JNA_MEUAS_II_Bridge_REDACTION_16Mar16.pdf

United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Justification and Approval (J&A) Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft

System (MEUAS} II Bridge

15 March 2016

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

ProjecUProgram Name: MEUAS II Bridge (AAI)

ComponenUPEO/Other: PEO-Fixed Wing

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): $ 75,ooo,ooo

T pe J&A: (Individual ~ or Class 0)

1. Agency and Contracting Activity: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(1 ))

Agency: Contracting Activity:

J&A No.

16-880

US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) HQ USSOCOM/SOF AT&L-KW Special Operations Forces 7701 Tampa Point Blvd Acquisition, Technology, and MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5323 Logistics (SOF AT&L)

Program Executive Office - Fixed Wing 7701 Tampa Point Blvd MacDill AFB, Florida 33621-5323

2. Description of Action: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(2))

Approval is requested to establish a 12-month (6-month base with two three-month options) contract to bridge a gap in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) services at three existing performance sites and additional emerging sites as mission requirements dictate. AAI Corporation , 124 Industry Lane, Hunt Valley, MD, will be awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for Mid Endurance Unmanned Aircraft System (MEUAS) ISR services with a contract maximum ceiling of $75,000,000. As discussed in Section 5 of this J&A, the bridge contract is intended to provide services on an interim basis during the transition period between the end of the current MEUAS II contract, H92222-12-D-0008, and the competitive award of the replacement MEUAS Ill contract under solicitation H92222- 15-R-0001. The contract type is anticipated to be firm-fixed-price with cost reimbursable contract line items. Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding will be used for all task orders for ISR services.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(3))

The requirement is for 24 hours per day, seven days per week (24/7), Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) ISR services worldwide.

The contractor will provide equipment and qualified personnel to perform all operational, engineering, and sustainment efforts necessa to effective! execute pre-deplo ment, deplo ed ISR services, and post-deployment activities. The contractor is required to operate, maintain, and manage distinct operational deployments to meet all UAS ISR requirements at the existing four sites. Additionally, when emerging requirements based on operational needs require new sites, the contractor must complete pre deployment actions within 90 days or less.

General Background of MEUAS II:

The MEUAS II contract is a single IDIQ Contract awarded on 2 March 2012 to AAI.

The contract consists of three 12-month ordering periods with a $599M contract ceiling. The contract is currently under the extension of services clause, FAR 52.217- 8, with the last task order ending August 2016. The MEUAS Ill contract described below will replace MEUAS II. Both MEUAS II and MEUAS Ill are for Contractor Owned and Contractor-Operated (COCO) 24/7 ISR data services

MEUAS II is for a turn-key operation at austere locations. The contract has three Contract Line item Number (CLIN) categories: 90-day pre deployment for activities and logistics necessary for establishing AAI personnel and equipment onsite, ISR services onsite, and 30-day post-deployment for activities and logistics necessary to return AAI personnel and equipment to the Continental United States. Each task order is site specific to include area of operation , monthly flight hours, and period of performance.

These requirements will remain the same for the bridge contract.

General Background of MEUAS Ill:

The MEUAS Ill contract will replace two current UAS ISR contracts, the MEUAS 1.5 contract H92222-13-D-0005 with lnsitu and MEUAS II contract with AAI Corporation.

The MEUAS 1.5 effort has separate mission requirements and also requires a bridge contract that is addressed by J&A 16-842. USSOCOM originally planned to award MEUAS Ill in November of 2015, before the expiration of the current contracts. Due to multiple influences and responsibilities of the workforce, the anticipated MEUAS Ill award has slipped to July 2016. The MEUAS Ill solicitation provides for full and open competition and will result in a single award IDIQ contract with five ordering periods over 54 months with possible extension of services not to exceed 60 months. The contract will have three CLI N categories: 120-day pre-deployment for activities and logistics necessary for establishing contractor personnel and equipment onsite, ISR services onsite, and 30-day post-deployment for activities and logistics necessary to return contractor personnel and equipment to the United States. The estimated value of the contract is $475M.

4. Authority Cited: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(4))

~ 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(1 ), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, as implemented by FAR 6.302-1

1. Despite adequate acquisition planning , there is insufficient time to award the MEUAS Ill follow-on contract before the expiration of the current MEUAS II contract.

2.

3. A competition for interim services would require an excessive duplication of costs that have already been expended , and will be expended , for the current full and open competition for the MEUAS Ill contract. In addition , if a contractor other than the incumbent is awarded an interim contract, the Government will incur very large pre deployment and post-deployment costs that may be duplicated if still another (different) contractor is awarded the MEUAS Ill contract.

