NATO International Competitive Bidding (ICB): NCI Agency Ballistic Missile Defense - System Engineering and Integration (SE&I)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) intends to issue an Invitation For Bids (IFB) for the provision of System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Support for the Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Program.The support to be provided by prospective bidders encompasses the following: the definition of the BMD Architecture, the derivation of the NATO system requirements, the provision of strategic and governance support to the NCI Agency BMD-related implementation projects, the integration of the BMD capabilities, the verification that NATO BMD capabilities are interoperable within the NATO Enterprise and with national systems, and the operation and maintenance of the BMD Integration Test Bed (ITB).Potential U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, laboratory, etc.) within the United States, 2) handle information classified up to the level of NATO RESTRICTED 3) be pre-approved for participation in NATO

Interntional Competitive Bidding (ICB), and 3) be nominated to the bidders list by the U.S. Government.   In addition, execution of the proposed contract may require personnel of the successful bidder to hold individual security clearances at the level of SECRET and in specific cases COSMIC TOP SECRET.The reference for the IFB is IFB-CO-15575-BMD, and all correspondence concerning the IFB should reference this number.Prospective bidders nominated by their governments will be invited to attend a BMD SE&I Bidder’s Conference. The purpose of this event is to provide the latest available technical information, update the status of the IFB release, and give industry a forum to ask preliminary questions. While this remains subject to confirmation, NCI Agency intends to hold this event in May 2020 dependent on developments concerning the current health crisis.SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTSNATO is planning to procure System Engineering and Integration and Testing (SE&I) Support to the continued development and fielding of NATO Ballistic Missile Defence capabilities from January 2022 (with a prior transition period) to December 2029.The BMD Program defines the BMD Architecture, derives the NATO system requirements, provides strategic and governance support of BMD related NCI Agency implementation projects, integrates BMD capabilities and verifies that NATO BMD capabilities are interoperable within the NATO Enterprise and with national systems. The BMD Programme uses the BMD Integration Test Bed (ITB) facility to plan and execute tests, analyse results to support technical verification and integration of NATO BMD capabilities and support the validation of the BMD operational capability by the Bi-Strategic Commands (Bi-SCs).The successful Bidder will support the BMD Programme in these areas and in particular: to provide expertise to augment the Agency’s staff team in support of the System of System (SoS) Requirements Management, Architecture maintenance, Architecture Requirement Specification (ARS) and interface maintenance and possibly some specialty engineering domains;to provide support for monitoring and reporting of the Implementation Project verification and validation events, including review of the test plan, delivery of inputs during test preparation, witnessing the tests and analysis of test results for Systems contributing to the BMD architecture;to provide technical support to the BMD Programme Integration, Test and Transition activities, including support to ITB related activities, i.e, maintenance, business continuity (e.g., installation of HW, network and SW updates), ITB service delivery (e.g., test event execution), ITB security accreditation, training and operations;to provide planning, execution, analysis and reporting for BMD events (e.g., bi-lateral tests, Ensemble Tests, System Integration Tests, operational tests & exercises, and live fire events), including integration of new NATO and national BMC3I, collaboration, communications, sensor, simulation and weapon systems, and support to BMC3I transition to operations. In addition, support of documentation of test results into the Verification Cross Reference Matrix (VCRM), and entry of test observations in the BMD Programme Observation and Issue Data Base (OIDB)to provide an issue manager responsible for verification event issue management and reporting on issue resolution status. Verification & Validation issues include e.g. Problem Trouble Report (PTR), new requirements leading to Engineering Change Proposals (ECP). The issue management shall be carried out in accordance with the BMD Observation and Issue Management process;to test and analyse the (lack-of) regression on the operational deployed NATO BMD BMC3Ito verify that newly developed versions of BMD systems do not cause performanceregression of the operational baseline.This IFB excludes the upgrade of the BMD ITB from Build 5 to Build 6, which is the subject of a separate IFB (IFB-CO-14974-BMD).BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BIDNATO ICB requires that the U.S. Government nominate U.S. prime contractors to the bidders list. Before the U.S. Government can nominate a U.S. prime contractor to the bidders list, however, the U.S. firm must be approved for participation in NATO ICB. Firms are approved for U.S. NATO ICB on a facility-by-facility basis.The U.S. NATO ICB application is a one-time application. The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA.U.S. firms can download a copy of the U.S. NATO ICB application fro the following website:http://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/other-areas/strategic-industries-and-economic-security-sies/nato-related-business-opportunities  The application and supporting documentation may be submitted as e-mail attachments. If, when submitting the application, your firm is interested in a specific NATO ICB project, please include the following in the text of your email:- the title and/or solicitation number of the project- the name/phone/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documentsAfter approval of your one-time NATO ICB application, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will then know to follow up by issuing a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) for that project. NATO member governments use a DOE to nominate an approved firm to the bidders list for a particular NATO ICB project.IMPORTANT DATES:Request from DOC that a DOE be issued (and, for firms new to NATO ICB, submit the completed one-time NATO ICB application): 17 April 2020NCI Agency issues IFB (planned): 30 April 2020Bid Closing: July 2020Contract Award (target): second quarter of 2021A single contract will be awarded spanning an eight year period with an initial period of 4 years (January 2022 – December 2025), and four additional years (January 2026 – December 2029) as options. No partial bidding will be allowed.