Notice: Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) Increment I Family of Weapons

by David Crane
david@defensereview.com

DefenseReview just received a message from one of our U.S. Army sources regarding the solicitation below for an "Objective Individual Combat Weapon, Increment One, Family of Weapons". The OICW project, apparently, has been resurrected, albeit in different form. To put it another way, IT LIVES (if you can believe it). DefRev will most likely be doing an editorial on the U.S. Army small arms procurement system in general, and Army Materiel Command (AMC), TACOM-ARDEC, and JSSAP/Picatinny Arsenal in particular, in a subsequent article. If we do it, you won’t want to miss it.

In the meantime, here’s the Pre-Solicitation Notice for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) Increment I family of weapons just issued by U.S. Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000, on behalf of the Program Manager for Soldier Weapons (PM-SW)/Picatinny Arsenal’s Pre-Solicitation Notice for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) Increment I family of weapons:…

"W15QKN-05-R-0449

FedBizOpps notice Date: 2005-03-04

Description:

Pre-Solicitation Notice for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) Increment I family of weapons

Solicitation No. W15QKN-05-R-0449

The U.S. Army ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000, on behalf of the Program
Manager for Soldier Weapons (PM-SW), has a requirement for a non developmental
family of weapons that are capable of firing U.S. standard M855 and M856
ammunition. The family consists of a Carbine, Special Compact (SC), Designated
Marksman (DM), and Light Machine Gun (LMG) weapon systems. This endeavor will
be conducted in three phases consisting of a System Design and Development
(SDD) Phase, a Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Phase and a Full Rate Production (FRP) Phase.

The Carbine, SC and DM weapon systems shall share at least 80% parts
commonality and shall share at least 50% commonality with the LMG. Each weapon
system shall be equipped with a Multi Purpose Sighting System (MPSS) enabling
the warfighter to rapidly and effectively engage stationary and moving targets
both with reflexive fire at close ranges, and with precision fire out to the
maximum effective range of the variant (Carbine-500m, SC-150m, DM-600m, LMG-
600m). All OICW Increment I weapon systems shall incorporate a resident
limited visibility fire control with infrared aim light, illuminator and
visible red laser pointer. The infrared aiming light and illuminator shall be greater than, or equal to the capability of the AN/PEQ-2A.

A properly zeroed OICW Increment I Carbine (zeroed to 300 meters), SC (zeroed
to 150 meters), DM (zeroed to 300 and 500 meters), or LMG (zeroed to 300
meters) shall enable a warfighter firing from varying fighting positions, both
supported and unsupported to engage E-type silhouettes under conditions that
include target exposure times from 3 to 8 seconds and targets moving 2 to 4
meters per second to the following metrics: Carbine (moving targets to 300m)
with a Probability of Hit greater than .60 at 150m; SC (moving and stationary
targets) with a Probability of Hit greater than .40 at 100m; DM (stationary
targets, zeroed to 500m) with a Probability of Hit greater than .50 at 500m;
LMG (Hit on first 6-round burst against a single E-type silhouette in an 8
target array, zeroed to 300m) with a Probability of Hit greater than .04 at
600m.

The OICW Increment I Carbine, SC and DM shall demonstrate 18,000 Mean Rounds
Between Essential Function Failure (MRBEFF) for Class III malfunctions (i.e.,
for non-operator correctable malfunctions which cause the loss of essential OICW Increment I functionality) and 2,300 MRBEFF for Class I and II malfunctions combined (Class I malfunctions are operator clearable within 10
seconds, whereas Class II malfunctions require more than 10 seconds but less than 10 minutes to clear but can be corrected by the operator with available equipment). The OICW Increment I LMG shall demonstrate 18,000 MRBEFF for Class
III malfunctions and 1,900 MRBEFF for Class I and II malfunctions combined.

The OICW Increment I Carbine, SC, DM weapon systems shall have a sustained rate
of fire greater than or equal to 45 rounds per minute without degrading
reliability. The OICW Increment I LMG weapon system’s sustained rate of fire
shall be at a minimum of 72 rounds per minute for ten minutes without degrading
reliability and accuracy.

All OICW Increment I weapon systems shall have a minimum barrel life of 15,000
rounds.

All Proposals will include written submissions and test (bid) samples, both of
will be 60 days after Solicitation release. A pre-solicitation or a pre-
proposal conference will be conducted at a later date (to be determined).

The offeror shall submit four (4) of each variant for a total of sixteen (16) complete weapon systems, along with sufficient spare parts, to the Government
for bid sample testing no later than the closing date of the solicitation.
Should an offeror’s bid samples pass through the initial and subsequent go/no
go screening criteria, the samples will be evaluated with live fire to
demonstrate the weapon systems’ ability to meet the system requirements.

The winning offeror will be awarded a contract for test quantities to proceed to a Milestone C decision, if required. After satisfying the requirements for a Milestone C decision, Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) quantities (up to 4,900 weapon systems) shall be produced. Subsequent to the production of LRIP quantities, the Government may award multiple Full Rate Production (FRP) options to the winning offeror (up to 134,500 total weapon systems if the total number of options are exercised).

The OICW Increment I family of weapons is intended to replace current weapon systems to include the M4, M16, M249 and selected M9 pistols for the active army.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) to be posted on the TACOM-ARDEC Acquisition Center website located at: http://procnet.pica.army.mil is planned for release on or about 23 March 2005. Proposals, along with sixteen (16) bid samples, are required to be delivered within sixty (60) days from the date the RFP is released. Point of contact for this requirement is Mr. David DeCandia, Contract Specialist, AMSTA-AQ-APD, BLDG 10, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000, email: decandia@pica.army.mil, telephone number: 973-724-4674."

Click here to view the original Pre-Solicitation Notice for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW) Increment I family of weapons.