Adequate Acquisition Planning

USSOCOM originally planned to award MEUAS Ill in November of 2015, before the expiration of the current contract. Due to multiple influences and responsibilities of the workforce, the main being personnel turnover, the anticipated MEUAS Ill award has slipped to July of 2016. The original acquisition schedule was developed considering the fulltime participation of all team members. However, personnel in many key acquisition positions, including the program manager, have rotated over the course of this acquisition . These positions took significant time to back fill during this high rate of government and contractor support turnover which led to further delays in completing the technical evaluation and other portions of the acquisition that lacked adequate attention. Additionally, many of these positions were backfilled with personnel who were multi-tasked to several SOF critical programmatic activities and could not provide dedicated support necessary to meet key milestones outlined in the original acquisition schedule. The program has also experienced countless unforeseen schedule issues including, among others, problems with the range when the Government completed the capabilities demo. All available acquisition resources are employed to complete the replacement acquisition to include the utilization of active duty program managers on deployment status.

No Gap in Services

The services currently provided under the MEUAS II contract must be extended through this bridge contract in order to acquire from the incumbent contractor critical time-sensitive 24/7 ISR services. These services must continue without a gap in order to support ongoing Special Operations Forces (SOF) operations in

Any gap in this ISR coverage would significantly decrease SOF capability.

It is anticipated that this bridge effort will be awarded on 01 June 2016. Because of the 90-day pre-deployment time to establish personnel and equipment at the operational sites, any contractor other than the incumbent would not be able to start ISR services until 01 September 2016. The current ISR services on the MEUAS II contract will end on 30 June 2016. Awarding this bridge effort to a new contractor would create at least a 60-day gap in ISR services. AAI Corporation is the only contractor in place with the requisite UAS equipment and logistics support to ensure continuous MEUAS ISR services to the SOF Warfighter at these existing sites.

Duplication of Costs

The lack of additional personnel and time constraints make it impractical to conduct a separate competition to cover the interim period between the expiration of the current MEUAS II contract and the award of the replacement contract. In addition to the costs to administer a separate competition of these services, there are potentially huge costs that would result from a piecemeal acquisition process. A tremendous expenditure of additional resources would be required to accomplish what would be, in essence, a duplicative acquisition.

The incumbent must be awarded a sole-source bridge contract in order to avoid duplicative costs that could not be recouped by competition. The Government paid pre-deployment costs in order to establish these existing sites within the AOR. Pre deployment involves acquisition of materiel to deliver and sustain ISR services, on boarding and training of personnel , conduct of site surveys, development of site specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and other logistics activities required to manage personnel and equipment at the operational location. If this effort is instead competed like the MEUAS Ill solicitation, there will be duplication of cost to the Government that will not be recovered through competition as well as unacceptable delays in fulfilling USSOCOM ISR requirements. The duplication of costs stem from pre-deployment and post-deployment to reestablish these same three sites with another contractor. At a minimum, the Government would incur a duplication of cost estimated at approximately this bridge contract is awarded to any contractor other than the incumbent.

Yet another set of duplicative costs will likely occur if the current contractor is replaced.

The contractor is required to provide all of the equipment to perform the services except the system payloads, which are provided by the Government. If any contractor other than AAI is awarded the bridge contract, the Government will also incur unacceptable delays and additional cost due caused by change of contractor aircraft and differing contractor aircraft configurations. The payloads currently integrated into the AAI airframe took extensive developmental efforts, to include testin , as well as production lead time prior to fieldin . The Government would be required to perform additional development, testing , and acceptance of a new contractors' payload integration prior to operations. The necessary actions would cause further gaps in mission critical 24/7 ISR coverage for forces on the ground.

A stable UAS and skilled support team capable of providing the required ISR services are essential to the success of the SOF global mission. The bridge contract will have a base period of 6 months to accommodate the critical time gap for transition to MEUAS Ill and two 3-month options to allow for flexibility, if necessary, as MEUAS Ill ISR services are fully implemented.

Summary USSOCOM requires a bridge contract to continue the MEUAS II effort and avoid a gap in critical mission coverage until the MEUAS Ill contract is awarded. It is impracticable to obtain the required services through a full competition among responsible sources at fair and reasonable prices at this late date. Moreover, the time and resources expended to engage in a separate acquisition of these ISR services for the period of the bridge contract would be an unnecessary duplication of the efforts that are already underway in the MEUAS Ill acquisition. In fact, practically speaking, there would be no resources available to effect such a competition without bringing the current competition for the MEUAS Ill contract to a virtual halt. Replacing the current ISR services with the MEUAS Ill acquisition requires extraordinary efforts of contracting, engineering , implementation, and transition activities that cannot be completed by the MEUAS II contract expiration date.

