By 
On October 1, the U.S. Air Force updated its solicitation for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center – Consortium Initiative (ACI) (Solicitation Number: FA8604-19-R-4050). The proposal deadline has been extended to 5:00 p.m. Eastern on October 5.
The purpose of this announcement is to solicit qualified offerors to submit proposals for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center – Consortium Initiative (ACI). ACI aims to enable the Air Force to acquire prototypes at the pace of commercial innovation, from the widest possible pool of prospective suppliers. To achieve this aim, the Government is exploring options regarding competitive award of a 10 U.S.C. §2371b other transaction (OT) agreement to a consortium manager to create a new or leverage an existing consortium of large and small organizations, representing traditional and non-traditional Defense contractors, as well as academic institutions. Other Department of Defense organizations may utilize this OT agreement. The consortium manager must have the ability to manage competition, award, and administration of individual prototype projects with substantial participation from nontraditional defense contractors. The mission of the consortium will include performing research, development, and test and evaluation within prototyping projects that address requirements presented by, or of interest to, the US Government.
It is the Government’s intention to enter into an OT agreement with only one consortium manager that can best meet the Government’s defined scope provided below. By definition, a consortium is an organized group of entities that agree to participate under a common rule set. The consortium should be open to new membership and display a broad array of expertise and experience connected to the domains identified herein. Prospective members must agree to the terms of the consortium. A consortium comprised of educational, nonprofit, and commercial organizations with broad and open membership is required to provide the Government a partner able to collaborate across barriers that include military/civilian, public/private, local/regional/national, and political/jurisdictional matters and concerns.
The Consortium Manager can be an individual, a for profit organization, or a not-for-profit corporation. The consortium manager will serve as an independent agent of the Government and will not be eligible to compete for project awards. The consortium manager will serve as the broker for the individual prototype project agreements. In other words, the Government sends the funds to the consortium manager; the consortium manager takes the appropriate fee for service per the terms set forth in the consortium OT agreement; and the consortium manager then delivers the remaining funds to the performers per the terms of the project transaction.
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The United States Air Force has identified the need for an AFLCMC OT Consortium to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the military aviation acquisition process. This consortium would perform critical research, development, test, and evaluation within prototyping projects supporting the AFLCMC mission areas identified within Section 2(b) below. The core objective of ACI is to create a mutually beneficial environment between the Government and industry/academia that fosters collaboration to close the gap between existing technology/capability and performance threshold requirements within the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC’s) mission sets.
The scope of AFLCMC prototyping projects might include any topic generally consistent with the research, development, test and evaluation within prototyping projects of the AFLCMC mission sets. These mission sets include, but are not limited to: weapon system and commercial derivative aircraft platforms; battle management; simulators; human systems; clothing/uniforms; business enterprise systems; command, control, communications, intelligence and networks; armament, support equipment and vehicles; automatic test systems; electronic warfare and avionics; information, surveillance, reconnaissance and special operations; aircraft integration, and aircraft subsystems. It is anticipated that ACI will promote competition for individual prototype projects through a two-step white paper/proposal process.
Full information is available here.
Source: FedBizOpps
