Final JA.pdf

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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

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I. Contracting Activity.

This Justification and Approval (J&A) is to request authority for use of Other Than Full and Open Competition to support requirements generated for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), F-15 Eagle FMS (WWQIA). The contracting activity for this requirement is AFLCMC/WWQK. The purchase request number supporting this contract action is FD2060-20-31865.

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

Due to the circumstances described herein, the activity requests authority to acquire Engineering Services listed in the document using Other Than Full and Open Competition as prescribed by FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. This action will result in the award of a new definitive “C” contract which will consist of Firm Fixed Price (FFP), Time and Material (T&M), and Cost Reimbursement/No Fee (CR/NF) contract line item numbers (CLINS). The contract will consist of a two (2) year period. The projected award date is May 2020. The Period of Performance (PoP) for this Definite “C” contract is projected to be May 2020 through May 2022.

This requirement is sole source to the following company:

Advanced Electronics Company Limited

DBA: AEC

KKIA Industrial Estate Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 11623

CAGE: SE455

Large Business

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency n e e d s .

This requirement is to provide upgrade services for Electronic System Test Sets (ESTS) in support of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) F-15 fleet. Currently, the RSAF utilizes an A31U18240-2 ESTS configuration. The scope of this acquisition is to upgrade from the current ESTS (A31U18240-2) to ESTS (A31U18240-3) with an end result of the ESTS (A31U18240-4) configuration. This requirement will include all tasks required for planning, design, installing, familiarization training, regression testing, and travel associated with the upgrade of these test sets. This effort includes all labor, software, and replacement parts necessary to upgrade assets for the sustainment of the Royal Saudi Air Force's (RSAF) F-15 platform.

This effort will address obsolescence and sustainment challenges. The first step of the requirement is to accomplish the remaining Confidence and Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) test programs that were not completed under a previous effort. To accomplish this effort, the contractor must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to install and certify the test stations in the upgraded configurations. The TCTOs for A31U18240-3 and A31U18240-4 are not yet available, so the contractor must use design drawings

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY March 2018 3 0f 9 and retrofit installation instructions to complete upgrades. Once the installations are complete and pass an acceptance test plan, the contractor shall establish and maintain the operator familiarization training in respect to being able to deliver the ESTS equipment in an upgraded configuration. This highly specialized service will allow the ESTS to test all avionics and electronic systems and maintain current operational capabilities for the RSAF’s F-15 fleet.

The requirements are listed in the table below:

CLIN Description Cost Type Qty U/I Unit Price Extended Price

Upgrade ESTS from -2 to -3 FFP 7 EA $ 700,000.00 $ 4,900,000.00

Upgrade ESTS from -3 to -4 FFP 7 EA $ 671,428.57 $ 4,700,000.00

Familiarization Training FFP 4 EA $ 12,500.00 $ 50,000.00

0004 Repair T&M 1 Job $ 1,200,000.00 $ 1,200,000.00 0005 Spare Kits (-4) FFP 2 EA $ 750,000.00 $ 1,500,000.00 0006 Travel CRNF 1 Job $ 500,000.00 $ 500,000.00 0007 VAT CRNF 1 Lot $ 550,000.00 $ 550,000.00 0008 DATA NSP 1 Lot NSP NSP

Total Est. $ 13,400,000.00

The PoP for this contract is two years after contract award, anticipated to be May 2020 through May 2022.

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

10 USC 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 (a)(2)(iii), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

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

The Government's minimum needs can only be satisfied by the unique services available from AEC, which possesses the unique capabilities demonstrated as follows:

These items are highly customized for the RSAF F-15 platforms due to the architecture/design, operational /environmental requirements, and software configuration. This contract will be a follow-on to a previous effort where AEC was the prime contractor. The previous sole source contract with AEC was FA8505-11-

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D-0002 (task order 0006). It was awarded 28 December 2015 and expired 27 December 2019. The task order provided RSAF unique configuration testing and services, which included the upgrade design, a majority of the testing to validate the upgrade, and purchase of materials. AEC accomplished a majority of the regression testing and kit design required for the associated upgrades. Installation of the upgrade kits and acceptance testing were not completed under this task order due to a Government furnished property issue. These requirements will be accomplished under this follow-on contract.