AAI Corporation is the only contractor in place with the requisite UAS equipment and logistics support to ensure continuous MEUAS ISR services to the SOF Warfighter at these existing sites. At this critical juncture, AAI has unique access to resources that another contractor could not duplicate without significant negative mission impacts or delays. AAI is the only company with the logistical capability to immediately and rapidly assume this mission without interruption of services or duplication of costs .

Since AAI already has deployed equipment and personnel at the current operational sites, they are the only sources able to provide the required ISR services without the 90-day pre-deployment activities. No other contractor is considered capable to provide the immediate MEUAS service required. The savings to the Government in duplicate pre-deployment costs is estimated at approximately . This cost could not be recouped by competition. USSOCOM's needs would be best served by avoiding interim competitions and continuing its plan to competitively award MEUAS 111.

6. Efforts/Actions to Increase Competition: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) and n 1))

A notice was~ or was not D publicized as required by FAR 5.2.

A Request for Information (RFI) was issued in accordance with DFARS 206.302-1 (d) and PGI 206.302-1 (d) on 27 January 2016. Ten companies submitted information in response to the RFI as discussed in Section 7 below. On 10 February 2016 USSOCOM posted a notice of its intent to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of 6.302-1. Two companies submitted queries after posting of this notice as discussed in Section 7 below. The MEUAS Ill acquisition is a full and open competition effort.

7. Market Research: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(8)) USSOCOM released a Request for Information (RFI) 16-R-UASRFI on 27 January 2016 and received ten responses. Three of the ten interested sources were found to be responsive. For the reasons set forth above, however, an interim award of a competitively bid bridge contract was found to be untenable. Notice of this contract action was subsequently posted on 10 February 2016, which prompted two responses requesting additional information would incur excessive projected duplicated pre-deployment costs of and unacceptable capability gaps in excess of 60 days as discussed in Section 5 above.

After due consideration of all responses, USSOCOM has determined that no interested party other than the incumbent AAI Corporation has a solution that can be implemented within the constraints on time and other resources as described above.

8. Other Authorities/Factors: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(9))

None

9. Interested Sources: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(10))

NOTICE 1

Prior to approval , J&As will be screened to identify proprietary data and information exempted from disclosure by 5 U.S.C. 552, Freedom of Information Act, so that the final J&A may be prepared for required posting to FedBizOpps IAW Section 844 of NOAA 2009 as implemented via OPAP Memo, Public Disclosure of Justification and Approval Documents for Noncompetitive Contracts, dated 13 February 2009. J&As shall be posted to FedBizOpps within 14 days unless 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(2) , Unusual and Compelling Urgency is cited . In that particular case the J&A will be posted within 30 days.

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance that are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: TITLE: PEO-FW

SIGNATURE:

DATE:

I hereby determine the anticipated cost to the Government for contract actions executed under this J&A to be fair and reasonable. Cost or pricing data will be obtained from the Contractor with fair and reasonableness determinations made by em lo in anal sis techniques described in FAR 15.404.

I hereby certify that this J&A is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: TITLE: CONTRACTING OFFICER

SIGNATURE: DATE: 151YJaM.b J.t>lfo

I have reviewed this document and find the J&A legally sufficient to support other than full and open competition.

NAME: TITLE: ATTORNEY ADVISOR

DATE: /6 MAR lb

I have reviewed this document and find the J&A adequate to support other than full and open competition .

NAME:

GENERAL

TITLE: COMPETITION ADVOCATE

SIGNATURE: _ DATE:

Based upon the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurment of UAS ISR services in the estimated amount of $75M. The requirement will be released under solicitation H92222-16-R-0013 on an other than full and open competition basis. The action(s) pursuant to this J&A are subject to the availaibility of funds and the completion of all requ ired statutory and regulatory reviews and approvals.

NAME: TITLE: SENIOR PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVE

SIGNATURE: DATE:

I I

NOTICE 2

POST APPROVAL REQUIREMENT: IAW Section 844 of NOAA 2009 as implemented via OPAP Memo, Publ ic Disclosure of Justification and Approval Documents for Noncompetitive Contracts, dated 13 February 2009, this J&A will be posted to FedBizOpps within 14 days unless 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(2) , Unusual and Compelling Urgency is cited . In that particular case the J&A will be posted with in 30 days. Prior to posting, previously identified proprietary data and information exempted from disclosure by 5 U.S.C. 552, Freedom of Information Act, that has been identified IAW Notice 1 via yellow highl ighting, will be removed in order to create a document that is no longer classified as "for official use only" and is thus, appropriate for public release. Follow the guidance found in the OCG for the redaction rocees rior to ubl ic release.