30 Jan 14. RfP issued for the much-awaited SisGAAz Maritime Surveillance Programme. The Brazilian Navy, through its Directorate for the Management of Strategic Programs, has issued a request for proposals (RfP) for its SisGAAz (Sistema de Gerenciamento da Amazônia Azul) maritime situational awareness system. Interested companies are being invited to deliver proposals by 16 July 2014. The implementation of SisGAAz is scheduled to occur in four phases over the next 10 years:
• Development of the core SisGAAz structure
• Integration of existing systems of the Brazilian Navy
• Integration of existing systems from the Air Force and Army
• Integrate existing systems in other federal agencies and implement monitoring in areas of surveillance
SisGAAz will provide various opportunities for defence contractors and SMEs. SisGAAz sensor network involves a combination of cutting edge technologies, consisting of radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), communications, electronic warfare and meteorology for the collection of environmental and weather data, amongst others. A local company will be selected by the government to be the prime contractor for the integration work in the first phase. Owing to the complexity and volume of the work, it is reported that several big defence contractors are interested in bidding for a leading role in the project. Among them are Airbus, Boeing, DCNS, Selex ES, Indra, Thales, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Saab, and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). A short-list of companies will be announced in November 2014 and in June 2015, the Navy will select a winner for the programme. (Source: MPI – Hawk Information)
25 Jan 14. Air Force looks for Strategic Transport and Refuelling Aircraft. The Polish Armaments Inspectorate (AI) has started a market evaluation for aircraft to carry out strategic airlift capabilities, medical evacuations and air refuelling. The AI plans to launch a tender for the procurement after it has explored potential options in the market. The AI seeks aircraft to fulfil:
• Strategic transport roles
• Air refuelling capability
• Long-range required for medevac missions
• Integrated Logistic Protection (in the case of acquiring aircraft) containing at least: service equipment, kit of spare parts and consumables, support operations, quality assurance and technical support within warranty service, training package for pilots and technical. It is unclear if Poland is looking for a single aircraft to meet all roles, in which case, it would probably be looking at Medium Multirole Tanker Transports like A310MRTT, A330MRTT or KC-46. If Poland decides to buy two separate platforms for airlift and MRTT then it can potentially look for secondhand options from Germany or Spain. In August 2013, MPI reported that Spain has decided to halve its planned fleet of Airbus A400M military transport planes by offering the rest for export. Participation in the market analysis will end on 14 February 2014. (Source: MPI – Hawk Information)
31 Jan 14. This solicitation is being posted to Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) page located at http://www.fbo.gov/. FBO is the single point of entry for posting of synopsis and solicitations to the internet. Please feel free to use the FBO site to access information posted by NSWC Crane. The Government is issuing this RFI/sources sought announcement as part of a market survey. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division is seeking information from industry pertaining to two categories of Enhanced Combat Optical Sights (ECOS). The two categories of ECOS are 1) variable magnified optic with a secondary powered back-up sight for near to mid-range engagements; and 2) a low profile, wide field of view, passive sight for close quarter battle (CQB) to near-range engagements, and accompanying accessories, for small arms weapons employed by Special Operations Forces (SOF), including but not limited to the M4A1, MK17, MK46, MK48, M249, M240 family and