Due to the timeline and real-time operational tempo in the Kingdom, this effort must be completed in its entirety within 24 months. AEC has been working on this for over four years. If another contractor (i.e. Northrup Grumman, the OEM) came in, they would have to revalidate all testing, determine if the previously procured kits would pass the Acceptance Test, and would need to build their own retrofit installation instructions, severely impacting the mission. AEC has the data and capability to complete the upgrade within 24 months. AEC is already present on the RSAF bases.

AEC owns the data rights and source codes for the design requirements for both the A31U18240-3 and A31U18240-4 configurations. A complete technical data package (TDP), upgrade kit, and associated software are required in order to upgrade the ESTSs. The Government has no repair, upgrade, or testing data and does not possess any commercial product sheets, test data, qualification data, support materials or related data that defines the performance and manufacturing characteristics of the ESTSs, precluding organic capability and qualifying another vendor for competitive upgrade.

In addition, AEC is the only source that has highly specialized technicians with the unique capability in the manufacturing, troubleshooting, repairing, and upgrading the ESTSs as well as the specialized equipment, tooling, test equipment, and facility necessary to perform the required tests, repairs, and upgrades. The specifications for both configurations are proprietary and are not available in the commercial market sector.

The Government does not have access to the proprietary data to support a competitive acquisition, nor does it have schedule availability, or fiscal ability to support reverse engineering the technical data at this time. The Government does not own the internal (Build to Print) technical drawings required to produce these components. A complete data package required to support operation, testing, and diagnostics of the A31U18240-3 or A31U18240-4 is not available to the Government. Upgrade of the A31U18240-2 and A31U18240-3 ESTSs require extensive knowledge of the technical design techniques used when it was designed.

The extensive knowledge and expertise required can only be provided by AEC based on complexity of the item and the fact that the Government does not own any internal drawings of the form, fit, and function requirements of the item. AEC owns additional system level performance requirements and undocumented engineering knowledge of device operation that no other source is privy to.

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Award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling RSAF mission requirements. Without the TDP, an award to any other source would require a redesign and/or reverse engineering effort to develop the TDP. Based on the Air Force’s engineering staff experience and engineering project data, a redesign and/or reverse engineering effort would expose the Air Force to unnecessary cost risk, schedule risk, and technical risks with no guarantee of success. Engineering based this estimate on the effort expended by the USAF to upgrade the ESTS station. This effort for the USAF has extended several times based on the difficulty of accomplishing the integration of the new instruments with the station and LRUs under test. Changing to another source at this point in the development will drive a re-engineering effort on the part of the new contractor, delaying the final delivery of the product and higher non-recurring engineering costs. The F-15 Program Office estimates it would take at least six years to reengineer the TDP and qualify a replacement source of sustainment for the ESTSs. The new source would have to obtain the necessary tools/equipment and facilities to support the effort. In addition, the new source would be required to identify and rectify any obsolescence issues, deliver qualification reports, prove out a new tech data package, passing engineering thresholds like preliminary and critical design reviews, creating new drawings. This cannot be done within the time period needed to support RSAF operations. The estimated development cost for a reverse engineering effort, not including the cost of production assets, is estimated at $27M.

Given the amount of time it will take to receive approval and funding as well as the actual time to undertake the reverse engineering effort, the Government has deemed a reverse engineering action will cause an unacceptable delay in meeting RSAF mission requirements. The time required for such an effort would directly impact and degrade mission effectiveness by delaying current sustainment for the ESTSs, which would result in degradation of F-15s contained in the RSAF’s fleet. Any delay in procuring ESTS upgrades would greatly reduce the survivability of the war fighter in the rapidly growing threat environment and is deemed unacceptable. This instant acquisition is required to successfully provide upgrade services in order to maintain mission effectiveness against vulnerable threats.

Accordingly, AEC is the only source that possesses the capability, data, supplies and highly specialized services described in Section III above without the USAF experiencing unacceptable delays that will adversely impact RSAF’s mission.

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

A Sources Sought (SS) / Request for Information (RFI) synopsis was posted to Beta.SAM.gov on 23 January 2020 with a response date of 03 February 2020 under Solicitation FA857520R0007. The SS/RFI synopsis requested responses from interested vendors that possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience to meet the requirements for sustainment support services that will consist of recurring and non-recurring engineering tasks in support of the F-15 ESTS Upgrade. The F-15 Integrated Product Team (IPT) received two responses: AEC and SES. AEC is the

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY March 2018 6 0f 9 only source that possesses the capability, data, supplies, highly specialized services and experience to complete this effort.

