Limited_Sources_Justification.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space Center

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

The acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule (MAS)

Program pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 8.4. The primary statutory authorities for the MAS Program are 41 U.S.C. 152(3), competition Procedures, and 40 U.S.C.

501, Services for Executive Agencies.

(i) Contracting Activity

This Limited-Sources Justification is prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA), John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Procurement.

(ii) Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

This limited-sources justification provides the rationale for the noncompetitive placement of an order with Oshkosh Airport Products, LLC under MAS contract number GS-30F-010DA

(Schedule 23V/190 01) for an Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) truck. The delivery of the ARFF vehicle will be 12 months after award.

(iii) Description of the Supplies/Services Required to Meet the Agency’s Needs

The NASA KSC Protective Services Office is responsible to ensure the safety and security of personnel and property. These services include: launch and landing support for aerospace vehicles, 911 dispatch center, firefighting, prevention and engineering, ARFF, and advanced life support (ALS) ambulance services. KSC must keep the appropriate balance between the ever-increasing need to maintain required services and to implement new mandates related to antiterrorism and homeland security. In order to meet its objectives, KSC Protective Services support services require the proper tools, assets, and support personnel.

This acquisition is for a second Oshkosh Striker 6x6 ARFF vehicle, configured with the following capabilities/capacities: 3000-gallon, 6x6 wheel vehicle, snozzle extendable boom apparatus to deliver water from various angles, and mechanical steering provisions on rear axle of tandem axle to provide a maximum curb-to-curb turning radius of 40’. In 2017, NASA

Protective Services purchased a state of the art 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from Oshkosh Airport

Products. KSC has invested extensive amounts of time in training to ensure that KSC firefighters have the needed skill sets and operational knowledge to safely operate and conduct firefighting and rescue operations on the airport at KSC. The purchase of an identical 3000-gallon Striker

Oshkosh ARFF vehicle to the one NASA purchased in 2017, will greatly increase the capability to perform launch and landing support for aerospace vehicles, urban rural firefighting, and aircraft rescue and firefighting. The estimated value of this acquisition is $974,027.15.

(iv) Authority and Supporting Rationale for Limiting Sources and Demonstration of the

Contractor’s Unique Qualifications to Provide the Required Supply/Service

FAR 8.405-6 requires an ordering activity to justify its actions when restricting consideration of schedule contractors to fewer than required in FAR 8.405-1(d)(3). The specific circumstance that justifies restriction for this acquisition is FAR 8.405-6(1)(i)(B), “Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.”

Firefighters experience extreme emotional arousal and stress when responding to emergencies where threats to human life are imminent. Human Machine Interface (HMI) between the firefighters and firefighting vehicles provide effective operation and control of the machine from the human end. The user HMI is enhanced by having the first line ARFF vehicles of the same manufacture and model. This commonality and consistency of ARFF vehicle controls is one of the HMI variables that affects overall emergency response effectiveness and is vital to response readiness.

The commonality of operational controls for both driving and firefighting systems of ARFF vehicles is essential to help insure the safety of the firefighters, the flight crew, and the passengers of aircraft. The drive gear selector, the extinguishing agent controls, and the snozzle control are common amongst the current KSC snozzle equipped 6x6 3000-gallon ARFF Striker and the proposed purchase latest model Oshkosh ARFF Striker. Other ARFF manufacturer’s driving and firefighting controls are configured differently. Gear selectors are placed in different locations and are of different styles, the extinguishing agent controls are unique to each manufacturer, and the extending nozzle (snozzle on Oshkosh) controls, if available, use manufacturer exclusive designs. In complex vehicles, operating in highly stressful situations and where repositioning of vehicles takes place, different gear selectors can put personnel in harms way if the wrong gear is selected and the vehicle is moved too rapidly or in an unintended direction, the wrong extinguishing agent may be selected or incorrectly discharged, and extending nozzles may be damaged by improper control. Commonality amongst the fleet is paramount to consistent and safe operation.

NASA Protective Service Office also requires that the first line ARFF vehicles have all-wheel fully independent suspension which offers a higher margin of safety by reducing rollovers when the vehicle are required to change directions during emergency responses or while traversing off-road environments for wildland fire suppression activities. ARFF vehicles are prone to rollover during turning operations and while operating in off-road environments. Only Oshkosh’s proprietary chassis technology, known as Oshkosh TAK-4®, provides the level of safety NASA requires from rollover due to the nature of its independent suspension. Two other manufactures on the GSA schedule, E-One and Rosenbauer both have solid axles. Neither of these manufacturers’ solid axle systems meet KSC’s safety requirement for an independent suspension.

NASA needs to purchase the latest model snozzle equipped 6X6 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from

Oshkosh to ensure the KSC Fire Rescue Services is fully mission capable to respond to any potential mass casualty aircraft emergency, particularly, an onboard fire. This new ARFF will increase the survivability of the passengers and crew on board by vastly increasing the fire flow to an onboard fire.

