JA PB Operations Redacted.pdf

Department of the Air Force: Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition

CUI

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I. Agency and Contracting Activity (RFO 6.104-1(a)(1)):

Agency: AFMC Contracting Activity: AFLCMC/HNCXK, Platform One

II. Nature and/or description of the action being approved (RFO 6.104-1(a)(2)):

This document approves the award of a Bridge Contract on a sole source basis to for continuous operations of enterprise scale DevSecOps platforms and collaborations services in support of the Platform One Party Bus Value Stream.

This justification is made on an Individual basis.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs (RFO 6.104-1(a)(3)):

The required contractor support encompasses the operational activities necessary to maintain the existing Party Bus capability, including platform operations and sustainment, technical and customer support, incident response, cyber security support, vulnerability remediation, configuration management, integration support, customer onboarding, and other operational functions necessary to maintain the availability and security of the platform.

Party Bus currently supports multiple DoW mission partners whose operational activities rely upon continued access to the platform and associated support services.

The Government asserts Unlimited Rights to all technical data, computer software, and deliverables produced by the Contractor in the performance of this bridge contract, in accordance with R-DFARS 252.227-7989 (c) (1) and R-DFARS 252.227-7990. This bridge effort maintains the same data rights posture established under the predecessor contract. The Government is not pursuing any proprietary Intellectual Property (IP) or restricted licensing. The contractor-provided platform baseline remains built on open-source, non-proprietary frameworks, ensuring that the Government retains full rights to modify, deploy, and utilize the technology stack across multiple Department of War classification levels without vendor-imposed restrictions.

The estimated value is or a one year Period of Performance (PoP).

The anticipated contract type is Firm-Fixed-Price. Funding is anticipated to consist of ). The requirement includes

IV. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(4)):

10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(2), Unusual and compelling urgency.

RFO 12.201-2, Other procedures - 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1)

V. Rationale for Use of Authority (RFO 6.104-1(a)(5)):

The proposed bridge action is necessary to ensure the uninterrupted performance of the Party Bus DevSecOps platform and associated collaboration tools. Any delay in executing this bridge action would cause immediate, severe, and irreversible injury to the Government's operational capabilities.

Specifically, the extent and nature of this serious injury include:

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- Immediate Disruption of Mission-Critical Applications: A delay would halt the continuous DevSecOps pipeline supporting 140+ active mission applications, causing immediate operational failure for these essential software suites.

- Loss of Global Collaboration Capabilities: Over 100,000 active collaboration tool users globally would lose vital communication and real-time coordination capability across critical defense sectors.

is the only source capable of meeting the Government's immediate bridge requirement without unacceptable operational, schedule, and transition risk. currently possesses the cleared and credentialed workforce; active access to required Government systems and environments;

knowledge of the operational architecture, platform-specific pipelines, and established operating procedures; and the ability to continue performance without a transition period.

Although market research identified other vendors that may be capable of performing the long-term requirement, those vendors cannot meet the Government's immediate requirement within the available time frame. Transitioning performance to a non-incumbent would require, at a minimum, the transfer of clearances and system access; onboarding to the Platform One zero-trust gateway;

familiarization with platform-specific active pipelines and operating procedures; validation of interfaces and configurations; knowledge transfer from incumbent personnel; and assumption of operational responsibility.

Award to another source for this short-duration requirement would require a transition period to recruit and clear personnel, obtain required access to Government facilities and systems, establish interfaces, validate procedures, and assume operational responsibility. Based on the Government's assessment, that transition cannot be completed before the current contract expires on November 4th, 2026 without creating an unacceptable risk of mission interruption, safety risk, loss of capability, degradation of support, data/system disruption, and failure of mission application environments.

The bridge period is limited to 1 Year, which is the time necessary to complete PB Ops & CT Team acquisition. Current status of the acquisition is in Market Research and SOO review pending an RFI release, with a targeted award date of February 4, 2027

This action is not intended to circumvent competition; rather, it is a temporary measure to maintain continuity of required services until the competitively awarded follow-on contract is in place. Due to the unique and innovative concept of Party Bus Operations and Collaboration Tools (PB Ops & CT ) a Bridge contract must be awarded without providing for full and open competition due to innovation and continued development of the DevSecOPs platform and associated collaboration tools to over 200+ Department of War operational mission partners.

