Class_J&A_LMRs.pdf

Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 1 of 5

NOTE: If a Justification and Approval was approved for the preceding acquisition, a copy of the approved J&A for the predecessor action must be included in the staff package for approval of the instant J&A. This applies to J&A staff packages that are submitted for review and approval at a level above the contracting officer. The predecessor J&A will be used as a reference document by the approving official.

Is this a new or amended J&A Document? New Amended ( Prior to Award Only! )

Is this a Bridge Action as defined in the AF Bridge Action Reduction Plan? Yes No

Funding level for this acquisition: < $700K > $700K and < $13.5M > $13.5M and < $93M > $93M

Contracting Activity: Air Force Installation Contracting Agency

Purchase Request / Local ID Number: TBD

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): Motorola and Harris Land Mobile Radio Air Force-wide Brand Name Requirements

Program Type (PEO or Other Contracting): Other Contracting

Authority: 6.302-1 – 10 USC 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): $87,900,000 J&A Type: Class Individual

COORDINATION (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date LMR Infrastructure Sustainment Lead Scott A. Fritts

AFIMSC/IZS, 969--8289

Signature

Date

31 Aug 2018

Contracting Officer Julian S. Kaelin

771 ESS/DBO, 937-904-1858

Signature

Date

31 Aug 2018

Senior Legal Advisor Michaelisa Tomasic-Lander

AFLOA/JAQK, AFICA 257-6236

Signature

Date

31 Aug 2018

Competition Advocate Jacob E. Kuhns

AFICA/KP, 937-257-5529

Signature

APPROVAL (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

4 Sep 2018

Head of Procuring Activity Renee M. Richardson, SES

AFICA/CA, 937-257-6236

Signature

FRITTS.SCOTT.A.115

7349569

Digitally signed by

FRITTS.SCOTT.A.1157349569

Date: 2018.08.31 08:24:58 -05'00'

KAELIN.JULIAN.S.10850

84093

Digitally signed by

KAELIN.JULIAN.S.1085084093

Date: 2018.08.31 09:32:01 -04'00'

TOMASIC-

LANDER.MICHAELISA.M.107652360

Digitally signed by TOMASIC-

LANDER.MICHAELISA.M.1076523602

Date: 2018.08.31 09:51:51 -04'00'

KUHNS.JACOB.E.12802

20317

Digitally signed by

KUHNS.JACOB.E.1280220317

Date: 2018.08.31 13:42:39 -04'00'

RICHARDSON.RENEE.M.

1095796431

Digitally signed by

RICHARDSON.RENEE.M.1095796431

Date: 2018.09.04 13:46:27 -04'00'

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 5

I. Contracting Activity.

Department of the Air Force, Air Force Installation Contracting Agency, Policy and Training Division (AFICA/KPP), 3515 S. General McMullen, San Antonio, TX 78226

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

The USAF has a brand name requirement to procure only Motorola Solutions (Motorola) or Harris Corporation (Harris) Land Mobile Radio (LMR) equipment to support the sustainment and technical refresh of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Project 25 (P25) compliant end-user radios, ancillary equipment and software for the remainder of fiscal year (FY)18 through 30 Nov 18. This Class J&A will support multiple FY end contracts (new) throughout AFICA both CONUS and OCONUS locations.

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

This Class J&A covers all USAF LMR purchases from the effective date of this Class J&A through 30 Nov 18. Radio purchases during this time are estimated to be 16,586 radios (est. $87.9M / 64% of annual total), including LMR accessories and associated installation services. Incidental installation services are commonly included with radio purchases, making-up around 7% of each purchase, and are already included in the per-radio estimates and total (est.

$6.2M of the $87.9M total). Approval of this Class J&A will eliminate the redundancy of each Contracting Activity preparing and approving individual J&As resulting in more efficient, effective and timely mission support for sole source Motorola and Harris LMR requirements for the time period outlined above. It is noted that a Government-wide Tactical Communications (TacCom-II) contract is anticipated for award by 30 Nov 18, and is anticipated to be a mandatory source for the USAF LMRs for purchases beyond 30 Nov 2018.

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

10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2) and required by FAR 6.303-2(b)(4), when supplies or services required by the agency are available from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.

