Requirements changed in Q&A
From a conversion tool to a universal viewer
The Navy's Q&A moved the Phase I deliverable from a tool that converts manuals to a single viewer that reads them. The published topic never changed.
Navy / 26.BZ / DON26BZ05-NV078
- saved Q&A snapshots
- 20
- questions on the topic
- 36
- answers classified as substantive
- 27
- questions about conversion vs. viewer
- 8+
Evidence window: August 13 - September 10, 2026. About the saved record
01 / The starting point
The topic as published
DON26BZ05-NV078, "Tech Data Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals Convertor"
Electronic technical manuals let sailors look up maintenance steps on a screen instead of in paper books.
- Dates
- Posted August 5, opened August 26, and closed September 23, 2026.
- Objective
- "Develop a tool capable of transforming existing Navy technical manuals (TMs) into a format viewable within our targeted Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMS) viewer."
- Description
- The "primary goal is to develop a tool or software that can automate the transformation of these diverse technical manuals into eXtensible Markup Language (XML)." The output "must be viewable in our designated IETMS viewer."
- Formats to read
- PDF, MIL-STD-3001-1, MIL-DTL-81310, S1000D v3.0 and S1000D v4.0: military and industry standards for technical manuals.
- Phase I
- "develop algorithms to identify and extract content… The converted outputs must be viewable on the Navy's chosen IETMs/XML viewer."
- Phase II
- Convert manuals "into the specified standard format," with at least 95% conversion accuracy and automated validation of the converted data.
- Phase III
- "rapid conversion of a large set of existing technical manuals," fed into a commercial or government step-by-step instruction tool shown on an augmented-reality headset.
Every phase of the published topic was built around conversion. The Navy's own viewer was the display target.
02 / The answer history
How the Q&A moved it
Dates show when answers were first seen in RallyProp's saved snapshots, not necessarily when they were posted.
"We are working to derive the conversion metrics."
The answer still frames the work as conversion.
"This task is to develop an agnostic viewer capable of ingesting multiple formats."
"Phase I is the development of a viewer."
"The vendor is expected to develop the universal viewer."
The Phase I deliverable is now described as a viewer.
"the awardee to develop an agnostic viewer to 'read' S1000D, MIL-STD-3001XML, PDF and COTS deliverables."
The Navy names the NAVSEA viewer and NAVAIR's NATEC/JEDMICS system as the current equivalents.
"This SBIR does not encompass conversion."
Conversion is explicitly excluded.
"Option B"
"We are looking for the respondents to develop an agnostic viewer capable of replacing several different viewers… WE want one viewer."
A bidder quoted the topic text against the Q&A and asked which governs. The answer selected the viewer interpretation.
"There is no conversion in this SBIR. We are looking for an agnostic viewer that will replace S1000D viewers (NSIV and proprietary viewers)."
"conversion is not part of the SBIR."
"a place holder."
Asked how conversion accuracy should be measured, the Navy again excluded conversion. It described the published 95% accuracy target as a placeholder.
"We are not looking for current file formats to be converted to a different output. We have several S1000D viewers and are looking to only have one viewer."
The requirement is one viewer for existing manuals, not newly converted files.
"shall remain unchanged throughout all active Phases."
The source manuals must stay unchanged. MIL-DTL-81310 is treated as plain PDF, and scanned-page text recognition is not required in Phase I.
03 / Not just a clarification
What changed in substance
Deliverable
- Published topic
- A conversion and extraction engine feeding the Navy's existing viewer.
- Q&A direction
- A new viewer that replaces existing NSIV and proprietary viewers.
Output
- Published topic
- New standard-compliant files.
- Q&A direction
- No converted output. Source manuals remain unchanged.
Formats
- Published topic
- PDF, MIL-STD-3001-1, MIL-DTL-81310, S1000D v3.0 and S1000D v4.0.
- Q&A direction
- An undocumented ".nci" format was added. The Navy later defined it only as "an output of S1000D document development."
Other answers shifted, too
Government data in Phase I
August 26 said real manuals and Navy formatting rules "will be provided in Phase I." September 2 reversed that: "No GFE will be provided in Phase I." A bidder had flagged the contradiction. GFE means government-furnished equipment.
Navy formatting rules
August 27 said "The NAVY BREX is available publicly." On September 10, the Navy apologized that it was no longer public and said to use a standard rule set instead. BREX is the business rules exchange used with S1000D.
Legal markings
Distribution and contract markings must be preserved. How they display in the viewer was still "being reviewed with legal" as of September 1.
Awards and data access
"There will be multiple awarded." Export-control handling is not required until Phase II.
The scale of the confusion
- There were 36 questions on this topic. In RallyProp's classification, 27 answers were substantive, the second-most of any Navy topic.
- At least eight questions directly asked whether the work was conversion or a viewer. The last was first seen on September 2.
- The title still says "Convertor." The topic record shows no change to the description through closing on September 23.
- The final answer was first seen September 10, 13 days before the September 23 deadline.
04 / The proposal implication
Track the answers, not just the topic.
A proposal built only around the published topic would have targeted a conversion engine and conversion accuracy. The Q&A instead pointed to multi-format viewing, replacing existing viewers, preserving source manuals, and planning Phase I without government-furnished data. Tracking the answer history exposed that mismatch while there was still time to adjust. This is an analysis of the saved record, not a legal determination of which solicitation text governs.