Submarine Tethered Expendable Buoy (STEB)

Disclaimer: This pre-solicitation notice is for information only, and shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to solicit contractual offers or award contracts. The Government is not soliciting, nor will it accept, proposals as a result of this synopsis. The Government will not reimburse the cost of any submission in response to this announcement the entire cost of any submission will be at the sole expense of the source submitting the information. If a solicitation is issued in the future, it will be announced via the System for Award Management (SAM) website (https://sam.gov) and interested parties must comply with that announcement. The information contained herein is subject to modification and in no way binds the Government to award a contract.

The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) intends to issue a solicitation for the procurement of the development, integration, testing, production and installation for the submarine-launched Submarine Tethered Expendable Buoy (STEB) system.  The STEB system provides a submerged submarine with a surface buoy platform for communications, situational awareness and collision avoidance data. It will provide data to feed a real-time operator interface and display console within the AN/BLQ-10 system and would reduce the risk of counter detection by allowing the submarine to stay submerged while it provides situational awareness related to imaging, communications, and electronic warfare data. This solicitation will be a single source Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. 

The procurement is for “end-to-end” system engineering development including the bus (launch vehicle) / payload components of the buoy and the tethering mechanism, environmental qualification,  life cycle support, program management, engineering services, software development, logistics and supportability, configuration management, hardware and software integration (including material procurement and/or fabrication), production, testing, evaluation, and installation for modernization and new construction submarines.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is anticipated to be released in August 2024. Attached to this pre-solicitation notice is the DRAFT Solicitation (which is subject to change). The Government will accept specific questions or comments submitted in response to the DRAFT solicitation, and may consider them for the final solicitation. However, the Government may or may not be able to provide answers to questions at this time. The comments or questions shall be submitted to Mr. Patrick Dooley at patrick.s.dooley3.civ@us.navy.mil and Ms. Sydney Cline at sydney.m.cline.civ@us.navy.mil. The subject line of the email should read "(company Name) DRAFT RFP Response - STEB N00024-24-R-6231."

A sources sought notice was issued related to this synopsis on SAM.gov on October 04, 2023 for Submarine Tethered Expendable Buoy (STEB).

It is recommended that interested parties should get familiar with the solicitation application of Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE). If a solicitation is issued it will be done electronically via the System for Award Management (SAM) website (https://sam.gov) and interested parties must comply with that announcement.  SAM is the single point of entry for posting of the synopsis and solicitations.  Interested Offerors should monitor SAM for the release of the solicitation, and any applicable amendments.  Offerors must be registered in SAM in order to participate in this procurement at https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/.