With an additional 6X6 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from Oshkosh, KSC firefighters will be equipped with a second snozzle equipped advanced ARFF vehicle that will vastly improve survivability of an onboard aircraft fire. By having two ARFF’s with the ability to penetrate the outer skin of an aircraft for application of firefighting foams, dry chemical and water, ensuring rapid firefighting intervention KSC Fire fighters will greatly enhance their ability to save lives, and protect space flight hardware, and high value aircraft.

To ensure HMI of KSC’s first line ARFF apparatus, the Agency seeks to purchase another of the latest model snozzle equipped 6X6 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from Oshkosh Airport Products.

In 2017, NASA Protective Services purchased a state of the art 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from

Oshkosh Airport Products. KSC has invested extensive amounts of time in training to ensure that

KSC firefighters have the needed skill sets and operational knowledge to safely operate and conduct firefighting and rescue operations on the airport at KSC. This style of ARFF vehicle is a highly specialized and complex vehicle to drive and operate. Each of the ARFF manufactures’ designs differ vastly in the ergonomics required to operate an ARFF vehicle safely. The KSC

Firefighters work three shifts schedule each shift works a 24 hour day and is off for 48 hours resulting in a different firefighter operating the ARFF every three days, making it essential that

NASA KSC purchase another 3000-gallon ARFF Striker from Oshkosh Airport Products to ensure safety and continuity of operations.

KSC Heavy Equipment has invested heavily in technician training and specialized tools and equipment to maintain and repair NASA’s 2017 3000 gallon Striker Oshkosh vehicle, including diagnostic software. If NASA were to purchase a different make and model ARFF vehicle additional incurred costs for training and overtime for firefighters and maintenance technicians would be incurred.

Each manufacture of an ARFF vehicle (Oshkosh, E-One, Rosenbauer) offer vastly different command and control systems that require a different skill set to operate said ARFF vehicle thus it is necessary for KSC purchase of a second identical Oshkosh ARFF vehicle that the firefighters are already trained and certified to operate to ensure the safety of responding firefighter and flight crews and aircraft passengers. Please note the usage of an ARFF vehicle will be done in real world life and death emergences that place firefighters under extreme stress and hazardous conditions it is necessary for firefighters to have an ARFF vehicle that they are trained to operate and trust to ensure KSC is a safer place to work. Sole source buying from

GSA Advantage of a snozzle equipped Oshkosh 3000 gallon 6 X 6 Striker ARFF truck ensures that KSC Fire Rescue Services will continue to provide the most efficient aircraft rescue firefighting operations to all aircraft visiting the Kennedy Space Center and minimize the threats to KSC infrastructure from wildland fires that reach the KSC urban rural interface.

(v) Determination by the Ordering Activity Contracting Officer that the Order Represents the Best Value Consistent with FAR 8.404(d)

As part of the best value determination, the Contracting Officer will perform a price analysis and make a price reasonableness determination before placing the FSS order. The Contracting

Officer will review the catalogs and pricelists of other FSS contractors that have contracts under the Fire Fighting Vehicles and Accessories category 190 01, Fire Fighting Apparatus and

Attachments, to verify the prices quoted by Oshkosh Airport Products are in line with industry prices for similar vehicles. The Contracting Officer will also seek further price reductions from the published prices listed in Oshkosh Airport Products’ FSS contract per FAR 8.405-4. In addition to price, when determining the best value, the Contracting Officer considered Oshkosh

Airport Products’ past performance and review the performance evaluations reported in

Contractor Performance Assessment Report System (CPARS).

(vi) Description of the Market Research Conducted Among Schedule Holders and the

Results Or a Statement of the Reason Market Research Was Not Conducted

The Contracting Officer met with a KSC Fire Rescue/Emergency Management Specialist and the

KSC Deputy Chief Firefighter to discuss the required capabilities and known industry sources for the ARFF vehicle. These representatives are intimately familiar with the market for these vehicles and are not aware of any other company that has an ARFF vehicle that meets the compatibility required for seamless integration with the existing fleet of KSC ARFF vehicles in order to minimize HMI variables. The representatives conducted market research on GSA

Advantage that yielded no other schedule holders that manufacture the Oshkosh vehicle.

Additionally, the Contracting Officer conducted market research by reviewing Oshkosh’s GSA contract, GS-30F-010DA, which was found on the GSA eLibrary. The contract lists one category that can fulfill the required ARFF vehicle. Their contract period of performance ends February

06, 2021.

(vii) Other Facts Supporting the Justification N/A

(viii) Actions, if Any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers that

Led to the Restricted Consideration Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for the

Supplies/Services

The Agency continually attempts to overcome barriers to competition by analyzing different sources that might be qualified for similar future acquisitions; however the unique capability and compatibility of the Oshkosh ARFF requires the use of a limited source in this instance. Should the requirements of the ARFF change, the Agency will survey the market for new sources.

Technical Officer: I certify that the supporting data presented in this justification are accurate and complete.

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Michael B. Stevens (Date)

Chief of Protective Services

Contracting Officer: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Lisa Morales (Date)

Contracting Officer

CONCURRENCE: 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Michael S. McCarty (Date)

Procurement Officer

APPROVED: 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Kelvin Manning (Date)

Center Competition Advocate