The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Directorate of Procurement has extended the existing contract USZA22-98-D-0001 with the Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office for CY05, CY06, and CY07. This announcement identifies USSOCOM’s intent to negotiate CY05 Time & Material (T&M) labor rates on a sole source basis with Bell-Boeing to exercise the 8th Option period of performance for the existing contract USZA22-98-D-0001 from 1 January 2005 until 31 December 2005 or if more convenient, issue a new contract. The CV-22 is a Special Operations Forces (SOF) variant of the V-22 aircraft being developed by the Department of the Navy for the US Marine Corps. Bell Helicopter and Boeing Space and Missile Defense Systems, Helicopter Division were competitively selected to jointly develop and produce the V-22 and its variants. The Department of the Navy is funding the R&D costs for the CV-22 up to an agreed to ceiling. USSOCOM is funding the remaining capabilities needed to meet the Joint Operational Requirements Document (JORD) for SOF requirements. The CV-22 program often involves making a choice between competing functional systems being developed for other aircraft platforms. The selected system must then be integrated into the CV-22 design, tested, incorporated in production planning/retrofit, and supported by the CV-22 logistical concept. The reason justifying the lack of competition is that Bell-Boeing is the only source capable of evaluating candidate solutions against the evolving CV-22 development baseline as it progresses from Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review (CDR) and production decision in FY 05. In order to ensure that needed CV-22 performance capabilities are available to meet SOF operator requirements, detailed trade studies and analysis must be accomplished well in advance of the production program. Therefore, it is imperative that USSOCOM have the capability of contracting with Bell-Boeing, the sole developer of the CV-22 system, to conduct trade studies and analysis of baseline/advanced CV-22 systems/sub-systems. The results of these efforts will support the process for maintaining and modernizing the CV-22 by scoping the efforts required to rapidly and efficiently implement critical improvements, conduct trade-offs, evaluate emerging technologies and continue to develop and maintain the long term modernization roadmap for the CV-22. This contract will also continue tactical simulation efforts begun in FY97 and enhance its operational realism and functionality. The tactical simulation support allows AFSOC aircrews to develop tactics to employ the CV-22 aircraft on SOF missions. The hybrid characteristics of the CV-22 (hover like a helicopter/fly like a fixed wing airplane) provide the user with new capabilities and approaches to execute mission scenarios. The SOF mission differs greatly from the USMC generic ship-to-shore mission. The long range, clandestine, infiltration/exfiltration mission accomplished in adverse weather under a single period of darkness requires specific tactics to ensure aircraft survivability and mission success. These tactics need to be developed and validated so crews can be trained and mission capable when CV-22 operational aircraft are delivered. The contractor has already developed a simulator and will continue to maintain a CV-22 cockpit to a sufficient level to evaluate tactical advantages. The contractor shall maintain the tools necessary for special operations forces (SOF) crews to conduct mission simulations and evaluate systems performance. The simulator will be upgraded by the contractor to incorporate a new visual system to improve its fidelity. The simulator will include an operationally realistic environment that will allow aircrews to adequately assess the functionality of the CV-22 design. The contractor shall support the development and documentation of operational/tactical requirements through the prototyping of alternative aircrew-aircraft interfaces and the evaluation of those alternative interfaces through pilot-in-the-loop simulation. A preplanned product improvement (P3I) program which will integrate USSOCOM SOF unique capabilities in the CV-22 (a SOF variant of the V-22 aircraft being developed by the Department of the Navy for the US Marine Corps). No solicitation will be issued to negotiate the sole source CY 05 T&M labor rates. The basic requirement was synopsized in the Commerce Business Daily on November 25, 1997, and updated on December 23, 1997. The P3I Program was synopsized on February 1, 1999 and FY/CY03 was synopsized in the FedBizOps on March 28, 2003. Any questions regarding the above requirement should be submitted in writing via fax or email to Ms. Valerie Romanchek,
[email protected] or fax to (813)828-7504. See numbered note 22.