Justification_and_Approval_RPA_FINAL_FBO_Redacted.pdf

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General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM)

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

SOLICITATION GSC-QF0B-18-33180

The General Services Administration (GSA) makes this Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition orders pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302.

1) Identification of Agency and Contracting Activity:

Agency:

The United States

Contracting Activity:

GSA FEDSIM Contracting Office (QF0B) 1800 F Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20405

2) Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved:

Approval is requested to solicit and award an Open Market, Sole Source, Time and Materials (T&M) contract in support of the Department of Defense (DoD) with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA). The base period will be funded with FY 18 Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Operations and Maintenance (OMA) funds pursuant to Defense Financial and Accounting Service (DFAS) Indianapolis (IN) Manual 37-100.

3) A Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet Agency’s Need:

GA is the designer, developer and manufacturer of the MQ-9 Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA). uses the MQ-9 aircraft in its mission operations. Through other government contracts with other vendors, has a variety of sensors and payloads developed for the MQ-9 aircraft to perform operations. The is responsible for the independent testing and validation of these systems and payloads to ensure they perform as they are supposed to. In order to test these sensors and payloads, the MQ-9 must be utilized to ensure correct performance. This contract is being awarded to have GA provide all flight related activities required to perform this testing and evaluation. Activities include, but aren’t limited to: flight set up and prep, flight operations, maintenance, and troubleshooting. This contract does not provide operations support for the overall mission. There is no weapon system delivery under this contract. This contract is strictly for GA to integrate the sensors and payloads and fly the aircraft so that the Government can perform test and evaluation of sensors and payloads developed for the MQ-9 aircraft.

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Figure Architecture he MQ-9 aircraft operates from standard U.S. airfields with clear line-of-sight to the ground data terminal antenna, which provides line-of-sight communications for takeoff and landing.

The U.S. Air Force proposed the MQ-9 Reaper system in response to the Department of Defense directive to support initiatives of overseas contingency operations. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator, and is designed to execute time-sensitive missions. The "M" is the DOD designation for multi-role, and "Q" means remotely piloted aircraft system. The "9" indicates it is the ninth in the series of remotely piloted aircraft systems.

The Government does not have excess RPA airframes to assign to this requirement, so the RPA airframes will be provided by the contractor as Contractor Furnished Property. It is possible that the Government may be able to provide the RPA airframes as Government Furnished Property beginning in 2020, but that is not a certainty.

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Security protocols are critical and will be strictly implemented. The contractor shall provide Operations Security (OPSEC) protection for all sensitive/critical information in accordance with AR530-1, Operations Security (OPSEC) or specific Program OPSEC Plan. The contractor will include OPSEC awareness education and training to all personnel as part of their standard security program.

This sole source contract will have a one year base period with four one year option periods.

The total estimated value of this contract is $50,953,798.

4) Identification of the Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition:

The authority under which this J&A is made is pursuant to FAR 6.302.

FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

This Sole Source Contract will be awarded pursuant to the authority of 41 United States Code (U.S.C.) 253(c)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1.

5) Demonstration that the Proposed Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or the Nature of the Acquisition Requires Use of the Authority Cited

The MQ-9 RPA is one of primary operational aircraft. The U.S. Government does not have any U.S. Government owned MQ-9’s available to support this requirement at this time.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA) is the designer, developer and manufacturer of the MQ-9 RPA. GA invested its own private independent research and development dollars to develop the MQ-9 RPA and therefore own the proprietary rights and Technical Data Package (TDP). GA provides support for all equipment, services, and personnel needed to provide MQ-9 RPA aircraft flights in support of various Government calibration, testing, and training activities. In addition, GA provides the ground control station, ground datalink terminal and associated communications equipment, aircraft, as well as the required maintenance, pilot, and other operations personnel needed to support this requirement. Furthermore, the MQ-9 RPA is only supported by U.S.

Government or General Atomics personnel.

The requiring activity has multiple that are only flown on the MQ-9 (either because it was specifically designed for use on the MQ-9 RPA or only flight-qualified for that specific vehicle), some of which have hyper-sensitive antenna arrays that require actual flight time on this aircraft to properly align, instrument, and/or calibrate the system to ensure the it is within the required specification for operations. The U.S. Government has previous data on trying to fly these same systems on surrogate aircraft, but these efforts proved laden with errors when transferred over to the MQ-9 RPA. Multiple surrogate aircraft have been utilized in the past to try and meet these requirements, but do not replicate the following: (a) the true wing structure (pylon spacing, wing flexure, and

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Version 9/15/16 Page 4 wiring) and orientation of the MQ-9 aircraft to support the calibration of these systems for transfer onto an operational MQ-9 , (b) the communications architecture of the MQ-9 from the payload to the aircraft to the ground control station, a critical component in evaluating true system performance in a latent-communications environment, and (c) the MQ-9’s operational flight duration (+8 hours) and/or altitude (above 20kft).

