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The purpose of this synopsis is to fulfill the requirements of FAR 5.2, Synopsis of Proposed Contract Actions, relating to the acquisition of supplies and services. This is not a solicitation.

Pursuant to FAR 5.207 Preparation and transmittal of synopses:

(a) Content. Each synopsis transmitted to the GPE must address the following data elements, as applicable:

(1) Action Code: P

(2) Date: 11/21/2022

(3) Year: 2022

(4) Contracting Office ZIP Code: 20229

(5) Product or Service Code: Y1BG

(6) Contracting Office Address:

1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Ste. 1555N

Mailstop 1102

Washington, DC 20229-1102

(7) Subject: Integrated Surveillance Towers (IST) Consolidated Tower & Surveillance Equipment (CTSE) solicitation

(8) Proposed Solicitation Number: 70B02C22R00000004

(9) Closing Response Date: Not Applicable

(10) Contact Point or Contracting Officer: Kimberly L. Cooper - CTSE@cbp.dhs.gov

(11) Contract Award and Solicitation Number: Not Applicable.

(12) Contract Award Dollar Amount: Not Applicable.

(13) Line Item Number: Not Applicable.

(14) Contract Award Date: Not Applicable.

(15) Contractor: Not Applicable.

(16) Description. General format for "Description." Prepare a clear and concise description of the supplies or services that is not unnecessarily restrictive of competition and will allow a prospective offeror to make an informed business judgment as to whether a copy of the solicitation should be requested including the following, as appropriate:

(1) National Stock Number (NSN) if assigned: Not Applicable.

(2) Specification and whether an offeror, its product, or service must meet a qualification requirement in order to be eligible for award, and identification of the office from which additional information about the qualification requirement may be obtained (see subpart 9.2): The IST Program will use the CTSE IDIQ contracts to acquire medium and long-range surveillance towers. These surveillance towers will be comprised of multiple subsystems that allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to continuously detect, identify, classify, and track Items of Interest (IoI) 24 hours a day, seven days a week within each tower system’s area of coverage under typical operating conditions found along the southern and northern borders. Each CTSE surveillance tower will be customized to the threat and operational/ environmental conditions of the Border Patrol Station Area of Responsibility (AoR) in which they will be deployed. CTSE consists of the following subsystems: Tower subsystem, Power subsystem, Instrumentation subsystem, and Communications subsystem. The IST Program will acquire approximately 277 new IST towers in 53 separate USBP AoRs and upgrade approximately 191 legacy surveillance towers in 31 separate AoRs.

(3) Manufacturer, including part number, drawing number, etc: Not Applicable.

(4) Size, dimensions, or other form, fit or functional description: Not Applicable.

(5) Predominant material of manufacture: Not Applicable.

(6) Quantity, including any options for additional quantities: Not Applicable.

(7) Unit of issue: Not Applicable.

(8) Destination information: Not Applicable.

(9) Delivery schedule: Not Applicable.

(10) Duration of the contract period:

Base Period – 18 months

Option Period 1 – 3.5 years

Option Period 2 – 5 years

Option Period 3 – 2 years

Option Period 4 – 2 years

Total Potential Period of Performance – 14 years

(11) Sustainable acquisition requirements (or a description of high-performance sustainable building practices required, if for design, construction, renovation, repair, or deconstruction) (see parts 23 or 36): Systems will need to be self-powered (e.g., solar)

(12) For a proposed contract action in an amount estimated to be greater than $25,000 but not greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, enter- Not Applicable.

(13) For Architect-Engineer projects and other projects for which the product or service codes are insufficient, provide brief details with respect to: location, scope of services required, cost range and limitations, type of contract, estimated starting and completion dates, and any significant evaluation factors: Not Applicable.

(14) One or more of the items under this acquisition is subject to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and Free Trade Agreements.

(15) In the case of noncompetitive contract actions (including those that do not exceed the simplified acquisition threshold), identify the intended source and insert a statement of the reason justifying the lack of competition: Not Applicable.

(16)

(i) All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency.

(ii) When using the sole source authority at 6.302-1, insert a statement that all responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. Not Applicable.

(17) If solicitations synopsized through the GPE will not be made available through the GPE, provide information on how to obtain the solicitation: Not Applicable.

(18) If the solicitation will be made available to interested parties through electronic data interchange, provide any information necessary to obtain and respond to the solicitation electronically. Not Applicable.

(19) If the technical data required to respond to the solicitation will not be furnished as part of such solicitation, identify the source in the Government, such as https://www.sam.gov, from which the technical data may be obtained. Not Applicable.

(17) Place of Contract Performance. United States Southern and Northern Borders.

(18) Set-aside Status. Not Applicable.

UPDATES:

1. 11/30/2022 - APPROVAL OF CONSOLIDATION DETERMINATIONS AND FINDINGS (D&F) – In accordance with FAR 7.107-2 Consolidation, the Department of Homeland Security has determined a consolidation of Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) contract requirements and Remote Video Surveillance System Upgrade (RVSS-U) contract requirements into one set of requirements for the Consolidated Tower and Surveillance Equipment (CTSE) contract is necessary and justified. The approved determination that consolidation is necessary and justified is attached to this notice.

2. 11/30/2022 - UPDATE ON RELEASE OF THE CTSE SOLICITATION – The Government intends to release the CTSE solicitation no later than Friday, December 9, 2022, assuming all approvals necessary for release are granted. This would allow for the Phase 1, Volume I - Prior Experience submission to be made by Friday, December 23, 2022. The Phase 1 evaluation would be completed, and Advisory Down-select Notifications tentatively made by the end of January 2023. However, if the CTSE Solicitation is not approved for release by December 9th, the CTSE RFP will be released in early January 2023, following the Holidays. Another notice will be released by December 9, 2022, notifying industry if the Solicitation is not approved for release by that date.

