Army seeks sources for Airborne Wide Area Persistent Surveillance Sensor (AWAPSS)

On June 17, the U.S. Army posted a sources sought notice for Airborne Wide Area Persistent Surveillance Sensor (AWAPSS) (Solicitation Number: W56KGY-16-R-AWAPSS). Responses are due no later than 4:00 PM EST (local time at Fort Belvoir, VA) on July 15, 2016.

The Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) is conducting market research on behalf of the US Army’s Office of the Program Manager Electro-Optic Infrared-Payload (PM EO/IR-Payloads). PM EO/IR-Payloads is conducting a market survey with the intent to:

a. Determine industry’s capabilities regarding basic qualifications in Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA) or Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) hardware and software development and upgrades.
b. Identify potential sources that have the skills, experience, knowledge, and capabilities required to perform the AWAPSS.
c. Gather information to assist PM EO/IR in seeking information on sources capable of addressing obsolescence (6-10 systems), engineering, development, fabrication, demonstration, testing, project management, production, sustainment (sensor spares, sensor repairs, and sensor Field Service Representative (FSR) support (Continental United States (CONUS) and Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS))), for the AWAPSS systems.

1. DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION: The AWAPSS is a day/night persistent surveillance system and is capable of covering a large area of interest at moderate ground sampled distance (GSD) resolution. Material obsolescence is forecasted to affect AWAPSS Operational Availability (Ao) in fiscal year (FY19). Due to the age of the system, many integral components have been out of production for 10 years and must be addressed. The Army has developed and employed a first generation AWAPSS system (NSN 6350-01-645-7643) that has both day (visible) and night (thermal infrared) imagers. These systems are currently flown on the Army’s Aerial Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms.
PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS: AWAPSS is to provide persistent airborne surveillance of an area centered at a geo-designated point while the host aircraft orbits that point. The data includes metadata which can be used for target geo-location and other mission analysis tasks. AWAPSS provides gap-free ground coverage with every point in the coverage circle imaged once per frame. The AWAPSS includes provisions for Non-Uniformity Correction (NUC) of both the Medium Wave Infrared (MWIR) and the Visual/Near Infrared (VNIR) imagery.

Full information is available here.

Source: FedBizOpps