Brand Name REDACTED.docx

USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION LESS THAN SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD MEMO

FROM:

CODE:

SUBJECT: Sole Source/Brand Name Justification / Limited Source Justification for Use of Other than Full & Open Competition for an Acquisition under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT)

I. BACKGROUND

1. FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) states for purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, Contracting Officers may solicit from one source if the Contracting Officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

2. As required by FAR 13.106-3(b)(3)(i), this memorandum explains the absence of competition for this acquisition, as only one source will be solicited for this requirement (or for a portion of the requirement) and the requirement is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.

3. This memorandum is derived from Enclosure 3, Department of Navy Simplified Acquisition Procedures Guide (April 2018) and is only applicable to acquisitions under the SAT.

II. DESCRIPTION OF ITEM OR SERVICE (include manufacture/sole source name and address)

Additional Support Access

Estimated cost is $

MANUFACTURER: vCloud Gov Inc.

6860 Dallas Pkwy Suite 200 Plano, TX 75024-4242 469-229-1016 ext 704 kmartinez@vcloudgov.com

III. BASIS FOR DETERMINATION FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL & OPEN COMPETITION

NSWCCD researched multiple DDS vendors. This research included DDS products from Object Computing (OpenDDS), TwinOaks Computing (CoreDX DDS), eProsima (Fast DDS) and RTI Connext DDS.

RTI Connext DDS is the only product that fulfills all of the requirements we need covered. As with most DDS vendors, RTI conforms to OMG-DDS 1.4 and DDSI-RPTS 2.3. In addition to spec compliance, RTI provides a significant number of plug-ins not provided by other vendors. The Low-Bandwidth plugin in particular allows for static discovery of participants, which is necessary for BLOS communications. RTI also provides a significant number of built in tools for logging, replaying, routing and debugging messages and QoS settings. The routing service feature is integrated into several current applications and is required for continuing use of these

NSWCCD

Sole

Source/Brand

Name

Justification

SAT

rev

Effective

September

Page of components. RTI also offers tech support and customized training programs. All DDS vendors are supposed to offer interoperability with other DDS systems, but previous development experience with OpenDDS and eProsima has shown this to more complicated than suggested. Several other partners are already using RTI, so staying consistent and reducing risk with interoperability, issue is another important reason we landed on RTI Connext.

☒ A. BRAND NAME:

Item required must be a brand name product, or feature of a product, particular to one manufacturer.

· 1. Restrictive Rights: The source has established proprietary rights, limited rights in data, patent rights, copyrights, or secret processes in the item or service required.

· 2. Exclusive Licensing Agreements: The item or service is only available from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

☒ 3. Other Reasons:. NSWCCD uses RTI DDS Connext Professional to support multiple projects across the USV landscape. This software is currently used in other vendor-supplied parts of the USV autonomy system and continuing to use this specific software provides long-term stability and cost savings by not having to retrain engineers and rewrite already existing software. RTI DDS Connext also provides features that aren’t supplied by other vendors, such as low-bandwidth capabilities which are required by multiple USV projects that NSWCCD is currently executing. This procurement will provide 10 software developers access to this software who are responsible for RDT&E of USV Autonomy and Command and Control (C2) functions.

Using another source it would require over hours per person of re-training, total hours. We would additionally need to re-do man-months of work. We would possibly have to refactor other software that our components connect to which could additionally add man months of work. Testing would need to be re- performed which would take man months, which includes expensive on-water time. We would additionally need to perform man-months of work to implement lost functionality. This level of rework would also critically impact schedules to the effect of not being able to meet deliverables on time for multiple projects.

Due to the cost of SATCOM we could be seeing an added bill for communications of upwards of $ per event due to loss of the limited-bandwidth features unique to this vendor. Also, unique to this vendor are troubleshooting tools and routing tools which no other vendor provides as complete a set. This will have a serious impact on engineer effectiveness during development and test. As parts of our autonomy software is built upon this software, re-testing would need to be performed and until that is completed the full safety of our system is reduced as there are safety controls built on top of this software.

· B. SOLE SOURCE (select all that apply)

· 1. Restrictive Rights: The source has established proprietary rights, limited rights in data, patent rights, copyrights, or secret processes in the item or service required.

· 2. Exclusive Licensing Agreements: The item or service is only available from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), or there is only one authorized distributor or technical representative for the OEM.

· 3. Other Reasons:

IV. CERTIFICATIONS & APPROVALS