FY_19_-_J&A_Veth_Research-for_REDACTION_Redacted.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 7

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: AFTC/PZIEA

Purchase Request / Local ID Number: F1S0AE9116B001

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): Trajectory Determination & Analysis System (TDAS) - Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) Program

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): J&A Type: Class Individual

COORDINATION (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

22 May 2019

Project Lead / Program Mgr / Requiring Activity

BRIAN L. DUHART

412 RANS/ENR,

Signature

APPROVAL (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

25 Jul 2019

Contracting Officer

MATTHEW D. CHARTIER

AFTC/PZIEA,

Signature

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I. Contracting Activity.

The contracting organization that is responsible for the proposed contract action is the Air Force Test Center (AFTC), Directorate of Contracting, Enterprise Acquisition Division (PZIEA), 5 South Wolfe Avenue, Edwards AFB CA 93524-1185. The contracting officer for this acquisition is Mr.

Matthew Chartier. The purchase request number is F1S0AE9116B001. This is a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition.

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

The proposed action will result in a new Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contract that is a follow-on; the proposed source is:

Veth Research Associates, LLC 1148 Troon Drive W Niceville, FL 32578-4063

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

This requirement is mission critical, and is required to support existing and future Time Space Positioning Information (TSPI) post mission processing that is being executed at the

. This capability will support the new Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System (CRIIS) that is currently being integrated at both well as a support legacy TSPI systems that are now being upgraded.

This contract action addresses the existing capability gap in the current TSPI systems available for trajectory analysis. To address this need, the 412th Range Squadron and 96th Range Control Squadron are jointly leading the development of a next-generation TSPI data processing. This new system will leverage state-of-the-art estimation algorithms to deliver a scalable, modular, high-accuracy system to multiple customers in the range enterprise with Government owned software available to all DoD.

This system will provide the ability to flexibly and accurately incorporate a wide variety of sensors with varying performance. General system requirements include:

- Post-flight, high precision, benchmark quality TSPI product

- Flexible operation, user-friendly, easy adoption path for new customers

- Includes "Standard" and "Advanced" modes

- Includes software engineering support, documentation and tutorials

- Modular architecture

- New sensors can be added without complicated software modifications

The system will also support a wide-range of existing future sensors including inertial measurements units (IMU), global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, ground optical and radar tracking systems. In addition, it supports incorporation of a statistical dead reckoning module designed to support various classes (and types) of vehicles. The models will be equipped with tuning parameters to allow the analyst to customize the performance to suit a range of vehicle types.

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Previous and current efforts in this development effort include but not limited to:

• Incorporate Phase II sensors into TDAS stand-alone processing system

• Includes additional IMU, GPS, and ground tracking sensors

• Compare processing accuracy of Phase II sensor modes to current MOSES solution

• Incorporate GPS carrier-phase fixed ambiguity estimation mode into TDAS processing system

• Incorporate additional GNSS signals (e.g., GLONASS, Galileo, GPS L5) into TDAS processing system using floating ambiguities

• Develop documentation of Phase II sensors and improved GNSS positioning modes

The total estimated value of the acquisition is . The type of appropriation .

The period of performance is 01 Sep 2019 through 31 Aug 2020.

The contract will be comprised of base (CLIN 0001) Contract Line Items (CLINS) will consist of the following:

CLIN Description

0001 (Phase 3a) Trajectory Determination and Analysis System 01 September 2019 - 31 Aug 2020

Work Period 3a, Sep 2019 - Aug 2020 - Estimated cost:

Proposed Tasks:

• Incorporate Phase III sensors into TDAS stand-alone processing system

• Incorporate multiple target tracking modes

• Design, build, and test real-time TDAS processing mode

• Incorporate precise point positioning (PPP) updates into TDAS processing system

• Incorporate carrier-phase fixed ambiguity estimation mode for additional GNSS signals incorporated in Work Period 2

• Develop documentation for Phase III sensors and real-time processing functions

• Respond to user testing of beta releases. This includes both corrective and perfective improvements to processing and the GUI.

• A "Wizard" option or layer that provides a conventional step by step pathway for selecting sensors

• A export tool is that allows tailored export of specified TSPI parameters to comma separated files.

• A baseline TSPI file output of time, position, velocity, and Euler attitude and the ability to compare at least 2 of these files is needed both for more convenient testing and production use (eg. target-shooter).

