JA_-_redacted.pdf

$2.95M

JUSTIFICATION & APPROVALS (J&A) FOR FEDERAL ACQUISITION

REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 16.5 ACQUISITIONS

EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Multiple Award Schedule/Multiple Award Contract (MAC) Orders under MAC/Fair Opportunity, FAR 16.505, Defense FAR Supplement 216.505-70, Procedures, Guidance and Information 216.505-70

Purchase Request Number: CMTNSD15F006 Contract Number: HC1028-08-D-2023 Task Order Number: TBD Procurement Title: National Gateway Center-Detrick (NGC-D) Northrop Grumman Product Engineering Support and Software Functional Changes Support Contracting Office: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) - Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO)/Information Technology (IT) Contracting Division - PL8313 Estimated Value:

Authority: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Number: JA15-014

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate, hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B).

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

a. Requiring Agency:

DISA NS211 - Organizational Messaging Division 1671 Nelson St.

Frederick, MD 21702-5002

b. Contracting Activity:

DISA/DITCO/PL83

2300 East Drive Scott Air Force Base, Illinois 62225

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S): The purpose of this action is to issue a new task order (TO) to Northrup Grumman Systems Corporation (NG) against ENCORE II contract HC1028-08-D-2023 for continued engineering support for the NG proprietary message switching systems currently in use on the DISA operational and test systems. The TO will be issued as firm-fixed-priced for a 12 month base period with three one-year option periods to provide the necessary services for product engineering support. The base year will be funded with fiscal year 2015 Defense working capital funds. The total estimated lifecycle cost is .

Northrop Grumman Product Engineering and Software Functional Support-JA15-014

The ECGS serves as the messaging switch that is connected to the legacy switch using the Mode I serial protocol interconnecting multiple and various systems that need to exchange messages.

These systems are generally connected to the switch via low speed serial channels. Messages entering from legacy systems are validated and then routed to the appropriate downstream systems, based on the destination station routing indicator (RI) over its assigned logical channel(s) and designated physical serial circuit(s). In the event of a problem with the message format or delivery, a service message is automatically generated by the switch. This service message is returned to the originator (or their designated service position) and identifies the original message, the reason for error, and provides a list of the recipients not receiving a copy of the message (the latter if the message wasn’t rejected outright).

A message entering one channel will likely need to be transmitted to multiple channels outbound. Message conversions may be needed as a result of Allied Communications Publication (ACP) ACP 128 ↔ ACP 127 format and / or language media format differences.

The NGC-D message switch is an accredited multi-level secure message relay with accreditation at the level supporting both the Defense Special Security Communications System (DSSCS) and General Services (GENSER) communities and provides communications services between the two. In addition, the switch provides connectivity with the Allied nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and at times relays messages between allied partners. The NGC-D recently took on responsibility for interfacing with the Japanese message system using ACP 128 over a Mode 1 channel. The latter reflects the need for flexibility in recognition of such items as valid RI and transmission release codes (TRC) (in this case, support for a new character ‘O’ as the second character of the RI and as a new TRC code).

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

NS has a critical continuing need to provide NG software development that will support the operational and test messaging switching systems at NGC-D, specifically, the Enhanced Communications Gateway System (ECGS) and the Secure Messaging and Routing Terminal Next Generation SMART/NeXt. Because these are very complex systems with complicated configurations and a constantly evolving security baseline, contractor support is required to support NGC-D operations to properly maintain and support NGC-D ongoing operations as well as to provide software functionality changes to improve operations and interoperability for these systems.

The estimated life cycle value is . The period of performance (POP) is as follows:

Base Year: December 1, 2014 – November 30, 2015 Option Year 1: December 1, 2015 – November 30, 2016 Option Year 2: December 1, 2016 – November 30, 2017 Option Year 3: December 1, 2017 – November 30, 2018

4. SUPPORTING RATIONALE, INCLUDING DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED

CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION

REQUIRES USE OF AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

The government does not own the ECGS and SMART/NeXt software or software-related documentation. The coding standards and documentation available are not sufficient to allow another contractor to take over the required software support. ECGS and SMART/NeXt are very specialized and currently are the only military organizational messaging products offered today. Because the market for organizational message switching is so small worldwide, no other competent contractor can be found to perform the required software support. If another alternate solution was found, the lead-time to get another contractor up to speed would be at least three years because the messaging software is extremely complex with many diverse processing paths and configuration options to support a diverse customer base.

(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity: Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

(b) Description of the Justification. NG message switch product software is fully implemented and integrated into the DISA operational and test systems. The NG message switch product software is proprietary, and software support is only available from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), NG. NG is the OEM for the applicable software and does not authorize any third party software modifications or patches to its software.

(c) Justification.