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

P25 standards are a suite of standards for digital radio communications for use by federal, state, and local public safety organizations in North America to enable them to communicate with other agencies and mutual aid response teams in emergencies. Since 1989, use of the P25 standards has been mandatory for the United States Federal Government radio equipment; therefore, each USAF LMR trunking system is required to meet P25 standards. Trunking systems are integral to the use of LMRs because it enables AF radio users to share communication lines or frequencies instead of dedicating individual frequencies for each user. According to the P25 website, 14 radio manufacturers currently produce P25 compliant radios. Despite the common P25 standards required for USAF LMRs, several complicating factors exist that preclude allowing full-and-open competition for USAF LMR purchases.

Unique and Patented Features:

Patented technology and associated vendor-specific features have created a significant barrier to competition for AF LMRs. Both Motorola and Harris each have 100-plus unique patents for LMR-related technology. Motorola and Harris both have advanced features that are now functional standards of practice that are available on other vendors' equipment. However, several key features of Motorola or Harris that enhance mission readiness are not available on competing vendor's equipment. A detailed list of unique and patented features available only on Motorola equipment was provided by Motorola during a capability brief to the AF-Wide Enterprise LMR acquisition team. Although Harris has not provided a similar list of patented/unique features, multiple J&As have been approved across the AF due to the unique patented features of Harris LMRs in support of AF Special Operations, Security Forces, and other USAF requirement activities. A discussion of these features follows.

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 3 of 5

Feature-division in LMRs has made each product truly unique, causing there to be only one source capable of providing a specific feature-set to USAF customers. Customer needs for specific LMR features are based-on specialized missions at each base or deployed environment and can only be determined by the customer's LMR technical advisors.

The environment for USAF LMRs is such that most radio purchases must be supported by a brand-name or sole-source J&A to meet customer requirements.

Trunking-Integrated Features:

There is no guarantee nor precedent that third-party equipment will be compatible with the current infrastructure since these features are not standardized by the P25 architecture. Two of the most prominent examples of these features are the ability to perform an Over-the-Air Rekey (OTAR) and Over-the-Air Programming (OTAP). These two functions have only been proven to work on the same-vendor systems and are of critical importance since it saves the manpower and associated costs of manually updating several thousand radios several times per year. Market research indicates that the majority of bases (estimated at 95%) have either Motorola or Harris trunking systems. Therefore, bases must purchase radios from the same vendor as their trunking system. Because the overwhelming majority of bases uses one of these two trunking systems, and has one of these two LMR brands, any purchase of other than these two brands degrades mission readiness and increases cost of operation and waste of installed resources due to needless replacement. For those bases that are not now using either Motorola or Harris LMRs or their related trunking systems, it is in the best interest of the Air Force to allow those communications squadrons to buy one of these two systems by brand name in order to maximize standardization across the Air Force, creating further savings in training, maintenance, inventory, and replacement due to interoperability.

Deployed Requirements:

OCONUS bases and commonly deployed units often have to procure communications equipment that is the same as our allies and mission partners in the region. HQ ACC and USSOUTHCOM processed a J&A for Harris radios on IDIQ contract FA489016D0027 ($48M). Only Harris radios could be used in this case because, “The Harris tactical radio suite is the standard radio system employed by all partner nations. The Government has invested significant funds in equipping, provisioning, and training all [counter-narcotics] partner nations within the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” Using a separate brand of radios in this case may cause significant operational issues and duplication in cost from procuring additional spares, retraining US troops and partner nations, and integrating another brand of equipment with J8 Jeep Tactical Vehicles and Boston Whaler intercept boats.

In another case, a 2015 letter was received from the USAFCENT/A6 Director of Communications requesting that only Motorola APX radios be purchased for their Combat Comm units within Southwest Asia. The letter stated, “The [Harris] PRC-152 radios currently being procured are not effective in coalition environments due to the embedded Type 1 encryption in these devices. This prohibits the issuing of these radios to coalition personnel for use when conducting flight operations on AFCENT controlled airfields… The [Motorola] APX uses type 3 commercial encryption so that it fulfills current security requirements and may also be issued to coalition personnel operating on USAFCENT controlled airfields.” Only Motorola radios meet the level 3 embedded encryption requirements for AFCENT. Similar to other unique radio features, brand name Motorola and Harris radio requirements are common for meeting the needs of deployed/OCONUS USAF personnel.

Homogeneity:

It is in the USAF's best interest to use one brand of radios at each AF base. Implementing standardized equipment across the Air Force permits immediate software and hardware interoperability should a failure occur, increasing security, readiness, reliability, communications effectiveness and maintenance costs. Standardization also prevents specialized training for different LMRs for the same type of device failure. USAF Communications Squadrons are typically not trained on any equipment other than Motorola and Harris and the base users do not have the required software and hardware to bring a different vendor product on line. To do so would have costs associated with the change to replace preexisting radios and the corresponding trunking system elements, adding unnecessary expenditures. Holding and maintaining spares, radio accessories, and software from multiple (up to 14) P25 radio manufacturers has proven untenable and to continue would lead to substantial duplications of supply and manpower costs.