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

The statutory authority permitting this action is 10 USC 2304(c)(1) which specifies that, “the property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source or only from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of property or service will satisfy the needs of the agency” as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6.302- 1(a) (2)(iii)(A), and required by FAR 6.303-2(b)(4).

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

Based upon the results of market research, the CRIIS program proposes the enhancement of the highly specialized TDAS system as a government development effort with the technical support of Dr Michael Veth of Veth Research and Associates (VRA). Dr Michael Veth is currently the Lead Engineer and co-founder of VRA where he provides expert consulting and training in estimation theory and alternative navigation techniques. His research focus is on applying advanced estimation theory to combine inertial sensors with non-traditional sensors for non-GPS navigation and control applications. VRA was instrumental in the development of the initial phase of the TDAS and will be instrumental to the development of the advanced capabilities needed to effectively support the ranges post mission processing required to support the customer. Based on VRA current involvement with this development, VRA has specific and unique knowledge of the system development that would difficult and cost prohibitive to re-initiate with a new engineering support company.

The TDAS Phase 3a services is a follow-on contract from the Phase 1 and 2 efforts. Each of the phases are further developing trajectory analysis tool that leverages state-of-the-art estimation algorithms to deliver a scalable, modular, high-accuracy system. Phase 1 and 2 efforts were to design, build and test baseline TDAS stand-alone processing system, compare processing accuracy to current Multi-sensor Optimal Smoother Estimation Software (MOSES) solution and evaluate processing time using reference computer hardware. The service to be procured are highly specialized due to the TDAS service providing a trajectory analysis tool that leverage state-of-the-art estimation algorithms to support the CRIIS program. Therefore, this acquisition is for continued performance of a highly specialized service.

Award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. A three year collaborative effort between the CRIIS I&M program (Eglin AFB and Edwards AFB), AFIT, and VRA resulted in an enterprise requirements definition/development and TDAS proof of concept. VRA was a critical element in completing the documentation and proof of concepts which included the initial software coding. Continuing this effort with any other Subject Matter Expert would result in the CRIIS I&M program completing the TDAS alone and would result in the PMP tool not being an enterprise solution. Initial software would require significant rework and the proof of concept would produce substantial duplication of costs

. Estimate is based on the development costs incurred by the Government under the previous and similar contract FA9302-17-C-0018 ( ) deemed as Phase 1. Phase 2, was awarded for $ on Contract FA9302-18-F-0010. The proposed Phase 3a (Work Period 2) is estimated at $ .

Accordingly, Veth Research Associates, LLC is the only firm capable of providing the service described in Sec III above without the US Air Force experiencing substantial duplication of cost that could not be expected to be recovered through competition.

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

A measure of Market Research was performed by posting a sources sought notice on FBO.gov. The sources sought was issued on 20 May 2019 and requested interested parties to contact the Contracting Officer for their capabilities to fully support this requirement. The sources sought notice yielded two responses from two Small Businesses, Specialized Imaging, Inc. and Technology Service Corporation (TSC). Specialized Imaging Corporation stated that they were interested due to their extensive and proven aircraft trajectory data analysis expertise. This information was forwarded to the Program Manager for their analysis of Specialized Imaging's Capability Notice. The program manager stated that Specialized Imaging Inc. would not be able to provide this requirement, since Veth Research Associates (VRA) developed the original executable software and has intimate knowledge of the software tools needed to complete phase 3a. VRA developed these proprietary software toolsets to compile and manipulate filtering tools within the software. The Government does have Government Use Rights, but the government does not have proprietary rights to the toolsets needed to upgrade and test the software. Specialized Imaging Inc. could not provide all required aspects for the prospective follow-on acquisition for the current CRIIS and TDAS programs. As for Technology Service Corporations (TSC) capabilities - will not meet the requirements for reasons listed below. Based on the response from Technology Service Corporation, the VSTRP tool seems to be an existing tool focused on ballistic missiles and orbital vehicles. They did not present an expert technical data processing development solution to complete the TDAS tool development requested in the sources sought. While Technology Service Corporation VSTRP tool seems to be a well established system, it is designed to accommodate extreme variations in vehicle configuration, flight profile, mission objective focused on missile and space systems. The capability required is for technical expertise to the complete development of a flight test data analysis tool that is in progress. The past vendor (VRA) has specific proprietary software compiler tools required to develop a batch EKF analysis processing schema.

The prospective follow-on acquisition requires expert technical engineering support to complete a GPS and RF based trajectory data processing analysis tool specific to high dynamic multi participant, multi constipation flight test at PAX River, Eglin and Edwards AFB. TSC's VSTRP tool appears to offer an existing tool focused on ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and orbital vehicles operations as opposed to a focus on R&D high dynamic flight testing of low observables SUT.