The requirements will be synopsized in Beta.SAM.gov in accordance with FAR

5.201. It is anticipated that sources having an interest in subcontracting may be identified through synopsis. Any source who responds to the Government as a result of this synopsis will be identified to the prime contractor as a potential subcontracting possibility.

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

The overall cost of this acquisition will be fair and reasonable to the Government. In accordance with FAR 15.403-4, the contractor will be required to provide certified cost or pricing data to be used in supporting the Government’s evaluation of proposed cost. The proposed skill mix of labor categories, labor hours, types and quantities of materials, other direct costs, and direct and indirect rates will be negotiated by the Government based on recommendations from the Defense Contract Management Agency and expert technical personnel supporting the program. The contract price will be negotiated in accordance with the procedures in FAR Part 15 ensuring the ultimate cost to the Government is fair and reasonable.

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

Market Research was conducted in accordance with FAR 10.001 and 10.002. The market research was completed on 25 Mar 2020. Market research techniques used are as follows:

As described in Section VI above, a RFI was posted to SAM.gov to solicit inquiries from interested vendors. The SS/RFI synopsis was posted on 27 January 2020 under Solicitation # FA8575-20-R-0007. Two responses were received from AEC and Science and Engineering Services, which the F-15 IPT evaluated and deemed AEC, in partnership with SES, capable based on ownership of technical data and proprietary source code.

Research was conducted by AFLCMC/WWQ, which consisted of a review of possible vendors from the previous market research. The previous market research indicated that only AEC is capable of fulfilling this requirement. In addition, IPT researched previous contracts searching for other vendors who may have performed this work in the past.

AEC was found to be the only source capable due to their ability to meet all the requirements without the agency experiencing unacceptable delays.

The team also conducted a review of several industry-wide searches on the Internet, using key terms “A31U18240-3 upgrade services” and “A31U18240-4” upgrade services. The following Internet sites were used: SAM.gov, Dynamic Small Business Search, (http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm) and Google.com. These searches yielded zero (0) potential vendors.

The F-15 A31U18240 ESTS does not fit the definition of a commercial item as defined

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY March 2018 7 0f 9 in FAR Part 2.101. The upgrade requirement is military unique as the A31U18240 ESTS is only used on military platforms. While the ESTS is derived from an original design, the resulting changes in the design made the current components military specific now with no commercial application. There is no commercially available substitute for the upgrade. The Government requires parts that meet an exact form, fit, and function as determined by the specific mission.

The Government does not own the technical data (hardware or software) for this device.

As such, the market research concluded AEC is the only vendor capable of fulfilling the Government’s requirement.

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.

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.

The Government does not possess the technical data to support full and open competition.

AEC maintains proprietary rights to the technical data for the ESTS hardware and software applicable to the RSAF’s F-15 fleet. A reverse engineering effort is estimated to cost $27M and take six years to complete. This would cause an unacceptable delay in meeting our Air Force requirements, therefore determined not feasible.

At this time, the Government is not pursuing any avenues to overcome barriers to allow for future competition because this effort supports the acquisition of services to complete the A31U18240-3 and A31U18240-4 upgrades. As such, there will not be a future requirement for this service.

The prior J&A plan to break barriers to competition was to update market research prior to award of future contracts. Section XI stated, “All services are to be provided in Saudi Arabia and the performing company must comply with Saudi laws and policies regarding employment of foreign labor. This limits the ability of the United States Air Force to promote competition or assist other companies in growing capability with Saudi Arabia. At this stage in their industrial development, the KSA government’s priority is assisting individual companies within each sector of Saudi industry in assuming work previously accomplished by foreign companies. Competition between Saudi companies within the same sector is not a high priority for them at this point. Market research data will be updated prior to award of future contracts and an alternate acquisition strategy will be pursued if it is warranted by changes in the market place.”

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The IPT complied with this statement therefore higher level approval in accordance with DFARS PGI 206.304(a) (S-70) (ii) is not required.

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 signature above, I certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my responsibility, is both accurate and complete.