The Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) and Department of the Navy posted a sources sought solicitation last Monday to FedBizOpps seeking information from industry on their ability to provide recommendations for the Contender torpedo vehicle.
The Navy is seeking to use the latest innovations in advanced manufacturing to produce a “reliable, reasonably priced weapon that can be transitioned to industry for production with minimal or no re-design,” the solicitation says. The Contender vehicle project is a rapid prototype initiative sponsored by the SCO that aims to maintain current MK-48 Heavyweight Torpedo capabilities while also “substantially increasing range and providing modular payload ability.”
The Navy has demonstration objectives planned for 2021.
The Contender program is currently using Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory (PSU-ARL) as the vehicle’s design and integration agent. As this initiative demonstrates success, the Navy will determine when a transition to a Program of Record (POR) will take place.
The post says selected industry partners need to provide experienced personnel who have demonstrated highly specialized expertise in manufacturing and design of defense weapons or vehicles. The government’s plan is for industry partners to coordinate with the PSU-ARL and government team to provide input and reviews of the Contender vehicle system and subsystem designs.
Before industry partners are selected to transition the Contender eventually into production, the SCO is seeking information under this sources sought notice for design for manufacturing/design for affordability recommendations for the vehicle. The SCO requests responses from all sources, including small businesses, sub-types of small businesses, and other than small businesses.
The government highlighted the notice is not a solicitation or request for proposal, proposal abstracts, or quotations and is not a commitment to award a contract for any responses. The notice aims to “determine interest and capabilities of firms to fulfill the government’s need.”
However, if a solicitation is issued, the proposed contract type for the Contender Vehicle is expected to be firm-fixed-price contract with an anticipated performance period of one base year, one option year period, and another eight month option period. The government may award contracts to one or more vendors whose responses to the sources sought posting “n the Government’s estimation provides the greatest overall benefit.”
Companies submitting a response to the notice are to address four main tasks, including:
- Review the Contendor vehicle system and subsystem design and provide recommendations to improve manufacturability and affordability within the necessary manufacturing standards required for weapon production;
- Provide recommendations on manufacturing processes, production line layout, inspection tools, test equipment, and any other pertinent manufacturing areas;
- review Contender Technical Data Packages (TDPs) and provide a review matrix with TDP recommendations; and
- review the Contender baseline design and provide a cost analysis for delivery of a manufactured product.
Vendors are to submit their responses to this solicitation by June 29 via email to Maurice C. Brown at maurice.c.brown6@[email protected]. Work will be performed at PSU-ARL and the contractor’s site.