The long-term sustainment strategy for the Party Bus ecosystem relies on transitioning these capabilities to a fully competitive follow-on contract. The Government is currently structuring the follow-on acquisition as a full-and-open competitive award. This 12-month bridge action provides the minimum necessary timeline to complete the development of competitive requirements, obtain necessary acquisition approvals, and execute a fair solicitation process without a catastrophic gap in core platform operations. Risk of Vendor Lock:There is no risk of vendor lock-in. The Party Bus DevSecOps Platform as a Service (PaaS) utilizes open-source configurations (e.g., Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Kubernetes, Big Bang Configuration-as-Code) and hardened commercial containers hosted within government-furnished cloud environments. This standardized, non-proprietary architecture ensures that any capable systems integrator can operate, scale, and sustain the

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VI. Integrated Market Analysis and Efforts to Solicit Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(6), (8), and (10)):

On 4 September 2026, the Party Bus Acquisition Team conducted market research in accordance with RFO 6.104-1(a)(6),(8),and(10). Based on the draft Statement of Objectives (SOO), vendors were identified and each was determined to be fully capable of performing the program requirements: . By identifying these capable sources, the Government has successfully demonstrated that a competitive market exists to support these capabilities. However, because this is a temporary bridge action, transitioning platform operations to any of the other f capable non-incumbent vendors at this time would potentially take multiple months. This transition timeline is required to transfer security clearances, onboard personnel onto Platform One’s zero-trust gateway, and train staff on platform-specific active pipelines. This delay presents unacceptable program risks and would halt critical software updates supporting Air Mobility Command (AMC) operations, including aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, and Global Air Mobility Support System (GAMSS) missions. To leverage this competitive market, the Government is actively setting up a follow-on acquisition effort designed to take advantage of these multiple capable vendors.

This research confirms that a competitive market exists for the long-term Party Bus sustainment requirement. However, the immediate bridge requirement is limited to maintaining uninterrupted performance until the competitive follow-on contract is awarded and transitioned.

Based on the documented transition requirementsincluding clearance and access transfer, onboarding to the zero-trust environment, training on active pipelines, validation of operational procedures, and assumption of responsibility for the live production environment—the Government concludes that no non-incumbent source can meet the immediate bridge requirement within the available timeframe without unacceptable cost, schedule, and mission impact.

Accordingly, only one source, the incumbent contractor meets the Government's immediate need for uninterrupted platform sustainment and critical mission continuity during this transition window.

VII. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost (RFO 6.104-1(a)(7)):

The Contracting Officer is responsible for evaluating, determining, and documenting the anticipated contract cost/price is fair and reasonable in accordance with RFO Subpart 15.4, Contract Pricing.

VIII. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification (RFO 6.104-1(a)(9)):

In accordance with RFO 6.104-1(a)(9), the contracting officer must estimate the duplicate costs to the Government that would be incurred through a transition to an alternative source. Awarding this temporary bridge requirement to any vendor other than the incumbent, would result in substantial, unrecoverable duplicate transition and acquisition costs. Introducing a new contractor for this limited bridge period would require the Government to pay for redundant transition-in hours, pairing/ shadowing periods to transfer specialized pipeline knowledge, and administrative onboarding. Furthermore, the Government would incur duplicate acquisition costs by forcing the program office and contracting activity to execute two full procurement cycles within a short timeframe—first to transition the short-term bridge to a non-incumbent, and second to award and transition to the long-term competitive follow-on contract. These duplicate administrative, labor, and procurement costs would not be recovered through competition and represent an inefficient use of Government resources. Because the incumbent's personnel are already cleared, credentialed, and fully operational on the active pipelines, continuing with for this bridge period eliminates these duplicate transition costs entirely.

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IX. Actions to Overcome Barriers to Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(11):

The Government intends to overcome barriers to competition by conducting competitive follow-on acquisition to identify qualified vendors and commercially available solutions. The proposed bridge contract is necessary to maintain continuity of critical mission requirements and prevent operational disruption while the competitive acquisition is completed/ The Government will continue conducting market research and refining requirements to maximize competition. These actions will facilitate a timely transition to a competitively awarded contract and minimize the need for future noncompetitive actions.