This Special Notice is to advise interested members of the Training and Readiness Accelerator II (TReX II), aswell as other interested members within the U.S. technology base, that a Request for Information (RFI) has beenissued by Advanced Technology International (ATI) for the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).

1.0 Purpose

This Request for Information (RFI) is not a solicitation for proposals, solutions, white papers, quotations, orobligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services but for planning purposes only. Thepurpose of this RFI is to obtain information, engage in market research, ascertain technical viability, and exploreindustry capabilities to inform the future requirements and acquisition strategies in several areas related to theAirflow and Dust Capability for Large Blast/Thermal Simulator. Your response to this RFI will be treated asinformation only. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the Respondent’s expense. Noentitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government or ATI will arise because ofindustry submission to this announcement or the Government’s use of any information submitted by theRespondents. The information provided by industry will support the Government in requirement prioritization,acquisition strategy, statement of work/statement of objectives, and performance specifications. Interested partiesare responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition-sensitive information contained in theirresponse. RESPONDENTS MUST NOT INCLUDE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IN THEIR RESPONSE TO THISRFI.

2.0 Background & Problem Statement

The Department of Defense’s nuclear weapons effects (NWE) testing capability was severely curtailed when theUnited States ceased underground nuclear testing in the early 1990s. This loss of capability, while marginallyacceptable for legacy systems to that date, left the DoD with reduced ability to test and certify follow-on systemperformance and survivability against all relevant NWE. These effects, for the purposes of this RFS, include theblast, thermal, and dust environments created by nuclear weapon detonations, testing against which is essentialto assure the survivability of cruise missile systems with air-breathing engines. While the capability exists fortesting systems without engines operating against blast and thermal environments, this does not allow for testingagainst cruise missile systems with their engines running.

The Large Blast/Thermal Simulator (LB/TS) test facility, located in the northern section of White Sands MissileRange, is a semicircular tunnel ten meters in radius that can generate simulated blast overpressure and thermalradiation environments produced by nuclear weapon detonations. Test assets secured within the LB/TS testchamber are subjected to these thermal and overpressure waveforms. It has been determined that a combinedAirflow and Dust capability coupled with nuclear thermal and air blast effects is needed to better simulate thenuclear threat environment likely to be incident upon cruise missile weapons systems.

3.0 Desired Objectives

Valid T&E of cruise missile systems requires that the engine is running with the missile static. This requires theapplication of the appropriate airflow to the engine inlet before, during, and after exposure to the blast and thermalenvironments. In addition, dust must be incident on the engine inlet during the blast environment. This combinedcapability is to be added to, and must be compatible with, the existing LB/TS infrastructure and must not interferewith the blast and thermal environments. A key requirement is that the interaction between the blast wave andairflow does not result in an unrealistic environment at the cruise missile engine inlet.

Requirements for the airflow environment are:

• Airflow delivery at nose of cruise missile and parallel to flight direction.

• Airflow must exceed diameter of cruise missile fuselage.

• Airflow velocity must be equivalent to cruise missile velocity when flying (0.5 Mach minimum with 0.6 Machdesired).

• Specific airflow velocity and uniformity conditions must be maintained along cruise missile fuselage region of interest without disruption during test sequence (e.g., as airflow is exposed to LB/TS-produced blast and thermaltest environments).

• Airflow quality along cruise missile fuselage region of interest is consistent with realistic cruise missile flightconditions of the battlefield airspace.

• Airflow system will have the ability to be constructed, dismantled, and stored multiple times.

• Airflow system must be able to withstand LBTS blast overpressure and thermal environments.

Requirements for the dust environment:

• Dust injected within airflow produced by the airflow system.

• Airflow (with injected dust) must be parallel to cruise missile flight direction.

• Airflow (with injected dust) geometric pattern must exceed equivalent diameter of cruise missile fuselage.

• Specific dust concentration and uniformity conditions must be maintained along cruise missile region of interestwithout disruption during test sequence.

• Must simulate realistic battlefield airspace during testing in support of cruise missile performance T&E.

• Dust constituents: Dust injection system will handle dust blends that may include, but are not limited to, OttawaQuartz, Red Art Clay, Feldspar, and Synthetic Glass.

• Particle diameters: 63-250 mm.

• Particle concentration: 50-500 mg/m3.

• Exposure duration: 1-10 minutes to start with LB/TS blast wave arrival.

• Dust injection rate: 2-50 kg/hr.

4.0 Response Requested

The Government requests submissions NLT 13 July 2023 by 5pm ET. Responses must be submitted via BIDS(https://ati.acqcenter.com/TREXII/BIDS.NSF/)

Industry questions are due NLT 7 July 2023 by 12pm ET. Industry is encouraged to submit questions as they havethem. The Government reserves the right not to answer certain questions and may indicate as such in theanswers submitted. Questions and answers (Q&A) will be posted to the TReX II Members Only site. Questionsmust be submitted via email to TReXII-ATI-Deliverables@ATI.org.

The Government recognizes that it is requesting detailed information. However, the Government’s resources toreview the responses received are finite. Therefore, please limit responses to the questions posed and theinformation requested in this RFI to no more than 10 total pages. Responses shall be prepared using Times NewRoman, 12-point font style on 8½ x 11-inch white paper. Tables and illustrations may use a reduced font style notless than 8 points. Margins shall be no less than one (1) inch on all sides. All material submitted must be single-spaced, and all pages, not to exceed 10 as provided above, shall be numbered sequentially. Any documentssubmitted to the Government shall be compatible with Microsoft (MS) Office 2013 format or higher and/or PDF.Any graphics files embedded within the MS documents shall be provided in *.jpg or *.png in order to minimizememory storage requirements for electronic files.

The Government does not intend to make an award based on this RFI or to otherwise pay for the informationsubmitted in response to this RFI. However, the Government intends to leverage the Other Transaction Authority(OTA) under 10 U.S.C. §4022 [Prototype Other Transactions] when appropriate to develop some of the prototypeprojects that will be funded based on the roadmap and recommended priorities.

This RFI is issued in accordance with 10 U.S.C. § 4021 or § 4022 and is not issued in contemplation of awardingan agreement pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 2304 or any Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) based policy. However,the information provided in this RFI is intended to relay the Government’s intent on using competitive proceduresto the maximum extent practicable.

Questions concerning this RFI must be sent to TReXII-ATI-Deliverables@ATI.org

NO LATER THAN 7 July 2023 at 12:00 PM ET

RFI responses must be submitted via BIDS: https://ati.acqcenter.com/TREXII/BIDS.NSF/

NO LATER THAN 13 July 2023 at 5:00 PM ET