EFTO_Approved_for_Public_Release.pdf

Defense Threat Reduction Agency 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Stop 6201

Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Nature and/or Description of the Action

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) contracting activity proposes to procure, without requesting proposals from all six performers on the Research and Development (RD) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, an effort entitled “Divine Fox 2019.” Applied Research Associates (ARA) will be the only contractor solicited to provide the required technical effort.

The proposed task order is a logical follow-on to work performed under an effort entitled “Scenario Based Planning” (SBP): contract line item number (CLIN) 1001 to existing task order HDTRA1-14- D-0003-0022 with ARA. The period of performance for this CLIN to the existing task order is 13 September 2016 to 14 December 2018.

The scope of the existing SPB task order is to assess the current status of Department of Defense (DoD) capabilities used in a “loose nuke” scenario by combining and integrating research, subject matter expertise, literature research, and scenario analysis to provide insights into the loose nuke mission and associated technology. Insights gained from this assessment has guided the DTRA toward appropriate RD activities to fill identified capability shortfalls and gaps in the loose nuke mission. While the SBP effort covered the entire loose nuke mission, from indications of loss to finding and regaining positive control of the lost or stolen weapon; the decision was made early in the effort to focus on how the DoD would determine and confirm a loss or theft had occurred.

The scenario ended at a specific, pre-determined point before the entire scenario had run its course.

Divine Fox 2019 seeks to continue the analysis from the point SBP stopped.

The current procurement plan for this requirement is to award a sole-source task order under the DTRA CWMD IDIQ HDTRA1-14-D-0003-0008 with ARA, address 4300 San Mateo Blvd. NE, Ste.

A220, Albuquerque, NM 87110-1295. The period of performance will commence upon award of the task order and continue for a period not to exceed 12 months. The total expected cost of the task order is estimated to be $600,000.00.

2. Description of the Services Required

DTRA requires labor to produce, execute, record, and analyze the results from a table top exercise (TTX) based on a specific classified loose nuke scenario. This TTX will be titled “Divine Fox 2019.” The labor provided requires specific subject matter expertise to continue the analysis from SBP to develop and execute TTX to investigate DoD’s response to a loose nuke scenario. The effort requires close consultation with a specific community of interest and detailed literature searches and reviews.

3. Exception to Fair Opportunity

The statutory authority for this non-competitive action is: Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C).

The task order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to a task order already issued under the contract. All awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original task order.

4. Justification Rationale

The proposed task order is a logical follow-on to existing SBP task order HDTRA1-14-D-0003-0022;

issued under the CWMD IDIQ contract on 07 September 2016. The scope of the follow-on effort, Divine Fox 2019, is unchanged from that of the existing task order. In addition, no change in the existing SOW is warranted. The work simply extends the scenario time period from where it stopped in the existing SBP task order. Divine Fox 2019 builds on the foundation of the sum of collected work and analysis performed during the SBP effort, and continues the scenario forward. There are three risks associated with the Divine Fox 2019 award; all of which are mitigated by the logical follow-on: 1) cost of “ramping up” a new performer, 2) missing a customer deadline, and 3) access.

First, if a new performer attempted to execute Divine Fox 2019, they would require substantial time and incur significant expense to review and understand the corpus of information and data collected and assembled by the ARA team preforming SBP. Approximately 75% of the two year effort was ‘studying’ the loose nuke scenario with focus on understanding the theft of a weapon. While a new team would not spend one and half years to potentially ramp-up, the first three-to-six months would be learning what SBP produced. This would impose costs to the government for unnecessary and repetitive work with no assurances of reaching the ARA team’s understanding of the scenario. The ARA team mitigates this by requiring zero ramp-up time, and can pick up where they left off.

Another consideration of this ramp-up time is it effects on the second risk as well.

Second, in addition to providing insight for DTRA RD investments, Divine Fox 2019 is being executed to provide inputs for a Combatant Command (COCOM) exercise that has a firm date for execution. Accordingly, the second risk is schedule delays. These delays, whether due to ramp-up or competition procedures, may have a larger negative impact upon project success than the increased cost of switching to a new performer. The COCOM will benefit greatly from having the Divine Fox 2019 TTX and research feed into their separate exercise. This COCOM is the primary customer of SBP and Divine Fox. This risk is mitigated by the ARA team because they require no ramp-up time and can be working the project in time to provide results for the COCOM’s exercise.

The third risk is access. There is the high probability that a new performer will not be given access to see all of the collected information and data assembled by the ARA team during the SBP effort;

nor will they be given access to the needed details for Divine Fox 2019. The information held by this community is highly classified in various compartments with other various distribution and viewing controls, such as “by name” access and distribution. Much of the information shared with ARA has been done solely because their team arrived at the start with already established connections of trust with the loose nuke community across the US government. A new team that does not have this same access may not be allowed to see significant portions of the data assembled by the ARA team and may be precluded from access to new data as well. This risk is removed by continuing with the ARA team whose access to the loose nuke community and its information and data is proven, not speculative, and vital to mission success.

5. Market Research

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 10, market research has been conducted for the proposed task order. The project manager used the following techniques to conduct research:

a. Historical acquisition information examined (review of recent market research results for similar or identical supplies/services). Previous contract: HDTRA1-14-D-0003-0022.

b. Review of Government and/or commercial databases for relevant information.

c. Personal knowledge in procuring supplies/services of this type.

There are six eligible prime contractors on the DTRA CWMD IDIQ: Peraton, ARA, Raytheon Company, Alion Science and Technology, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Leidos Inc. While the sources sought announcement (SSA) on FedBizOps occurred in early 2015 personal knowledge of the loose nuke market area is that nothing has substantially changed. The SSA resulted in four feasible companies; three of which are performers on the DTRA IDIQ (Northrop Grumman, Leidos, and ARA). While this occurred in 2015-16, ARA is the only IDIQ member proven by performance to possess specific SME’s and knowledge needed to successfully execute the task order.

A search of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Dynamic Small Business Search Database was conducted of certain key terms, to include “Loose Nuke,” “Nuclear Weapon Recovery,” and other relevant keyword search terms and many derivations thereof. No matching small business profiles or records were returned. When the most generic term, “Nuclear Weapon”, was entered, only three small business records were returned. None met, in any way, the expected profile of a qualified performer.

6. Other Supporting Facts

N/A.

7. Subsequent Actions

Should Exercise Divine Fox 2019 prove to warrant sustained interest from the loose nuke community and continue to serve the needs and interests of DTRA; DTRA may seek a long-term contracting solution and will assess the market for viable competition. However, it is unclear at this time if this shall be the case.

Technical Certification I certify that the data and information forming the basis for this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Program Manager

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

Additionally, I determine that the order represents the best value consistent with Federal Acquisition Regulations.

Contracting Officer

General Counsel Coordination This justification is legally sufficient.

Associate General Counsel

Approval Based on the above justification, I hereby approve accomplishment of this acquisition by means other than using full and open competition.

Competition Advocate