Description
QUESTION: The contractor will be responsible for collection of all USSOCOM open source material. ANSWER: No, the contractor will only be required to collect OSINT material to support report development and assessments where they must use aggregate news sources and not Internet reporting. Upon tasking, the Contractor will collect open source material that USSOCOM cannot access/obtain/procure, etc. This mainly entails international collection (An example may be obtaining a copy of a dissertation (Gray literature) written in Arabic and only available in in three national libraries worldwide. In this case the contractor, upon tasking, would obtain a copy of the document and provide it electronically to USSOCOM NLT 48-hours after tasking. QUESTION: The contractor will be required to perform Rapid Response research on a moments notice; I presume that is the mention of "48 hours notice" mentioned later in the solicitation. ANSWER: Yes. Upon tasking, the contractor will have 48-hours to provide USSOCOM the OSINT information associated with the requirement. In some cases, the contractor will be asked to answer the requirement within a smaller window of time. This is why the contractor MUST have an international overt collection capability. Comment -- If The Contractor Intends To Compete For This Contract By Only Using An Internet Infrastructure, The Majority Of Our Requirements Will Not Be Able To Be Answered. Remember That Osint Research Is Not Totally Geared Against The Internet. The Oseb Only Uses The Internet 30% Of The Time To Accomplish Osint Taskings. QUESTION: The contractor may be required to acquire any combination of Russian Maps. ANSWER: Yes. QUESTION: The contractor must research material in potentially 29 different languages. ANSWER: Yes. This applies to the weekly regional reports, and other special assessment requirements. The media sources MUST be from indigenous in-country reporting, not BBC ABC, Reuters, AFP, AP, etc. QUESTION: The contractor must be prepared to provide Open Source Intelligence Training. ANSWER: Yes. QUESTION: The contractor must be prepared to provide advisory services. ANSWER: Yes. QUESTION: The contractor must provide reports on Foreign SOF capabilities and activity. ANSWER:Yes. QUESTION: The contractor must maintain a TS clearance. ANSWER: Contractor MUST have a minimum TS clearance to conduct exchanges and coordinate with USSOCOM and the OSEB. QUESTION: The contractor must submit 4 reports a week, covering Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim; with an additional report each week on Foreign Special Operations activity. ANSWER: Yes. Each report must contain between 35-45 articles from aggregate sources, not the easy sources (BBC, ABC, Reuters, AFP, AP, etc.) taken from google on the internet. QUESTION: Included in the solicitation is the USSOCOM estimation of 1,508 hours per year for the contractor to commit to this effort. ANSWER: The 1,508 is correct for the base year with a standard work year for the options. QUESTION: It is our intent to provide the best possible service, however; USSOCOM estimated hours total less than 30 hours per week. The quality of your deliverables will be worthless if that is requirement of USSOCOM, we don’t believe the providing contractor will not be able to perform to your satisfaction with this level of effort. ANSWER:See statement above. QUESTION: We would like to answer your request for services. We are knowledgeable about the requirements of USSOCOM and fully capable to deliver more than what is requested. We understand the requirements of the end user as we were those users until recently. We cannot, however, provide the requested service reasonably with the expectations of 1,508 hours the first year. If you would like to discuss practical solutions, we would like to encourage a conversation. ANSWER:The OSEB will not compromise a break in the current level of contract support.