(1) Minimum Government requirements. The minimum requirement is engineering support for the NG proprietary message switching systems currently in use on the DISA operational and test systems.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. NG, 4807 Stonecroft Boulevard, Chantilly, Virginia

20151, Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code 5YRP9 can effectively and efficiently provide the uninterrupted expertise to satisfy the requirements for this award.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of sole source situation. The NG message switch product software is proprietary, and software support is only available from the original OEM, NG. NG is the OEM for the applicable software and does not authorize any third party software modifications or patches to its software.

(4) Demonstration of unique source. The government does not own the ECGS and

SMART/NeXt software or software-related documentation. The coding standards and documentation available are not sufficient to allow another contractor to take over the required software support. ECGS and SMART/NeXt are very specialized and currently are the only military organizational messaging products offered today.

(5) Procurement discussion. This requirement will be sole sourced as NG software is proprietary and software support is only available from the OEM, NG.

(6) Impact: Not renewing the software and associated engineering support for the NGC-D message switch products is not a viable solution for the government. These software systems, which are exceptionally complicated, will invariably have bugs that must be fixed throughout their life cycle. Additionally, the organizational messaging external environment is not static, which means that as systems connected to NGC-D change, the NGC-D message switching systems must be updated to maintain compatibility and interoperability. Without the required engineering and software support, intolerable operational situations would develop, resulting in any number of negative consequences, among which are system outages, excessive downtime, lack of system availability, increased workload for operational personnel to deal with degraded system performance, and excessive and/or erroneous message rejections. The results of operating an unmaintained system would be very severe and would catastrophically degrade command and control communications and transfer of critical intelligence data. In addition, information assurance (IA) compliance must be maintained in order to continue system accreditation, and contractor support is critically needed in this area. Without the required software support, the software will not be compliant with IA policy and standards, which would result in the loss of system accreditation and the inability to use the product.

5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION: This is a primarily labor based solution whereby the proposed labor rates will be compared to the pre-established contract labor rates to support a fair and reasonable determination. A price evaluation will also be accomplished to determine that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The contracting officer will obtain certified cost or pricing data, and upon completion of negotiations, will obtain a certificate of current cost or pricing data.

6. MARKET RESEARCH: Market research was conducted by DISA NS in April 2014 to determine if any other software support (other than NG’s proprietary software support) was a solution the government could consider. Market research included gathering data from previous acquisitions, Internet searches, reviewing current contracts, and determining potential sources.

Initial product research was conducted via websites, contractor brochures, and hands-on knowledge of available software. The market research indicated that only the NG product engineering and software support will satisfy the agency’s requirements. No other products on the market currently meet the government’s needs. Based on market research, NG’s proprietary software support is the only option for this requirement as no other contractor can provide the level of direct access required to proprietary NG products and information.

It was determined that the engineering support for the NG proprietary message switching systems currently in use on the DISA operational and test systems can only be acquired from NG. NG is a contractor on various suites of contracts, including Army Information Technology Enterprise Solutions, Maryland Procurement Office (intelligence community), INSIDER (Air Force Research Lab), Enterprise Application Development Integration and Sustainment, and ENCORE II. DISA’s ENCORE II contract was determined to be the best method of procuring the requirement.

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: None.

8. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

a. Procurement History. The legacy switch replacement system technical refresh at NGC –

Ft. Detrick was most recently competed as an open market competition, whereby only one contractor, NG, 2340 Dulles Corner Boulevard, Herndon, Virginia 20171, CAGE code 5V1X2, submitted a proposal and on May 31, 2013 was awarded HC1028-13-P-0101. The FFP contract was awarded for a POP June 3, 2013 through August 31, 2013 for a value of $5.2M.

b. At this time, only NG software/systems engineering can be used to provide an acceptable level of support for current NG proprietary products already in place at DISA facilities. This requirement was built to include three one-year options to allow the government to continue to analyze the need for alternative solutions annually, prior to exercising each option. Alternate software solutions will continually be researched to determine if they will function with currently used products. If the government determines that NG products are no longer required, the government will seek alternative competitive approaches for the required functionality.

9. REFERENCE TO THE APPROVED ACQUISITION PLAN (AP): An acquisition plan is not required for this action. A memorandum of record for sole source high-risk acquisition planning was completed IAW DARS 7.103(S-90).

ORGANIZATION:

TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Deborah Miller SIGNATURE: _See PDF

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: COR

PHONE: 301-619-3584

DATE:

REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Jeffrey Bentley SIGNATURE: _See PDF

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: Chief, OM & NGC Tech Support Branch

PHONE: 301-619-3523

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Tara Horstmann SIGNATURE: See PDF

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: DISA/DITCO/PL8313 PHONE: 618-229-9323_

PROCURING ACTIVITY COMPETITION ADVOCATE APPROVAL: I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Since this justification does not exceed $12.5M, this review serves as approval.

NAME: Gay Arnold

SIGNATURE:

TITLE/ Procuring Activity Competition Advocate/DISA/DITCO

PHONE: 618-229-9517

DATE: _December 2, 2014

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO

Ashley Timmermann, 618-229-9369.