The TSC VSTRP existing tool would require extensive testing, study, design and development change to accommodate the current TSPI flight test environment at Edwards and Eglin AFB. This would be based on making the TSC VSTRP software compatible with the existing ARDS and CRIIS network wave forms, message formats, and the incorporation of the GNSS multi-observation module into both a forward extended Kalman filter (EKF). Additionally, the response does not specify if their software operates with a batch solver solutions currently being used in the TDAS data analysis tool. We can assume TSC is familiar with EKF however, batch solver solutions are not as common in data processing and Veth Inc. originally developed the specific TDAS batch solver for flight testing at Eglin and Edwards AFB. The Technology Service Corporation VSTRP tool does not state whether it can support real time RF and JPL corrections that would be required in the TDAS analysis.

There were no responses from market research that was conducted in the Institute of Navigation (ION) and at the RCC Electronic Trajectory Measurements Group (ETMG) Communities.

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

The anticipated price will be determined fair and reasonable based on comparison of proposed prices with independent Government cost estimates and information other than cost and pricing data. Furthermore, the program manager will provide a technical evaluation analyzing the proposed information.

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

As described in Section VI above, market research, IAW FAR Part 10, was conducted by posting a sources sought notice of the proposed acquisition advising industry of the pending acquisition from interested parties.

The 412 TENG performed market research and found that commercial and non-developmental items are not available to support the Air Force TSPI post mission processing trajectory analysis. An enterprise government development effort produced a data processing toolset called TRAJECTORY DETERMINATION AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM. The toolset is currently being enhanced to process the new CRIIS sensor data as well as legacy data.

Market Research was performed by consulting knowledgeable individuals, both in government and industry, regarding the capabilities to meet the requirements. Research was conducted in the Institute of Navigation (ION) and at the RCC ETMG Communities. ION GNSS+ is the world's largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services. ION members are drawn from many sources including professional navigators, astronomers, cartographers, photogrametrists, meteorologists, engineers, physicists, educators, geodesists, surveyors, general aviation and airline pilots, mariners, yachtsmen, and anyone interested in position-determining systems. Corporate members include corporations, civil and military government agencies, private scientific and technical institutions, universities and training academies, and consulting firms. The ETMG addresses all aspects of operation, maintenance and performance for instrumentation radars, electronic warfare systems, continuous wave systems, Global Positioning System (GPS) based instrumentation systems, multilateration systems, and scoring systems utilized on DoD test and training ranges. The ETMG ensure that calibration methods and accuracy verification processes are created and updated to ensure the accuracies of these systems can be measured, documented, and certified. The ETMG promotes standardization in these systems including hardware, software, operation, and maintenance to the maximum extent possible. The group actively supports joint procurements of these systems and/or their respective calibration tools to the extent allowed in the RCC Operations and Policy Document. Ancillary equipment such as transponders, inertial systems, infrared sensors, television, lasers, masers, nuclear devices, and computer systems required to enhance the capabilities and accuracies of these electronic measurement and warfare systems also come under the purview of this group. In addition, the ETMG responds to theoretical and applied problems of propagation involving the entire electromagnetic radiation spectrum, including the technical interchange of information relating to the enhancement of instrumentation performance and accuracy, and data utility by range user analysts. The ETMG is composed of three standing committees: the Radar Committee, the GPS Committee, and the Range Instrumentation Accuracy Committee, with ad hoc committees as required to accomplish tasks. As described in Section VI above, market research, IAW FAR Part 10, was conducted by posting a sources sought notice of the proposed acquisition advising industry of the pending acquisition from interested parties.

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

Veth Research has been involved in the development and design of the requirements and proof of concepts efforts the program has already accomplished. This company has specific and detailed intimate knowledge of the system that would not be cost prohibitive to start over and duplicate with another company. Additionally, Veth Research

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Associates has specific knowledge and experience of Air Force TSPI GPS sensors operations at the AFTC that is not widely available in the market.

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

See Section VI above.

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.

In addition to participating at ION and RCC ETMG described in section VI, market research will continue throughout the contract period by attending trade shows, conferences and technical symposiums and if full-and-open competition becomes available and it is determined to be beneficial, the government will compete any future acquisition of this nature.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by my (our) signature(s) above, I (we) certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my (our) responsibility, is both accurate and complete.