Attachment IV - Sole Source Justification_Redacted.pdf

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

CUI

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I. Contracting Activity.

SAM-D/PKA

II. Nature and/or description of the action being processed.

In accordance with FAR 12.207(a) this new contract action will be awarded as a firm-fixed price commercial purchase order with a one-year base and a one-year option period for a total period of performance of two years.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs.

19 Space Defense Squadron (SDS) requires non-severable advisory and assistance services (A&AS) for modeling, simulating, and analysis (MS&A) for pre-mission, in-mission, and post-mission space domain awareness in the Extra- Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (xGEO) regime. Responsibilities will include managing collections across academia, DoD, and commercial partners.

19 SDS seeks to expand Space Domain Awareness (SDA) beyond Geosynchronous orbit (xGEO) by demonstrating object tracking of cooperative and non-cooperative targets past GEO using existing terrestrial and on-orbit assets.

Present comparative assessment of individual and combinations of sensors for best right-now solution for tracking xGEO activity, with near-real time upload of observations to the Unified Data Library for Combatant Commanders use.

The contractor will be responsible for taking multiple observations from different points on the earth or from space and from different times in the regime above GEO, converting them into information that can use for a “master observation." The master observation is defined by combining observations, leveraging scientific predictions, and models to assess the position of an object and its trajectory. As such, the contractor will be required to accompany the Government to various observation points around the world. In conjunction with the requirements stated above, our organization requires assistance in mission planning. The 19 SDS requires assistance with interpreting model trajectories above GEO and using the data collected to create mission profiles/ information operations for a network of other sensors.

The anticipated dollar value for this contract is The type of appropriation that will be used is O&M funds (3400).

The contract will consist of a base period and one option period. As such, the anticipated period of performance will be 15 July 2022 through 14 July 2024. The CLIN structure will be the following:

CLIN 0001: Experiment/mission support & Final Technical Report )

CLIN 1001: Experiment/mission support )

The Government will afford Trusted Space one year to complete the reports highlighted in Section V, and include an option period in the event that the life of the 19 SDS program extends beyond the the anticipated end date.

IV. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

AFFARS 5313.501 - 10 U.S.C. 2302b, Implementation of Simplified Acquisition Procedures (41 U.S.C. 1901)

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or nature of the acquisition requires the use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

BLUF: Awarding competitively to another contractor will result in critical impacts to mission capability to include the potential mission failure, loss of time, increased costs, and duplication of efforts and Government resources.

Since March of 2022, the Trusted Space, Inc. team has participated in xGEO and Deep Space working groups with the

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

25 May 2018 CUI Page 3 of 5 sensor providers and mission partners within the United States Space Force. This experience is critical to understanding the complex and unprecedented nature of the project and enable the time-sensitive execution of the mission. The 19 SDS's requirement was met under FA800222C0445; however, as of 1 June 2022 - the primary requirements owner, Space RCO - Kirtland AFB, removed 19 SDS from the scope of work. The deliverables tasked to Trusted Space, to include the report that specifies the gaps between the Government's capabilities and industry standards, have yet to been furnished.

This effort is a continuation of the services rendered under contract FA800222C0445. The previous effort was awarded in response to de-orbited from the moon, in which it jettisoned its payload to earth, and the spacecraft continued on to another strategic point between the earth and sun. During its journey from the far side of the moon to the other side of the earth, the United States Government could not maintain custody of as it conducted multiple trajectory changes and flew through the Geosynchronous (GEO) belt. were able to move with impunity between strategic points of key terrain throughout the Space Area of Regard (AOR).

The original contract, awarded to Trusted Space, Inc., was used to support the Blue Horizons fellowship based out of Air University, Alabama. The Blue Horizons team were tasked with developing strategic solution to address and its implications to United States national security. Consequently, was initiated and Trusted Space were assigned to provide mission planning support to various strategic locations in response to lunar mission. Trusted Space were also assigned to evaluate the Government's satellite and model trajectory legacy systems;

completing a report that specifies the gaps between the Government's capabilities and industry standards.

The report that specifies the gaps between the Government's capabilities and industry standards is not yet complete.

