G1.2 MRAAV FOE - Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION for an EXCEPTION to FAIR OPPORTUNITY for the placement of an order >SAT under a Multiple Award Contract (MAC)

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, Sharon M. Pritchard, as Competition Advocate of SPAW ARSYSCEN, Pacific, hereby approve the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b )(2).

JUSTIFICATION

1. Agency and Contracting Activity. Department of the Navy, SPAW ARSYSCEN, Pacific (SSC Pacific).

2. Nature/Description of Action. This is a fair oppmtunity exception to place a task order with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) under contract number N 66001-l 8-D- 0307. This contract is part of SSC Pacific's multiple award contract for Development, Technical, Management, and Engineering Services for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Systems within Code 564. The estimate value of this task order is $2,437,996.55.

3. Description of Supplies/Services. The Na val Science and Engineering (NISE) Rapid Prototyping project titled Mission Ready Autonomous AA V (MR AA V) is a non-performance based level of effort task. Tasking includes systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, integration support, experimentation, specialty vehicle maintenance, component fabrication and evaluation support for the MR AA V NISE project; an autonomous systems development, experimentation, and evaluation effort within SSC Pacific Code 564. The scope of work involves the deployment of autonomous unmanned amphibious vehicles (modified USMC assault amphibious vehicles (AA Vs)) to demonstrate an enhanced warfighting capability to disrupt adversary activity in a given maritime region. This project heavily leverages the technology and systems developed under the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Code 30 Modular Autonomous Robotic Systems (MARS) project. The MARS project developed a highly specialized support team currently operating under contract N6600l-10-D- 0049, task order (TO) N66001-18-F-0515, which was sole-source awarded to SAIC with a 12-month period of performance (PoP) beginning on 9 March 2018.

The MR AAV project's expected lead time is for three (3) years (one 12 month base period with two 12 month option periods), which will be managed initially by the SSC Pacific NISE program

Per SSC Pacific's Project Management policy, the MR AAV project is characterized as a Tier I developmental effort, that will include development of new technologies as well as the integration of current technologies developed by other organizations within the autonomous systems community to demonstrate concept feasibility.

SSC Pacific is responsible for the platfonn hardware design and component integration, overall autonomy architecture design, autonomy algorithm development, integration of third party

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(b)(3); (b)(7)(e) autonomy software components into the architecture, and the experimentation and evaluation of the overall system. This project intends to advance the use of autonomous amphibious systems

, and SSC Pacific maintains the domain knowledge, breadth, and depth of experience to contribute significantly to the program's success.

4. Identification of the Exception to Fair Opportunity

D a. The agency need for services is of such urgency that providing fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

12:<J b. Only one such awardee is capable of providing such services required at the level of quality required because the services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

SAIC is the only contractor able to provide the level of support required on the MR AA V effort as (1) using another contractor would compromise technical expertise and working lmowledge that team members must possess to successfully fulfill this requirement; (2) the schedule would be impacted due to another contractor's need to operate and understand the MR AA V software application and development, experimentation, and specialty vehicle maintenance processes; and

(3) awarding to another contractor would result in higher costs the program cannot afford at this time.

(1) Performance: Due to SAIC's experience working on the MARS project, they are the only contractor that can readily provide the necessary systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, mechanical design, experimentation, integration, and specialty vehicle maintenance support vital on the MR AA V project. The MR AA V Integrated Product Team (IPT) team members are expected to have highly specialized technical expertise and fully understand how to incorporate the technology identified in the MARS project into a new platform. The MR AA V development currently performed by SAIC (under the ONR 30 MARS project) evolved quickly over the course of a year and continues to evolve in terms of technical and operational scope. The concept of operations (CONOPS) and concepts of employment (CONEMPS) for the end solution are also evolving. The uniqueness of the skillset and experiences in systems and software engineering requires users to identify, capture, validate designs and approaches (such as Enterprise Architect), as well as development and integrate multiple software modules (including C++, ROS, Python, HTML/CSS, Docker, Jenkins, and Angular framework)and develop and modify unique algorithms pertaining the amphibious autonomous systems. These skills cannot be compromised and directly contribute to the successful execution of the mission. Recognizing the significant overall impact, to competitively solicit this requirement would elevate the overall risk from both a technical and programmatic perspective.

(2) Schedule: The rapid development schedule of MR AAV cannot afford the level of impact that would be imposed by transitioning to a new contactor. This effort requires the contractor to perform promptly in continuous nature from the cmrent effort (MARS) into the new task order without any delays. Transitioning to a new contractor at this time would cause a considerable delay to the development, experimentation and demonstration schedule. Although other contractors may possess more generic prograrmnatic and software development expertise, they

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(b)(3); (b)(7)(e) lack familimity with the latest autonomous technology incorporated from the MARS project.

The government estimates that it would take the new contractor nine (9) full time engineers an estimated 6-7 months to become fully operational in systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, experimentation, integration, processes, and specialty vehicle maintenance support. This is not only additional lead time but would also require 4-5 full time government employees to train the new contractor in the MR AA V and MARS project specific systems instead of contributing to the project. The delay would compromise SSC PAC and USMC mission support that depends on the MR AA V project.

(3) Cost: The'cost required for a new contractor to become fully operational on the MR AA V project would cost the government an additional $2,000,000 in sunk costs over 6-7 months. To obtain a competent level-of-expertise in software engineering, softwme development, integration and mechanical design gained from the MARS task order, it would take $1,200,000 in contractor labor and $800,000 in labor for the government to provide side-by-side training on the MR AA V systems and applications. This would require goverrunent personnel to divide their working hours to train the new contractor; this is neither fiscally responsible nor efficient. The involved IPT teaTU members, including SAIC, have become an integral part of the overall success of the MR AA V project. Using another contractor at this time would fail to take full advantage of the investment in expertise.

In summary, SAIC is the only contractor that can provide the highly technical expertise, meet the schedule demands, and accomplish the effmt without incurring an additional $2,000,000 in transition costs. This wanants an exception to fair oppmtunity.

D c. The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency as a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the MAC, provided that all the awardees were given fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

D d. It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee.

D e. For orders exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source.

5. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost.

Based on the historic cost infmmation currently available, the contracting officer has adequate information to ensure that the cost to the government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable.

6. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification. SAIC was initially tasked to develop and implement this software engineering, mechanical design, development and experimentation support, and has met all programmatic needs. The contractor.has demonstrated satisfactory performance in all assigned tasks.

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7. Actions Taken to Remove or Overcome Ban-iers that Led to the Exception to Fair Opportunity. Final demonstration of the MR AAV project will be conducted at the conclusion of option year 2. At this time, it is anticipated that any new project wonld be competitive.

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TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION (FAR 16.505(b)(2)) I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this Justification and which form a basis for this justification are complete and accurate.

Technical Cognizance/ol' COR:

Signatm·e:

Name and Title Code Phone Date

REVIEW:

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION (FAR 16,505(b)(2)): (2:$3K to <-$700K) I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature:

Christina Neto Contractin Officer 22560 6! 9-553-5829 I 7 1 Name and Title Code Phone Date

APPROVAL:

COMPETITION ADVOCATE (FAR 16.505(b)(2)): (>$700K to $13.SM):

. J Signature: JI i? j q

Sharon M. Pritchar4 Competition Advocate 20000 619-553-3200 Name and Title Code Phone Date

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