Commercial Solutions Opening for Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2)

Amendment 01 dated 12 July 2021: Updated "CSO" to read "Commercial Solutions Opening" in an effort to prevent confusion with other acronyms. Federal Agency: Air Force Program Office: AFLCMC/XA Architecture and Integration Directorate CSO Title: JADC2 Commercial Solutions Opening CSO Type: Commercial Solutions Opening with Calls CSO Number: FA8612-21-S-C001 CSO Date: June 28, 2021 NOTE This is only an announcement; PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT PROPOSALS IN RESPONSE. Subsequent calls will be issued under this announcement to solicit proposals for specific efforts. Please refer to the attachment section of this announcement for the calls. Publication of this announcement does not obligate the DoD to review any white papers submission beyond an initial administrative review, or to award any specific project, or to obligate any available funds. 1.0 OVERVIEW This Commercial Solutions Opening is intended to be as streamlined as possible to allow the Architecture and Integration Directorate (AFLCMC/XA), or any organization AFLCMC/XA supports, to leverage the latest technology advances from a large variety of prospective Contractors. AFLCMC/XA invites innovative technical approach proposals addressing Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) problems associated with getting the right information to the right platform/decision maker in the most efficient manner thereby reducing kill chain and Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA) timelines and cycles. This Commercial Solutions Opening will focus on existing and emerging technologies and platforms across the Defense Department, the Intelligence Community, and the commercial world, to perform an integrated analysis of the capability of various options to contribute to the fight and prioritize investments over time. This solicitation is not requesting any white papers or proposals at this time. This Commercial Solutions Opening functions as the overarching umbrella solicitation from which Calls will be published. This Commercial Solutions Opening will remain open for Calls until rescinded. This Commercial Solutions Opening can result in the award of FAR Part 12 Contracts, Procurement for experimental purposes under 10 U.S.C. 4023 or Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) under 10 USC 4021. Over the course of this time period, AFLCMC/XA will publish Calls via amendments to this Commercial Solutions Opening. These Calls will contain specific Areas of Interest (AoIs) related to JADC2 s Technology Focus Areas. Those specific AoIs are what prospective Contractors shall focus their solutions towards. This is a competitive solicitation that seeks to fund innovative technologies that propose new solutions to expand Air Force capabilities as it relates to JADC2 Technology Focus Areas. AFLCMC/XA is interested in receiving responses from all interested offerors to include, but not limited to, the following: traditional defense contractors, nontraditional defense contractors, large businesses, small businesses and research institutions. The Commercial Solutions Opening is a streamlined acquisition process that seeks to reduce acquisition timelines and acquire new, innovative solutions that companies can bring forth to meet the stated AoIs detailed in each Call. All details of the process shall be governed by this Commercial Solutions Opening unless otherwise noted or expanded upon in each Call. AFLCMC/XA is not obligated to make any awards as a result of this Commercial Solutions Opening and all awards are subject to the availability of funds and successful negotiations. The Government is not responsible for any monies expended by the proposer prior to the issuance of any contract award. AFLCMC/XA reserves the right to modify the solicitation requirements of this Commercial Solutions Opening and each subsequent Call. The Commercial Solutions Opening authority reference to Class Deviation 2022-O0007. 2.0 Commercial Solutions Opening with Calls This Commercial Solutions Opening is a hybrid solicitation against which both Closed Calls and/or Open Period Calls can be published via amendments to the Commercial Solutions Opening. All Calls issued under this Commercial Solutions Opening will include specific instructions including dates, AoIs, evaluation criteria and proposal instructions to potential offerors. While each offeror shall adhere to this Commercial Solutions Opening, the Calls can contain other information the Contractor shall adhere to. Each Call will be announced on the Government Point of Entry (beta.SAM.gov), which may result in the award of a FAR Part 12, Procurement for experimental purposes under 10 U.S.C. 4023 contract or an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) under 10 USC 4021. 2.1 Closed Calls (One-Step or Two-Step) Over the period of this Commercial Solutions Opening, Calls may be issued to request white papers and/or proposals for specific AoIs. It will be determined on a Call-by-Call basis whether or not the announcement is for a one-step (Proposals only) or a two-step process (White Papers first, then Proposals by invite-only). The submission for white papers and proposals shall be submitted at a specific date and time as set forth in each particular Call. White papers and/or proposals will not be reviewed if submitted after the stated date and time. No exceptions will be made for late proposal submission, including technology issues encountered during submission. One-Step Calls Step 1: Proposal due date and time will be provided in Calls issued against this Commercial Solutions Opening. Two-Step Calls Step 1: White Paper due date and time will be provided in Calls issued against this Commercial Solutions Opening Step 2: Proposal due date and time will be provided in Requests for Proposals (RFPs) sent to offerors that submit White Papers who are evaluated well in accordance with the criteria stated in each Call. 2.2 Open Period Calls (Two-Step) This Commercial Solutions Opening may also have Open Period Calls. Open Period Calls will only be issued under a two-step process. After an Open Call is published, white papers may be submitted at any time during an Open Period for the AoIs detailed in the Call. It is important to note that only white papers submitted in response to the specific AoIs detailed in the Call will be considered. Step 1: White paper submission period will be provided in Calls issued under this Commercial Solutions Opening. Step 2: Proposal due date and time will be provided in Requests for Proposals (RFPs) sent to offerors that submit White Papers who are evaluated well in accordance with the criteria stated in each Call. 3.0 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS AREAS (TFAs) Each Technology Focus Area identifies an area where prospective Contractors can bring substantial value to meet the JADC2 mission. This Commercial Solutions Opening is not limited to the following TFAs. Additional TFAs may be included via amendments to this Commercial Solutions Opening. Digital Architecture, Standards and Concepts This category consists of various activities to analyze, mature, and document the foundational aspects of the development of the overall enterprise architecture. This includes digital modeling, simulation and analysis, trade studies, government owned standard development and maintenance, and potential concept development and refinement. Development of digital engineering architecture to include appropriate toolsets, licenses, data, etc., at multiple levels of security and including services such as data management, configuration control, and security/access management. Other activities may include architecting the toolchains to support the linkage of digital engineering artifacts to modeling and simulation tools and operational analysis. Sensor Integration The development, maturation, integration, demonstration, and proliferation of sensor hardware and software. A key interest of JADC2 is the compatibility and interoperability capabilities through the use of open interfaces to enable improved control of systems and the processing of their data. Data Data incorporates the cloud based data repositories across domains that are discoverable, enabling publish subscribe approaches servicing various consumers across the DoD. These repositories contain data that consists of structured and unstructured data and where possible, this data will be meta tagged for further analytics and as well as fusion purposes. One of the key element of this approach is this ability to analyze the data to develop machine learning and further enhance the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to provide previously unrealized military utility in decision aides. Secure Processing Secure Processing will leverage the Enterprise Information Technology as a Service (EITaaS) work at the unclassified and secret level to expand this capability to all levels of security. A key feature of secure processing will be to develop a multi-level security (MLS) technology set that enables moving up and down in security level where feasible…