Pentagon Seeks Ideas to Combat Terrorism
November 20, 2001
David Dempsey - Northern Virginia
On October 25, 2000, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that the Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Combating
Terrorism Technology Support Office Technical Support Working Group are jointly
sponsoring a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeking assistance in fighting
terrorism. The Pentagon is looking for concepts that can be developed into
full-scale contracts. There are four general requirements in the BAA: 1)
Combating Terrorism; 2) Location and Defeat of Hard or Difficult Targets; 3)
Protracted Operations in Remote Locations; and 4) Countermeasures to Weapons of
Mass Destruction. Each requirement further defines specific areas of expertise
being sought, including, among others, computer and information operations;
image and voice recognition; physical security; advanced distributed learning;
early warning capability; and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
countermeasures.
Registration is required to respond to this BAA, and must be completed no
later than December 18, 2001. The BAA provides for a three-phase process in
which interested parties initially submit a one-page description of their
concept. Initial responses are due by December 23, 2001. In Phase II, the
DoD will ask for a more detailed concept description (up to 12 pages) for those
submissions in which there is significant interest. In Phase III, offerors of
the most promising concepts will be invited to submit full proposals that may
form the basis for a contract. The earliest contract awards for submittals under
this BAA are anticipated to occur late in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2002.
More detailed information regarding this BAA may be found at http://www.bids.tswg.gov.