Capabilities for Cyber Resiliency

AMENDMENT 6 for BAA FA8750-18-S-7002

The purpose of this modification is to increase the ceiling value and republish the original announcement, incorporating any previous amendments, pursuant to FAR 35.016(c) and to modify the following:

Part I:

1. Overview Information, updates the FBO reference to Beta SAM website;
2. Updates the ceiling from $500M to $800M;
3. Update the estimated award length from 36 to 60 months and value from $200K - $3M to $500K - $99M;
4. Updates the Type of Instruments that may be awarded language;

Part II:

1. Section VI.1, updates the Beta SAM link;
2. Section IV.4.e, updated the link to reference the Beta SAM website;
3. Section IV.3.a, updates to show the DCSA website;
4. Section III.2.b.2, updates to show the DCSA website;
5. Section II, Award Information, increases the ceiling and updates the fiscal year breakout;
6. Updates the Type of Instruments that may be awarded language;
7. Update the estimated award length from 36 to 60 months and value from $200K - $3M to $500K - $99M;
8. Updates the ceiling from $500M to $800M;
9. Overview Information, updates the FBO reference to Beta SAM website;

No other changes have been made.

Amendment 5 to FA8750-18-S-7002

The purpose of this modification is to:

1. Update the TPOC reference throughout;
2. Remove the Spectrescan focus area from Part II, Section I, Technology Requirements Description;
3. Update the white paper due dates in Part I and Part II, Section IV.1;
4. Update the date of the RI-Specific Proposal Preparation Instructions in Section VI.1;
5. Section VI.4, add paragraphs d and e;
6. Section VI.7, add paragraph d;
7. Section VII, update the OMBUDSMAN.

1. The TPOC is updated as follows:

Walter Karas
AFRL/RIGA
525 Brooks Rd
Rome, NY 13441-4505
Telephone: (315) 330-2625
Email: afrl.riga.baa@us.af.mil

2. Section I: Technology Requirements Description is updated to remove the Spectrescan focus area as follows:

I. TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS DESCRIPTION:

The Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL's) strategic vision for cyber superiority is to ensure the success of cyberspace-dependent missions in air, space, and cyberspace. The purpose of this BAA is to develop the next-generation technologies necessary to achieve this vision, so that they can be integrated and transitioned into warfighting capabilities.

Providing mission assurance in an Air Force context means supporting the notions of Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power across the five enduring AF core missions: air and space superiority; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; rapid global mobility; global strike; and command and control. The scope and direction of this BAA are derived from these as follows:

Global Vigilance requires continuous situational awareness and understanding across the warfighting domains. However, maintaining this awareness, which is equivalent to a pilot's need to keep their understanding of the situation "ahead of the plane," is impossible in an environment based on anything other than an assured and trusted infrastructure. In such an environment, most threats and attacks are avoided because of the very nature and construction of the infrastructure, not because of human operators or reactive tactics. Thus, a trusted infrastructure that is secure against attacks as well as resilient (i.e., able to recover from adverse events) is a prerequisite for the more complex, higher-level operations that achieve Global Vigilance.

An assured and trusted cyber infrastructure begins with proven-correct designs that are technologically immune to threats and have an autonomous ability to modify the cyber domain to avoid unforeseen attacks and emerging threats. With this kind of infrastructure as the foundation, additional warfighting capabilities can be instantiated. For example, the infrastructure's intrinsic ability to avoid and be resilient to attacks can be supplemented with tried-and-true warfighting tactics such as deception, maneuver, and even deterrence.

In addition to a secure, resilient, and trusted foundation with an ability to autonomously stay ahead of the threat, the need for situational understanding, and in turn Global Vigilance, demands a complete understanding of how missions depend on the cyber infrastructure. Since mission execution is dynamic in both time and space, the ability to establish and maintain a dependency map of mission functions and threads to infrastructure must also be dynamic and resolve to continually maintain the validity of the dependency analysis.

Global Reach implies the ability to continually access and exercise command and control over warfighting forces. In the cyber domain, this applies to cyber assets supporting ongoing, as well as transient, on-demand missions deployed globally. As deployed and in-garrison cyber assets are exposed to threats, there should be contingency capabilities in the event that the infrastructure described earlier meets a threat with the potential to degrade dependent missions. These contingencies require the ability for critical slices of the infrastructure, i.e., those mapped as supporting mission essential functions (MEFs), to possess an inherent resiliency allowing them to survive the attack by re-provisioning resources to maintain the viability of designated MEFs.

When attacks degrade or destroy resources required for MEFs, the infrastructure shall have the ability to automatically maintain mission continuity by restoring, repairing, or re-provisioning critical resources.

Global Power is the ability to deliver precision effects any time, any place. In the context of cyber defense, this means using the assured and trusted infrastructure to automatically compute, provision, and deliver effects-based defenses designed to preserve missions, elicit specific desired adversary action, or provide defensive counter-cyber actions.

