Brand Name Specification.pdf

III. BRAND NAME SPECIFICATION JUSTIFICATION

JUSTIFICATION:

General Digital Monitors are currently installed in the Fleet as part of the Common Submarine Radio Room (CSRR) program of record. The products identified work along with the existing Fleet infrastructure. In order to maintain the ability to interface with existing computer hardware and maintain operability, these configurations cannot be substituted. This procurement is for components to be installed in the laboratory used for system integration and acceptance testing, including Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) Strategic certification testing, and must be 100% representative. Failure to procure the exact General Digital units, as installed on a tactical platform, would render testing invalid. As a result, systems would be improperly and inadequately tested prior to installation.

Purchasing the General Digital products detailed above ensures that there are no compatibility or interoperability issues with the existing infrastructure. Switching to a different brand would require integrating the new devices into the network and would negate shore testing.

Additionally, the system administrators of the existing devices are already trained and certified with General Digital Monitors. The costs and time associated with training, certifying, and integrating new devices into the project are estimated to be significant cost and years respectively. Therefore, it is not in the Government’s best interest to switch from General Digital Monitors to another brand.

Associated with the above the following (not limited to the listed) duplicative costs and schedule impacts (in terms of full operational tempo in support of the mission) would be seen if another brand name item was introduced into the existing infrastructure:

Element Cost (K = 1,000) Schedule Impact (years) System design for new component/MKA (LA, VA, SW, BN, CLB)

$450K ~1 year

Drawings development ((LA, VA, SW, BN, CLB)

$720K ~1 year

Hardware for labs/EQT $150K ~1 year Labor for integration testing/EQT

$175K ~1 year

ILS documentation updates $100K ~1 year Total Cost >1.5M ~1 year

Each task would shift roughly 1 year to the right. Initial fielding would shift from CY25 to CY26 or later.

It should also be noted this purchase satisfies the known requirement for at least the next 2 - 5 years. This table does not reflect an open bid procurement process that would take a minimum of an additional year. The listed schedule(s) impact would affect planned installations in various shipyards including New Construction efforts adding to the overall cost.

Based on the above, it is not reasonable to conclude the potential savings from competition can offset the duplicative cost and schedule/mission impact associated with purchasing a new brand name product. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the Government to solicit this requirement on a brand name only basis.