3. 12/09/2022 - THE CTSE SOLICITATION is released.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is issuing this Consolidated Tower and Surveillance Equipment (CTSE) Request for Proposal (RFP) to award multiple (up to three) IDIQ contracts with Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) and Time and Material (T&M) line items. The purpose of these IDIQ contracts is to acquire an estimated 296 new surveillance towers along the Northern and Southwest borders, upgrade an estimated 191 existing towers with new surveillance equipment, acquire spares, and services (e.g., testing, Contractor Logistics Support) in support of the surveillance tower installations and upgrades.

This is a full and open competition. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 33451 with a small business size standard of 1,250 employees.

Prospective Offerors are requested to read the CTSE Solicitation, all of the attachments, and applicable sections of the references very carefully. Reference documents that are not publicly available are provided with this RFP. Instructions for obtaining sensitive (For Official Use Only (FOUO)) reference documents are provided below.

3-Phase Proposal Submission and Evaluation Process Summary:

CBP is planning a three-phase proposal submission and evaluation process. Phase 1 consists of an evaluation of the Offeror’s Prior Experience, Phase 2 consists of the evaluation of the Offeror’s submission of a Narrated Video and an Oral Presentation, while the Phase 3 evaluation will be of the Offeror’s Technical Performance, Management, Price, Past Performance, and Small Business Subcontracting Participation. Following the evaluation of Phase 1, CBP will issue an advisory down-select notice to each offeror with the Government’s recommendation on whether or not the Offeror should continue on to Phase 2. Offerors will be given 48 hours from their notification to advise the Government of their intent to continue on to Phase 2 or not. Failure to participate in Phase 2 of the procurement precludes further consideration of an Offeror. Offerors electing to not continue on to Phase 2 will not be afforded a debrief at any time.

Offerors electing to participate in Phase 2 will be provided instructions on how and when to submit their Phase 2 proposals and additional information will be provided on the date and time of the Oral Presentation. Following the evaluation of Phase 2, CBP will issue an advisory down-select notice to each offeror that participated in Phase 2 with the Government’s recommendation on whether or not the Offeror should continue on to Phase 3. Offerors will be given 48 hours from their notification to advise the Government of their intent to continue on to Phase 3 or not. Failure to participate in Phase 3 of the procurement precludes further consideration of an Offeror. Offerors electing to not continue on to Phase 3 will not be afforded a debrief at any time. Offerors participating in Phase 3 will be provided instructions on how and when to submit their Phase 3 proposals.

Following the Phase 3 evaluation, the Government will make awards to up to three offeror(s) whose proposal(s) are determined to best meet the needs of Government after consideration of all factors -- i.e., provides the “best value.” “Best value” is defined here as the procurement process that results in the most advantageous acquisition decision for the Government and is performed through an integrated assessment and trade-off analysis among cost or price and non-cost or non-price factors.

The Government may make an award without discussions (except communications conducted for the purposes of minor clarification); therefore, your offer should be submitted on the most favorable terms that the offering firm is able to submit to the Government. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if they are determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary.

Phase 1 Questions ONLY due NLT 5:00 pm EST December 13, 2022:

Questions or comments related ONLY to Phase 1, Prior Experience, including the Offeror’s representations and certifications, are due no later than 5:00 pm EST on December 13, 2022. All questions must be submitted via email to ctse@cbp.dhs.gov using the CTSE Phase 1 Vendor Questions Form included with the announcement. Questions will not be accepted in the body of an email or in anything other than the CTSE Phase 1 Vendor Questions Form. Questions and comments related to the rest of the solicitation will be requested at a later date. Please submit your questions and comments as soon as possible so they can be addressed promptly. Responses to questions will be provided via Amendment to RFP and posted to www.sam.gov.

Phase 1 Volume I - Prior Experience due NLT 5:00 pm EST December 22, 2022:

The requirements and format for Volume I – Prior Experience can be found in Section L of the CTSE Solicitation.

Submission of Phase 1, Volume I – Prior Experience, is due no later than 5:00 pm EST on December 22, 2022. Offeror’s submission of Volume I shall be via email to ctse@cbp.dhs.gov.

More detailed information on the specific delivery requirements for each Phase, each proposal Volume within each Phase, the relative importance of each Factor, the evaluation criteria, and a notional schedule for each Phase can be found within Sections L and M of the CTSE Solicitation.

Sensitive Reference Documents:

There are two sensitive reference documents: the CBP Physical Security Policies and Procedures Handbook (HB 1400-02C) April 2020”, and the “OTIA IA Tower Site Physical Sec Memo”. These documents were available with the CTSE Draft RFP released in September 2022. Offerors who need Sensitive Reference Documents shall submit an email request to ctse@cbp.dhs.gov. The subject line must state "CTSE SENSITIVE Reference Document Request". In order to be eligible to receive the SENSITIVE Reference Documents, you must submit a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) Attachment J-11 for each person who will need access to the documents when you submit your email request.

Attachments:

The attachments identified in the CTSE Solicitation are numbered from J-01 to J-19. However, there are only 15 attachments included with this solicitation. Two attachments (J-13 Government Furnished Property and J-14 Small Business Subcontracting Plan) will be added to the contract following award. The two remaining attachments (J-15 and J-16) are currently “Reserved”.

Attachments/Links