Collaboration Day Announcement for 5G Enabled Military Enhancements and Call for Technical Concepts Notice

This is not a notice for Solicitation, Request for Proposal or Whitepaper but for planning purposes only.

The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey 07806- 5000, on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, entered into a section 815 Prototype Other Transaction (OT) Agreement with the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) for a period of five (5) years. Under this acquisition vehicle, the Government, in coordination with industry and academia, will develop and mature spectrum access technologies to enable improved cognizance of spectrum activity, protection of US activity in the electromagnetic spectrum domain, and the ability to relocate and/or share spectrum anytime, anywhere access is needed. Only one such Consortium, the National Spectrum Consortium, encompasses the expertise, knowledge, technologies, and innovation to meet the program objectives and goals of the coordinated research and development program designed to advance better use of the electromagnetic spectrum. The consortium is comprised of a well-balanced and uniquely qualified mixture of traditional contractors, non-traditional contractors, utility producers, investment firms, non-governmental organizations, and academia, representing the vast majority of the key players in the industry. The NSC is an open consortium with a low barrier for membership. Any interested company, academic institution, research organization or contractor can become a member and join the consortium to widen knowledge and technical expertise to continue to advance in technologies and meet Government needs.

Special Notice:
This Special Notice is to advise interested members of the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC), as well as interested parties within the U.S. technology base, that the Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking collaboration with Industry and academia on development and experimentation to accelerate DOD 5G applications and infrastructure. In an effort to further describe the DoD’s needs with regard to this technology gap, the DoD will be hosting a Collaboration Day with the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) on 30 April 2019 – 2 May 2019. This event will serve as an initial opportunity for interested members of industry and academia to meet and discuss details with Government sponsors. Currently, the Government and industry share a common challenge of satisfying vastly increasing demand for the use of electromagnetic spectrum across a variety of existing and new, wireless applications. The advent of 5G will increase that demand, creating congested conditions and security vulnerabilities. It also offers an unprecedented opportunity to innovate in creating enhanced military capability and commercial products and services. As such, the purpose of this event is to provide an opportunity to engage in detailed information exchange and dialogue between DoD and technology subject matter experts. Discussions will expand upon DoD’s operational challenges associated with increasingly congested and contested spectrum as well as opportunities to leverage emerging 5G technologies to enhance US forces ability to operate through a “ubiquitous connectivity” global environment.

The Collaboration Day is expected to foster collaboration with DoD to:
• Ensure an in-depth understanding of US military information and communication operational needs and security challenges;
• Provide potential offerors the opportunity to address in detail operational, technical, and programmatic issues, considerations, etc. associated with developing, integrating, experimenting with, testing, and deploying fieldable prototype solutions on DoD sites;
• Participate in one-on-one discussions between DoD and Consortium members and teams.

On April 30th and May 1st, senior Government officials will discuss 5G challenges and specific DoD needs. May 2nd provides an opportunity to participate in private one-on-one sessions between NSC members and Government subject matter experts. All sessions will be held at the Crystal City Marriott, 1700 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, Virginia 22202.

April 30th is open to members and non-members alike.

The morning session of May 1st is only open to NSC members and organizations with a cleared DD2345 (Military Critical Technical Data Agreement). The afternoon session is open to all participants.

May 2nd includes one-on-one discussions with the Government and will be open only to NSC Members with DD2345 clearances. Technical talks and panel discussions, open to all participants will be running concurrently with one-on-one discussions.

Anticipated Task Request – Call For Technical Concepts:
The DOD anticipates issuing a Task Request for a call for the submission of Technical Concepts to conduct market research for rapidly innovating with 5G technologies. The Technical Concepts will be used by DoD to accelerate and enhance military capability and infrastructure, reduce technical risk, and improve thoroughness of test and evaluation outcomes by leveraging 5G-enabled broad band, low latency, high bandwidth information and communications technologies.

As detailed in the Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), W15QKN-15-9-1004, the Government may periodically issue Task Requests (TRQ’s) with the goal to solicit nonproprietary Technical Concepts from the NSC members. The TRQ will contain the parameters by which the NSC members shall structure their technical concept(s) as well as the specific roles and responsibilities of the NSC members’ participation with the Government in the Technical Concept Assessments. These NSC technical concepts will be combined with Government Technical Concepts and a team of Government representatives and industry experts will conduct an assessment of the technical concepts.

The Task Request Call for Technical Concepts will be available to NSC Membership on the NSC Member’s Only website. All questions and requests for copies of the Technical Concept Call by non-members should be directed to the National Spectrum Consortium at spectrum.consortium@ati.org.