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Questions and Responses
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| 1 |
Question:
Is there currently an incumbent contractor responsible
for maintenance, fixes and upgrades to this system?
Answer: No, There is not an incumbent for this
requirement.
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| 2 |
Question: When is the RFP scheduled to be issued?
Answer: The Request for Proposal(RFP) is scheduled
to be issue in early November.
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| 3 |
Question:
Will COMMITS be the procurement vehicle?
Answer: The Government will not use COMMITS as
the procurement vehicle.
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| 4 |
Question:
Is there an incumbent?
Answer: Please see Question #1
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| 5 |
Question:
If so, who is it and are they doing a good job?
Answer: Please see Question #1
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| 6 |
Question:
How is NESDIS getting upgrades done now?
Answer: "Each project or new requirements are handled
by separate contract vehicle.
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| 7 |
Question:
Can a foreign company bid these upgrades as a prime contractor?
Answer: Yes, the foreign company must adhere to
all regulations of the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation.
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| 8 |
Question:
There are statements in the reference documents that
indicate IJPS CSU is responsible for performing PACS ground
system changes (i.e., new commands, loads, and telemetry
processing) to support the new payloads flying on N and
N' while another statement (NO-IJ/OSD-00-005-R0U0 Page
1-2 Paragraph 1.3) mentions that nominal launch readiness
activities will accommodate these changes. What criteria
will be used to determine which ground system changes
will be made by the IJPS CSU effort versus other PACS
support efforts to support POES N and N' ?
Answer: The requirements for the IJPS CSU effort
are contained in the POES Ground Segment Command and Data
Acquisition and Satellite Operations Control Center Requirements
for the IJPS (NOAA-POES/OSD-20011-0010R0UD0).
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| 9 |
Question:
A program/key milestone schedule (NOAA-POES/OSD 2001-0010R0UD0)
was not available for review as listed in the applicable
documents section of the SOW. Is this document available?
Answer: The document entitled "Key Milestone Schedule"
will be made available on the wed site.
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| 10 |
Question:
The reference document, POES Ground Segment Upgrade Description
for IJPS (NO-IJ/OSD-00-0005-R0UD0), contains detailed
requirements. This document is listed as an applicable
document in, and was included in, the requirements precedence
list contained in IJPS system requirements for communications
services (NOAA-POES/OSD-2001-0006-R0UD0). Please clarify
if these requirement are invoked on the IJPS CSU program
or if they should be used for reference only?
Answer: The requirements within document NO-IJ/OSD-00-0005-R0UD0
should be ignored. Only the description portion of the
document is to be used as reference for what needs to
be upgraded within the POES Ground System.
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| 11 |
Question:
The SOW calls for a deliverable QA plan, but it is not
identified as a CDRL. Will this be added to the program
CDRL list?
Answer: The QA Plan will be submitted as part of
the proposal.
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| 12 |
Question:
What is the procurement schedule and will there be a draft
RFP?
Answer: It is anticipated that the RFP will be
issued in early November, the draft Statement of Work
was posted on the web site at http://www.osd.noaa.gov/ijps_csu/
; there will not be a draft RFP.
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| 13 |
Question:
What contract type is anticipated?
Answer: The Government anticipates utilizing a
Cost-Plus Award-Fee Contract.
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| 14 |
Question:
Does the current ground configuration have the ability
to handle a data rate that is three times higher than
the current one?
Answer: NOAA is not responsible for processing
the health and safety data of the Metop satellite to include
neither trending nor the instruments on the Metop satellite.
The Metop health and safety data will not be ingested
and processed by the current PACS system. The Metop data
will be received at the CDA and forwarded via a separate
new communications link (which is not part of this contract)
that is sized to meet the EUMETSAT timeliness requirements
to CEMSCS.
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| 15 |
Question:
Assuming the CEMSCS interface is upgraded, what is the
expected throughput and protocol for the interface?
Answer: TCP/IP protocol at a rate of 3.7-4.0 Mbps.
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| 16 |
Question:
What is the IJPS contractor's role in the CEMSCS interface
upgrade?
Answer: The IJPS contractor will be required to
interface with the CEMSCS contractor in order to meet
the new IJPS interface requirements. The current SOCC-CEMSCS
interface only meets the current operational requirements.
Additional interfaces will be required to ingest the POES
blind orbits from EUMETSAT and the Metop passes taken
at Fairbanks and Wallops. The interface requirements to
CEMSCS are defined in the POES Ground Segment Command
and Data Acquisition and Satellite Operations Control
Center Requirements for the IJPS (NOAA-POES/OSD-20011-0010R0UD0).
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| 17 |
Question:
Please clarify whether CSU-CR-3.1.12-0040, discussing
data stream combinations, includes the current POES satellites,
as well as, the IJPS satellites and the METOP satellites.
Answer: The identified data stream combinations
only concern the IJPS POES satellites NOAA-N and NOAA-N'.
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| 18 |
Question:
What is the IJPS lifetime expectancy?
Answer: Metop will be operational until at least
2015.
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| 19 |
Question:
Will the IJPS contractor be responsible for the migration
of the IJPS and POES control center to the new facility?
If not, what is the IJPS contractor's role in the migration?
Answer: The SOW requires that the contractor anticipate
in the design enough redundancy to allow continuous operations
during the transition period from the old building to
the new building.
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| 20 |
Question:
The PDR requires an "Analysis of the Human Computer Interface
(HCI)". Is IJPS expected to provide a new interface or
remain consistent with that of the current PACS?
Answer: There may be new information to be displayed,
but it will be displayed in a fashion to be consistent
with that of the current PACS. The results of the HCI
analysis should provide the determination of whether a
new interface is required or the existing interface will
be sufficient.
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| 21 |
Question:
What are the System Acceptance criteria?
Answer: Successfully verifying all the requirements
in the SOW and in the POES Ground Segment Command and
Data Acquisition and Satellite Operations Control Center
Requirements for the IJPS (NOAA-POES/OSD-20011-0010R0UD0).
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| 22 |
Question:
Is there a bidder' conference scheduled?
Answer: No
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| 23 |
Question:
Do you have a ballpark date for the contract award?
Answer: It is anticipated that award will be made
by mid February.
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| 24 |
Question:
If someone doesn't respond to the RFI, are they eliminated
from the bidding?
Answer: No, all prospective offerors are invited
to respond to the RFP.
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| 25 |
Question:
The performance requirements, CSU-CR-3.1.12-0010, CSU-CR-3.1.12-0020,
CSU-CR-3.1.12-0050, CSU-CR-3.1.12-0060 should also be
applied to the SOMS. With additional scheduling activities,
the upgraded IJPS SOMS should be efficient and useable.
Answer: Correct assumption. It is part of the work
required (if the SOMS option is exercised) as stated in
Paragraph 3.2 of the SOW
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