Without the MQ-9 RPA, the USG cannot properly align/instrument/or calibrate these for operational use. Failure to provide this resource will delay the Government from deploying various capabilities on the MQ-9 RPA, which would have a significant negative impact for operations. The MQ-9 RPA and subsequently General Atomics, is deemed the only available source that possesses the proprietary engineering, TDP and personnel required to provide this capability and is essential to the Government’s requirements precluding consideration of another aircraft platform.

use of the MQ-9 is anticipated to continue for the next 5 years and potentially beyond, which accounts for the duration of this contract. Technology in the unmanned aerial vehicle industry is currently on an explosive growth cycle meaning that technology is constantly changing and developing. All this new technology means more sensors and more testing. had a previous contract for this test and evaluation support, but the number of tests being conducted under that contract was significantly lower than the anticipated testing schedule in the future represented in this contract. The contract shall be structured with a series of one year options instead of being structured as a five year, multi-year contract, however, so that in the event changes aircraft in the future, the Government can simply not exercise the next option instead of having to go through costly termination procedures.

6) Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited From as Many Potential Sources as Practicable

Pursuant to FAR 5.203(a), the Government’s intent to issue a sole source contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. was synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Site (www.fbo.gov) on 9/1/2017. The NAICS Code for this effort is 541- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services-541330 -Engineering Services. The intent to sole source synopsis closed on 9/15/ 2017 (COB). This 15-day response time was granted in order to allow sufficient response time for interested sources to respond with interest and applicable capabilities to this requirement. The responses received were as follows: (1) one response from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.’s POC who provided his contact information to be utilized once the solicitation is ready to be issued.

7) A Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable Based on the data gathered, the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The expectation of reaching a fair and reasonable price was determined through historical pricing information in order to

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Version 9/15/16 Page 5 determine best value for Additionally, certified cost and pricing data will be provided by the contractor. The total amount of funding required for the total estimated period of five years is approximately $50,953,798.

8) A Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results or a Statement of the Reason Market Research was not Conducted Market research was conducted to ascertain the acquisition history of the requirement, research historical data, and examine previously negotiated pricing. Because the contractor is the only source for the MQ-9 aircraft, a competitively awarded contract is not possible. Additionally, GA has no existing contract vehicles that could be utilized for this requirement, so open market is the only way to contractually satisfy the requirement.

9) Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition

No other facts exist.

10) A Listing of the Sources, if any, That Expressed, In Writing, An Interest in the Acquisition To date, the Contracting Officer has not received any statements of interest regarding the proposed Sole Source effort, with the exception of the incumbent, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

11) A Statement of the Actions, if Any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers to Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for the Supplies or Services Required The Government previously attempted to utilize a substitute aircraft to conduct the tests for sensors and payloads. However, these attempts resulted in numerous errors when the sensors and payloads were tested on the actual mission aircraft. There are no actions the Agency can take to remove or overcome this barrier to competition.

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12) Technical Representative Certification that the Justification is Accurate and Complete to the Best of the Technical Representative’s Knowledge and Belief

11/30/2017

X Sedar Dunn Sedar Dunn Project Manager Signed by: SEDAR DUNN

Sedar Dunn Project Manager FEDSIM, Defense Sector

13) Contracting Officer Certification that the Justification is Accurate and Complete to the Best of the Contracting Officer’s Knowledge and Belief I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief, and determine on the basis of the findings above that an other than full and open competition approach is in accordance with the requirements and is in the best interest of the Government.

Andres Almazan Contracting Officer FEDSIM Acquisition, Defense Sector

Final Approval I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief, and determine on the basis of the findings above that an other than full and open competition approach is in accordance with the requirements and is in the best interest of the Government.

Tom Howder GSA, Head of Contracting Activity

JULIO ALMAZAN

Digitally signed by JULIO ALMAZAN DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=General Services Administration, cn=JULIO ALMAZAN, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=47001000016090 Date: 2017.11.30 11:20:11 -05'00'

THOMAS HOWDER

Digitally signed by THOMAS HOWDER DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=General Services Administration, cn=THOMAS HOWDER, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=47001000016265 Date: 2017.12.18 10:14:55 -05'00'