Notice ID: W15P7T24R0008(2)
This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and considered a follow up to Fires C2 RFI #1, 1 NOV 2023 (W15P7T24R0008). Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC) requests that all interested parties from Industry, Government Science and Technology, and Academia respond with their feedback to the Contracting Approach and updated Statement of Objective (SOO).
Program Executive Office Command Control Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T) and Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) will establish a contract vehicle for the development of the modern digital fires products needed to improve decision making and accelerate kill chains against a near-peer threat. The contract vehicle will support modernization of both the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (JADOCS) as a Fires Safety Critical Baseline with shared common services and backend architecture.
The Program Manager Mission Command Office (PM MC) continues to modernize its Fire Support Command and Control Products; the Advance Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and the Joint Targeting Integrated Command and Coordination Suite (JTIC2S). The overarching objective is to support modernization of both the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (JADOCS) programs of record, as a Fires Safety Critical Baseline (FSCB) with shared common services and backend architecture.
The government has determined the AFATDS AXS and JTIC2S collective capabilities/development effort is considered a Fires Safety Critical Baseline. As such, special attention is needed for development of safety critical components and modules that extend beyond what would be required for non-safety critical baselines. Adherence to specific practices and guidelines as outlined in the Joint Software Systems Safety Engineering Handbook (JSSSEH), MIL-STD-882E, DODD 5000.01, DODI 5000.02, Defense Acquisition Guidebook and other relevant policies is expected and the past experience of interested partners with working on safety critical baselines will be investigated as part of any competitive follow on action related to this work.
This system(s) will be a datacentric, application based, microservice focused, hardware agnostic, Digital Fires and targeting platform(s) that will displace the current AFATDS 6.8 baseline (divided in three sub-products at echelon ((Fire Support, Technical Fire Direction, and Tactical Fire Direction)) and the JADOCS System.
This FSCB capability will leverage a common back-end architecture, Open Application Programming Interface (API) and a common/intuitive role-based user interface shared by all Fire Support C2 and Mission Command Systems using Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) software. The government is in the process of selecting a common TAK baseline (i.e., TAK-X, WebTak, etc. ) that AFATDS AXS and JTIC2S will leverage and maintain as a standard.
Contracting Approach Objective
- Establish a Digital Fires ID/IQ as a FAR-based multi-award contract that facilitates a best of breed vendor library.
- Establish a pool of contractors/developers traditional and non-traditional to the Fires community.
- Ability to issue Task Orders for different roles, ie. Program Integration, Software Developer.
- Ability to issue TOs to develop a fires digital infrastructure and serve as lead systems integrator.
- Ability to establish a “Best of Breed” team to modernize AFATDS and JTIC2S using an open architecture and Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
- Ability to issue task orders for the development of specific Fires sub-products/applications, i.e. Tactical Fire Direction App, Technical Fire Direction App, Fire Support, 4D visualization.
- Establish a vendor library where an experienced program integrator can consolidate each developer’s sub-product/applications into a coherent and functional software.
- Establish a transition point where a vendor team continues to expand the AFATDS AXS Fire Support Element – Minimum Viable Product and JTIC2S MVP Open APIs currently in development by DEVCOM and C5ISR.
Engineering Objectives
- Develop all products using Open APIs and TAK open architecture.
- Develop all products with a shared common services and backend architecture.
- Develop hardware agnostic, datacentric, Fires Solutions.
- Maximize COTS software.
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