Soldier Protection Equipment - Vital Torso Protection

Product Manager Soldier Protective Equipment (PdM SPE) is seeking information on industry capabilities and availability to support the Product Management Office (PMO) market research efforts for Vital Torso Protection (VTP) ballistic armor. The PMO requests industry provides white papers with supporting test data addressing their capability and interest in producing a Lightweight Small Arms Protective Insert (LSAPI). 

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. The request is solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. Solicitations are not currently available. Requests for a solicitation will not receive any response from the Government. This notice does not constitute a commitment by the Government to offer a contract for any supply or service whatsoever. White paper submissions are voluntary. The Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate respondents for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government.

This RFI aims to collect information from vendors on their ability to design and potentially deliver a VTP hard armor plate variant supporting the Army’s VTP Full Rate Production (FRP) requirements. The Government requests white papers with supporting test data solely for internal Government purposes (if available) to further develop and/or refine Statement of Work (SOW) requirements. Appropriate measures will be taken to manage received information and store documentation in accordance with Government standards to prevent the dissemination of sensitive information. 

Back Face Deformation (BFD) measurements and test standards will adhere to current approved Government Department of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) test protocols. The technical ballistic requirements for this ballistic insert will be provided upon request from the PMO to the potential sources of supply who possess an active facility clearance. Interested parties may request copies of the technical ballistic requirements from the contracting office. This document has been designated as limited distribution material. Interested parties may request access to the secured document via the System for Award Management (SAM) system. Upon receipt of request via SAM, interested parties will be required to complete and submit a detailed Request for Access Form, which will be provided to the email the initial SAM request was made from. Interested parties are cautioned that access to the secured documents may take multiple days to process request. 

The Government is seeking information in reference to two potential material solutions, a mass efficient hard armor solution and a cost-effective hard armor solution. The interested parties must be able to manufacture ballistic inserts in a Shooter’s Cut design in the standard eight (8) Army sizes. The ballistic insert must be a ceramic-based solution, be less than or equal to four (4) pounds per square foot (PSF) and be less than or equal to one (1) inch in thickness. Should achieving an areal density of four (4) PSF or less prove unattainable, offerors are requested to provide detailed specifications outlining the closest achievable areal density, along with a justification for any deviation. The Government requests that vendors focus their white paper submissions on two (2) design solutions, 1) performance sensitive design that exceeds current thresholds with a design that is less or equal to 4 pounds PSF and meets current Army BFD standards and 2) the most cost-efficient solutions that can meet or exceed the thresholds.  This will help the Army gain a deeper understanding of industrial-based capabilities and potential innovations emerging in raw material solutions.

Respondents are encouraged to identify and describe any unique solutions that will result in effective and efficient operations and allow PdM SPE to refine their requirements, as necessary.  

The Offeror White Paper submission shall be limited to twenty (20) pages and shall include the following information: 
• Offeror's name, address, point of contact, phone number, and e-mail address. 
• Offeror’s capability to meet design requirements and design sustainability. 
• Offeror's capability to perform a contract of this magnitude and complexity (include in-house capability to execute comparable design work performed within the past five (5) years and a brief description of the project, customer name, timeliness of performance, customer satisfaction, and dollar value of the project & provide at least three (3) examples. 
• Offeror's detailed description of their proposed design solutions capability to meet ballistic performance requirements, to include ballistic performance data against PD threats, verification of areal density, and verification of thickness, this data can be internally generated data or provided by a third party NIJ certified laboratory.

• Offeror’s shall provide general cost data for both designs given a projected quantity of 30,000 plates.  
• Offerors shall develop a flow chart showing the supply chain, the work efforts at each location and production equipment to support plate manufacturing and control. 
• Offerors shall identify methods for subcontractor management: subcontractor selection and rating criteria and surveillance strategy for the proposed design solutions to meet all performance requirements. Offerors shall identify their minimum and maximum production sustainment quantities for the proposed ballistic insert. 
• Offeror’s business type and Business Size (HUB Zone, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, 8(a), Woman Owned, etc.). 

• Offeror’s may include any additional materials explored in the development of emerging plate innovations.

Interested vendors should provide White Papers, detailing proposed plate designs that meet the PD requirements and their level of interest in producing the VTP ballistic armor, no later than forty-five (45) days from the posting of this Notice. 
White Papers shall address specific size, weight, shape, performance, and durability requirements as stated in the product description. This information shall be provided via email to Ms. Marianne Velez, marianne.e.velez.civ@army.mil and Ms. Theresa Quick theresa.s.quick.civ@army.mil.  

Respondents to this notice shall designate a primary point of contact and one (1) alternate point of contact within the company. The point of contact information shall include the person’s: Name, Business Address, Email Addresses, and Telephone number. To comprehend the information contained within a response to this notice, there may be a need to seek further clarification from the respondents. This clarification shall be requested in writing through Ms. Velez and Ms. Quick.