Amendment 1 Justification for OTFO Competition - UAF UARC NACT Waveform (Redacted).pdf

DTRA’s Nuclear Arms Control Technology (NACT) program operates, maintains, and improves the majority of the U.S. portion of the International Monitoring System (IMS).

The contractor shall:

Operate and maintain: infrasound stations

Provide all necessary logistical support and sustainment for each US IMS station’s infrastructure and installed monitoring system, including but not limited to system and component repairs, spare and depot management, hardware and software upgrades, and recapitalization planning for stations and systems. Perform preventive and unscheduled corrective maintenance of the station infrastructure and equipment to enable the continuous operational capability of the station and optimal data availability and data quality.

Perform system and sensor calibrations and tuning as necessary to ensure stations meet operational data quality requirements specified in the operations manuals.

Conduct O&M activities in accordance with existing or planned support and lease agreements, to include establishment of lease agreements at NACT US IMS stations located on private, State, or other non-Federal properties, for operators’ access and cost reimbursement for select operations costs such as utilities and rents.

troubleshoot and fix communications problems at any

US IMS station.

Conduct engineering and RDT&E tasks on systems and components to operationalize prototypes, conduct test and evaluation, and transition system or components into normal station operations. Conduct the necessary acceptance and revalidation tasks required by the PTS for the station to be returned to operations and data accepted in the IDC.

Provide and maintain unique waveform engineering and operational subject matter expertise (SME) and provide technical leadership/advice on related DTRA research development test and evaluation (RDT&E) projects.

AMENDMENT 1: The proposed action extends the contract performance to July 31, 2026

(under CLINs 4001 and 4002, for the period of April 1, 2026 – July 31, 2026), with two (2) additional four-month option periods (i.e. option V, under CLINs 5002-5003, for the period of

August 1, 2026 – November 30, 2026, and option VI, under CLINs 6001-6002, for the period of December 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027) that can be exercised in the case of further acquisition delays. The revised acquisition schedule includes the release of the request for proposal on

March 15, 2026, and anticipates a contract award by July 24, 2026.

3. Statutory Authority

The statutory authority for this non-competitive action was: 10 United States Code (U.S.C.)

3204(a)(3)(b), as implemented by FAR 6.103-3, Industrial mobilization; engineering, developmental, or research capability; or expert services (DoD Deviation 2026-O0017), for an award to the University of Alaska Fairbanks University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for

Research and Development in the Geophysical Detection of Nuclear Proliferation.

4. Applicability of Authority

The original authority to use non-competitive contract funding was specified in 10 U.S. C.

3204(a)(3)(b), which allows DoD to use non-competitive procedures to maintain an essential engineering, research, and/or development capability. The establishment of the Geophysical Detection of Nuclear Proliferation UARC at the UAF Geophysical Institute (GI) leveraged the many years of experience operating International Monitoring System (IMS) waveform stations.

The IMS waveform station operations remain a key enabler for the UARC research and development activities. Awarding the follow-on waveform IMS O&M contract to the UARC at UAF GI will ensure the sustainment of the essential engineering, research, and development capability at the UAF GI UARC.

As specified in Section 2 above, follow-on contract performer requirements include both a core engineering expertise and the capability to complete highly technical tasks associated with the operations and maintenance of the waveform stations. These follow-on contract requirements align with several core competencies and capabilities specified in the UAF Geophysical

Detection of Nuclear Proliferation Charter, approved June 2, 2017, by the Acting ASD (R&E), for the establishment of this UARC was subsequently awarded to the UAF Geophysical

Institute (GI) in September 2018.

Applicable core competencies include: “theoretical and practical understanding of the techniques and technologies related to nuclear treaty verification, from research and development of such techniques and technologies, to their implementation and operation around the world” and “basic and applied geophysical research in the solid earth, atmosphere”. The UAF GI possesses a vastly qualified and experienced group of engineers and subject matter experts, that form the core expertise of the UARC, that are essential and relevant to the work required by the follow-on effort. This team provides expertise in the required disciplines associated with hands-on operations/maintenance of stations: geophysics, system engineering, failure analysis, seismology, infrasound physics, modeling, electrical engineering, computational simulation and modeling, machine learning, and data analytics.

Applicable core capabilities include “specialized facilities for geophysical RDT&E in acoustics, high performance computation, data analysis, global fieldwork, instrumentation, monitoring, seismology, signal processing”, and “data collection from extreme field environments, full-scale seismic and acoustic modeling, atmospheric transport modeling, event forensics for yield estimation and characterization”. The UAF possesses a robust laboratory on-site at its Geophysical Institute custom-tailored for seismic and infrasound monitors and ancillary-equipment testing, as well as an operating infrasound array near its lab facility. The UAF GI scientists and engineers currently use custom-designed software to analyze complex data streaming from multiple stations and to perform remote and on-site station maintenance or repairs.

The UARC UAF GI core competencies and capabilities exercised by UAF execution of the

DTRA follow-on contract, would allow DoD to maintain an essential engineering and

RDT&E capability to meet/exceed the treaty-specified data availability/quality requirements.

In the course of the extensive and recurring operations and maintenance activities, contract engineers are provided multiple opportunities to identify needed improvements, which could become UARC research and development task orders. The resulting research prototypes/improvements are then integrated into IMS operations through various stages, culminating in evaluation within an operational environment by engineers with the required operational experience. The involvement of O&M performers as both a source of R&D ideas and evaluation of R&D, results in the highest quality and most effective UARC R&D.

In addition to alignment of UAF UARC core competencies and capabilities with the NACT follow-on performer requirements, the NACT follow-on contract work itself would be within

UARC permissible activities. The Charter authorizes a provision for the UARC performer to manage and conduct operation and maintenance of maturing technologies deployed worldwide. This provision aligns exactly with the core tasks of the IMS operations and maintenance of waveform stations worldwide. Also, the Charter states that “it is also expected that UARCs can perform 6.4-6.7 level R&D work supporting operationally deployed capabilities.” The RDT&E that would be performed by the follow-on contract option(s), would use the expertise and capabilities of the UAF UARC to develop, test, and evaluate improved waveform technologies at the IMS stations, to efficiently and cost-effectively improve the operations and maintenance of the stations. The NACT RDT&E activities conducted to improve the data availability and data quality provided by operations of the waveform stations, is “6.5” (BA5) type, within the 6.4-6.7 scope.

AMENDMENT 1: This bridge action is essential to avert a severe impact on mission capabilities.

5. Effort to Solicit Potential Sources

A sources sought notice was published for the follow-on requirement on SAM.gov, via Notice

ID: HDTRA1IMSWAVEFORMOM, on Apr 01, 2025. Responses were received and considered by the Government. The conclusions are discussed in the Section 7, Market

Research, below. In accordance with 10 U.S.C. 3204(f), as implemented by FAR 6.301, Availability of the justification (DoD Deviation 2026-O0017), the revised Justification and

Approval will be made publicly available on SAM.gov.

6. Fair and Reasonable Costs

The anticipated cost/price of this contract action to the Government will be assessed to determine if it is fair and reasonable based on comparison with historical data from the current and previous contract efforts for the same or similar services, a cost analysis of the contractor’s proposal, and input/evaluation from the program office.

7. Market Research

In support of the initial contact award, DTRA published a Request for Information/Sources-

Sought (RFI/SS) notice on Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps), July 9, 2019, as a

Request for Information (RFI) for International Monitoring System (IMS) Waveform