The information collected in the development of the report remains property of Trusted Space; the Government does not own the data until completion of the report. Moreover, the report remains a deliverable for contract FA800222C0445. Consequently, the 19 SDS team does not own the information collected by Trusted Space; competing the requirement and awarding to an alternative vendor would initiate a new investigation to the capability gaps of the 19 SDS team.

Based on the amount of research and integration work already performed by Trusted Space, Inc. on this project, the team estimates it would take 8 to 10 weeks for vendors identified by market research (provided in

Section VIII) to reach the level of maturity of Trusted Space, Inc. The 8 to 10 week delay would result in mission failure as this timeframe eclipses the first phase of the experiment window. For these reasons, a competitive contract will drive impacts of mission capability, delays in analytical deliverables, and increase costs by approximately $200,000 as well as lost commercial data due to missing the first phase of the experiment window.

Awarding to Trusted Space avoids substantial duplication of costs, negative mission impacts, and delay of execution for this unprecedented xGEO project. Trusted Space already possesses a deeply integrated technical knowledge related to the pre-mission coordination, and experiment architecture creation, which allows the contractor to be the only viable resource to meet execution timelines.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable.

A Sources Sought notice was published on SAM.gov on 12 May 2022. The notice returned responses from five (5) prospective offers, to include Trusted Space, Inc. The responses provided by the vendors suggest the vendors are capable of meeting the Government's requirement. The capability statements of each of the vendors demonstrated xGEO observation and trajectory prediction models that could suffice for 19 SDS mission.

As discussed in Section V, due to time sensitivity and substantial duplication of cost to the Government, it is not in the best interest of the Government to pursue a solution from the prospective offers. Additionally, this J&A provides enough time to ensure completion of the effort and no follow-on effort is anticipated.

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VII. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer will ensure that the cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable utilizing the various techniques listed in FAR 13.106-3. The Contracting Officer will leverage historical data of awards made for substantially similar efforts, as well as wage rates of data analysts in publicly available indices.

An analysis of historical data will include a price comparison to the following awards in which pricing was determined fair and reasonable:

- FA800222C0445

- HQ085020C0007

VIII. Description of the market research conducted and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Market research was conducted IAW FAR 10.001(2) and the procedures outline in FAR 10.002(b)(1). The Contracting Officer examined the previous market research conducted for purchase orders FA800222C0445 (awarded 9 March 2022) and HQ085020C0007 (awarded 27 August 2020).

The Contracting Officer has determined that the services requested are commercial in nature. Furthermore, multiple vendors are capable of fulfilling parts the Government's requirement, but Trusted Space remains the only business capable of providing a comprehensive solution that meets all of the Government's requirements. In addition to the vendors that were identified in the Source Sought notice published on 12 May 2022, several more potential prospective offers were identified in the market research that was completed on Feb 2022 ( in support of award FA800222C0445).

Market research was used to help determine whether vendors possessed the operational capabilities for working within Space Combatant Commander headquarters, had access to necessary classification levels in able to immediately support the mission needs, and whether they had the ability to execute the mission goals under the constrained timelines. Market research revealed that the prospective vendors listed in Section X possessed the xGEO sensor-agnostic data-processing, but did not demonstrate the multi-phenomenology data processing experience, and project development agility that met experiment complexity and timeline requirements. The Trusted Space, Inc.

experience and expertise in sensor-agnostic data processing, experiment pre-mission modeling and post-mission analytics, make Trusted Space, Inc. the only viable vendor to meet the Government's requirement.

As result of the information contained within this section it is not in the best interest of the Government to compete the requirement because there is only one vendor who can satisfy the requirement in its entirety.

IX. Any other facts supporting the use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

N/A

X. List of any sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

- Ai Solutions

- L3 Harris

- MarkLogic

- Numerica

- Trusted Space, Inc.

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XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

The Government does not anticipate the need for subsequent acquisitions after completion of the current effort.

Should the Government require additional advisory services upon completion of the current effort, the Government will leverage the reports and models generated by the current effort to enable competition. All data collected on said reports are property of the Government and will be provided to offerors of future 19 SDS mission planning requirements.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by my signature above, I certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my responsibility, is both accurate and complete.