Technologies of interest to the strategic vision of this BAA include, but are not limited to: Cloud architectures, secure processors, virtualization, visualization, big data analysis, data mining, data fusion, novel protocols, evaluation & measurement techniques, cyber modeling & simulation, trusted hardware and software, mobile and embedded device security, standards for information exchange, risk management approaches, mathematically rigorous tools and techniques, formal methods, design frameworks, autonomy, deception, and means for recovery.

Platforms of interest to the Air Force include, but are not limited to: Military platforms and Programs of Record (POR) with cyber components or dependence, shared/commercial and private/Gov't clouds, embedded devices and firmware (BIOS, IoT), mobile and BYOD platforms, office automation systems, tactical systems, wired and wireless networks at the enterprise and tactical levels.

In addition, AFRL/RI requires research and development of assured and resilient full spectrum cyber capabilities to include cyberspace infrastructure and effects to be used in pursuit of cyber engagement and freedom of operations in cyberspace. This includes defensive technologies to strengthen the security of US cyber assets and defend against adversarial cyber advancement and cyber exploitation technologies to provide the US with intelligence regarding the cyber landscape and adversary activities in the cyber domain.

3. The white paper due dates in Part I and Part II, Section IV.1 are updated as follows:

It is recommended that white papers be received by 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the following dates to maximize the possibility of award:

FY18 - 26 Jan 2018

FY19 - 15 Feb 2019-Submission date for the new focus area ONLY.

FY20 - 30 Sep 2019
FY21 - 30 Sep 2020
FY22 - 30 Sep 2021

White papers will be accepted until 6:00 PM EST on 30 Sept 2022, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. This BAA will close on 30 Sept 2022.

All offerors submitting white papers will receive notification of their evaluation results within 45 days of submission. Offerors should email the TPOC and the Contracting Officer listed in Section VII, for status of their white paper(s) after 45 days, if no such correspondence has been received.

4. The date of the RI-Specific Proposal Preparation Instructions in Section VI.1 is updated as follows;

1. PROPOSAL FORMATING: When developing proposals, reference the AFRL "Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): Guide for Industry," Mar 2015, and RI-Specific Proposal Preparation Instructions, Jul 2019, which may be accessed at: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1cffad228f48b58057072a6c9113799d&tab=core&_
cview=1. Always reference the newest versions of these documents.

5. Section VI.4, add paragraphs d and e;

d. ACTIONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, CONTROLLED INFORMATION, KEY PERSONNEL AND CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES. Offerors who are requested to submit a proposal under this solicitation of grants, cooperative agreements, Technology Investment Agreements, and other non-procurement transactions only shall submit specific information for all key personnel, whether or not the individuals' efforts under the project are to be funded by the DoD. Specific requirements will be detailed in the Request for Proposal (RFP) letter. The information shall be included in the Research and Related/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form (https://www.grants.gov/forms/r-r-family.html). This collection only applies to persons identified as key personnel. This information shall not be included in the overall proposal page limits. Failure to submit this information may cause the proposal to be returned without further review, and the DoD reserves the right to request further details before making a final determination on funding an effort. This information will be used to support protection of intellectual property, controlled information, key personnel, and information about critical technologies relevant to national security. Additionally, this information will be used to limit undue influence, including foreign talent programs, by countries that desire to exploit United States' technology within the DoD research, science and technology, and innovation enterprise.

e. BURDEN REDUCTION. With the exception of paragraph d. above, in order to reduce grant recipient reporting burden, effective 1 JAN 2019, use of the SF-424B is optional. Also, effective 1 JAN 2020, the SAM will become the central repository for common government-wide certifications and representations required of Federal grants recipients. As registration in SAM is required for eligibility for a Federal award and registration must be updated annually, Federal agencies will use SAM information to comply with award requirements and avoid increased burden and costs of separate requests for such information, unless the recipient fails to meet a Federal award requirement, or there is a need to make updates to their SAM registration for other purposes. (OMB Memorandum M 18-24).

6. Section VI.7, add paragraph d:

d. DFARS 252.215-7013, Supplies and Services Provided by Nontraditional Defense Contractors

7. Section VII, update the OMBUDSMAN:

In accordance with AFFARS 5301.91, an Ombudsman has been appointed to hear and facilitate the resolution of concerns from offerors, potential offerors, and others for this acquisition announcement. Before consulting with an ombudsman, interested parties must first address their concerns, issues, disagreements, and/or recommendations to the contracting officer for resolution. AFFARS Clause 5352.201-9101 Ombudsman (Jun 2016) will be incorporated into all contracts awarded under this BAA.

The AFRL Ombudsman and AFRL Alternate Ombudsman are as follows:

Mr. Steven Ewers
AFRL/PK
1864 4th Street
Building 15, Room 225
Wright-Patterson AFB OH 45433-7130
(937) 255-5235
Steven.Ewers@us.af.mil

No other changes are made.

AMENDMENT 6 to BAA FA8750-18-S-7002:

The purpose of this Amendment is to cancel BAA FA8750-18-S-7002.

This BAA is now closed and no further white papers will be accepted.