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 4 of 5

Conclusion:

Radio purchases across the USAF almost always require unique/patented radio features from a specific manufacturer.

Motorola and Harris radios account for approximately 97.7% of the current radio inventory. Motorola and Harris are the only vendors that can supply JITC certified trunking equipment, and therefore, the only vendors that can supply radios with trunking-enhanced radio features (including OTAP and OTAR) and radios that are 100% compatible with the current systems in place.

Implementation of this Class J&A will facilitate more timely and cost effective mission support by increasing the availability of 100% compatible radio units that meet each customer's unique requirements while significantly reducing duplication of costs in spare parts/accessories, LMR maintenance, and duplication of contract support and reduction of cycle-time associated with individual J&As. Completion of this J&A does not preclude bases from purchasing other brand radios as needed (e.g. cost-effective radios for training), but allows the majority of bases to directly purchase the radios that meet their specialized missions.

Additionally, implementing standardized equipment across the Air Force permits immediate software and hardware interoperability should a failure occur, reducing downtime and maintenance costs. Standardization also prevents specialized training for different devices for the same type of device failure. Air Force Communications Squadrons are typically not trained on any equipment other than Motorola and Harris do not have the required software and hardware to bring a different vendor product on line.

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

A Sources Sought Synopsis was issued on 20 Nov 2017. A total of eight (8) vendors responded. Capability briefs were conducted with five (5) of the vendors, (Eastern Communications, EF Johnson, Motorola, MicroTech, and IT Tech Direct) on 14-15 Dec 2017). Two other vendors (Harris and BK Technologies) performed capability briefs on 9 Jan 2018. An RFI was issued to solicit information from industry on the future of USAF LMR procurement during the Enterprise LMR (eLMR) acquisition FA251719R7000 (Est. $990M). Vendor inputs were analyzed by 21 CONS and technical experts at Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC). Although multiple companies were considered and capability briefs were received, only Motorola and Harris LMRs were considered as sources due to the need for interoperability with existing trunking systems (as explained above) The benefits to the Air Force through standardization and interoperability with sunk costs of existing and highly reliable infrastructure greatly outweigh the competition and costs for changes to the infrastructure for these specific requirements.

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

Contracting Activities will be required to make an individual determination of price fair and reasonableness in accordance with (IAW) FAR 13.106-3(a) (simplified acquisitions) or FAR 15.403-3(c)(1) (commercial acquisitions) prior to award.

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

Extensive market research was accomplished by 21 CONS spanning from June 2016 through February 2018. Supporting fact in this Class J&A were drawn from the 21 CONS Market Research Report, dated 26 February 2018 which documents historical and future LMR long-term and in-depth spend and trend analysis. Input was gathered from AFIMSC subject-matter experts, various Communications Squadrons, and Air Force Installations by 21CONS with inputs from AFIMSC, Motorola, Harris, and SMEs from various Communications Squadrons.

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

None.

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

Sources that expressed interest in the AF-wide eLMR acquisition are as follows: AEG, BK Technologies, Eastern Communications, Echo9, EF Johnson, Harris, IT Tech Direct, Micro Tech, and Motorola.

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 AF intends to use the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) TacCom-II contract for future procurements of LMRs. Although 60-plus vendors are anticipated to be on this contract vehicle, the same factors for limiting of competition for USAF radio purchases will still exist. At that time, a new Class J&A will cover purchases for those purposes. However, once the contract is awarded, the USAF will maximize competition for USAF LMR purchases when applicable while still providing customers the ability to purchase sole-source LMR equipment.

In accordance with FAR 6.305, when using FAR 6.302-1 as the basis for limiting competition, the justification shall be made publicly available within 14 days after contract award. This justification shall be made publicly available via the Federal Business Opportunities Website (www.fbo.gov). Responses received, from capable and interested vendors, as a result of that posting will be considered for future USAF LMR efforts.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

The Contracting Officer's signature on the Justification Review Document provides evidence that he has determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of his knowledge and belief (FAR 6.303-2(b)(12)).

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by their signatures on the Justification Review Document, the technical and/or requirements personnel have certified that any supporting data contained herein, which is their responsibility, is both accurate and complete (FAR 6.303-2(c)).