back to the vendors via the point of contact for the RFI.

d. All information provided in response to this RFI will be shared openly. Do not submit information that is proprietary or cannot be shared openly. The Government reserves the right to duplicate, use or disclose the information provided as a result of this RFI.
VI. RFI Attachments:

a. NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interfaces, ICD-GPS-240B

b. NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interfaces, ICD-GPS-870A

c. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard 802.15.4-2011 Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANS), IEEE Standard 802.15.4-2011 - REFERENCE ONLY

d. Dimensioning of Accessory Mounting Rail for Small Arms Weapons, MIL STD 1913

e. NETT Warrior Interconnect Architecture

f. Universal Serial Bus Type-C Cable and Connector Specification, USB Type-C Specification Release 1.5 - REFERENCE ONLY

g. Performance Specification for Spectacles, Ballistic., Protective, Laser, MIL-PRF-44366B

h. Draft Capability Problem Statements (24 July 2019)

i. Listing of Limited Distribution ICDs and standards (access to these documents must be requested through the point of contact for the RFI, Karen Gibson at karen.gibson2.civ@mail.mil) Phone requests will not be honored.
VII. INDUSTRY DAY:
a. If any vendor has questions or input that they didn't have a chance to submit during Industry Day, they may submit them in one e-mail to the following points of contact: Mr. Daniel R. Kitts at daniel.r.kitts.civ@mail.mil AND Ms. Karen Gibson at karen.gibson2.civ@mail.mil, prior to the submission of White Papers. Both points of contact MUST be included in the e-mail or the questions/input WILL NOT be considered. Phone submissions will not be honored.