JA-24-B-120 Class JA TrellisWare Redacted.pdf

CUI

TrellisWare® is a collective suite of software that is copyrighted, branded, trademarked, marketed and includes the following: TSMTM, TSM-XTM, Barrage RelayTM, KatanaTM, Narrowband (NB), Interference Cancellation (IC), and Digital Beam Forming (DBF). PM TR will incorporate TrellisWare® Waveform Technology on existing and future PM TR radio systems through existing and future contracting actions, either directly with TrellisWare® Technologies Inc., and/or through a Prime-to- Subcontractor relationship that may involve obtaining maintenance support and software licenses to use TrellisWare® Waveform Technology to comply with the Government’s contractual requirements.

PM TR with its Product Managers (PdMs) for HMS Waveforms (WF), and Helicopter and Multi Mission Radios (HAMMR), have mission critical systems fielded that contain TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. PM TR continues to field products containing TrellisWare® Waveform Technology and is responsible for managing the life cycle support of these fielded products. This will require the inclusion of TrellisWare® Waveform Technology as a requirement on existing and future contracts.

Software licenses for use of TrellisWare® Waveform Technology will be procured under this J&A either on a per unit basis through existing and future contract holders who will subcontract with TrellisWare® Technologies Inc., or through an enterprise agreement between the Government and TrellisWare® Technologies Inc.

Additionally, the Government anticipates awarding a direct contract with TrellisWare® Technologies Inc. for the following: engineering, systems integration, T&E, and software escrow services. Contract award is projected for 2nd quarter FY25, with an expected period of performance of five (5) years to include a one-year base period and four (4), one (1) year option periods.

• Engineering: Technical and systems engineering to support the operational use of TrellisWare® Waveform Technology across the Army’s communications architecture which includes, but is not limited to:

o Development and maintenance of interoperability standards for implementation and deployment in joint Department of Defense (DoD) and coalition partner systems.

o Support for Risk Management Framework (RMF), artifacts, tool updates, and remediations.

o Cyber and Electromagnetic Activity (CEMA) threat/vulnerability assessments and remediation.

o Electromagnetic spectrum compatibility, spectral approvals, and certifications.

o Support for maintaining artifacts for waveform information assurance acceptance.

• System Integration: Support horizontal and vertical systems integration of PM TR systems containing TrellisWare® Waveform Technology, with key networking and tenant systems. This includes, but is not limited to:

o Support for enabling Identity, Credential, and Access Management

(ICAM).

The Government is not aware of any other waveform besides TrellisWare® Waveform Technology that is interoperable with TrellisWare® Waveform Technology.

TrellisWare® Waveform Technology satisfies the immediate operational mission needs and meets interoperability requirements as defined in Manpack and Leader Radio CPDs. Therefore, TrellisWare® Waveform Technology is the only waveform available that fulfills the Army need for interoperability and no other waveform will satisfy the Army requirements FAR 6.302-1(a)(2).

In addition to obtaining the prescribed waveform from Trellisware® Waveform Technology, it is the Government’s intention to have a sole source contract with Trellisware® Waveform Technology for service support during the procurement of this waveform. The Government recognizes that operability and maintainability are key to the performance of the waveform within the tactical radios. Since Trellisware® Waveform Technology provides the only waveform capable of supporting the Government’s requirement, it is necessary to have a contract with these support services to support the waveform throughout performance. The support services include but are not limited to troubleshooting, maintaining, updating, and operating the waveform. These services can only be received by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of the waveform which would have the expertise, as the developer, to support the Government and the waveform for fielding efforts. Due to the proprietary nature of the required products, any source other than Trellisware® Waveform Technology would need to perform redesign/ reengineering of the Trellisware® Waveform Technology products, followed by testing validations, prior to successfully maintaining the current software/waveforms. No other source has access or the knowledge to maintain the Trellisware® Waveform Technology products associated with the Army’s requirements. The services must be supported while the waveform is procured and fielded with tactical radios, therefore Trellisware® Waveform Technology is the only available source.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Based on the information in paragraph 5 above, competition for this action is not feasible.

In accordance with Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205.205-71, DFARS 206.302-1(d), and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 206.302-1(d), the Government posted a Request for Information (RFI) to the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) website initially on 9 December 2022 and updated on 6 January 2023.

On 9 January 2024, the Government posted an additional, updated Sources Sought/RFI to SAM.gov (W15P7T-24-R-0013). The intent of this updated RFI was to ensure that the announcement contained all required synopsis elements in accordance with FAR 5.201, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions, and to ensure that Industry responses (provided below) did not contain any new advancements in technology within the past year, i.e., since the last RFI was posted on 6 January 2023 (W15P7T-23-R-SBU1). The Government wanted to ensure that if any interested sources had any advancements in their previous submission, then they could be submitted for consideration. In order to be considered, interested sources had to respond to the RFI with details regarding the advancements they introduced into their respective technologies by the due date. If interested sources had no updates to their technologies, then no response was to be provided and previous response would remain valid. Additionally, Industry was informed that if no such advancements were provided and/or no response provided to the RFI, then the Government would seek a sole source contract with Trellisware® as part of this J&A, satisfying the requirement for synopsis (FAR 5.201).

Responses were due on 25 January 2024, and no responses were received.

Interested vendors were given thirty (30) days to respond to a series of market research questions regarding networking waveform capabilities. The results of all market research efforts are detailed in paragraph 8 below.

a. Effective Competition: As Trellisware® Waveform Technology is the only software/waveform provider that meets the minimum Government requirements, effective competition is not feasible.

b. Subcontracting Competition: The current PM TR radio contracts contain FAR clause 52.244-5, Competition in Subcontracting. The prime contractors are encouraged to compete all subcontracts where possible. As part of any contract awarded as the result of this J&A, the prime contractor shall provide to the Government, in accordance with FAR 52.219-9, Small Business Subcontracting Plan, and FAR Subpart 9.6, Contractor Team Arrangements, for Government review and approval.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: TrellisWare® Technologies, Inc. is the owner, distributor, and entity that provides the licenses, maintenance, engineering, fielding, logistical support for all TrellisWare® Waveform Technology products. To secure this fleet of products and services, the Government would need to obtain a direct contract with TrellisWare® and/or acquire through contract/business relationships with other DoD entities. This would result in significant pass-through charges as seen on the PM TR contracts with LR and MP vendors. The Government will compete hardware procurements; however, the prime vendors shall obtain the software/waveforms associated with the competitive hardware procurement by TrellisWare® Technologies, Inc. Market research is conducted on an ongoing basis to determine if technologies are available to fulfill Army requirements for interoperability. Based on recent Market Research, there is no other mature software defined networking waveforms that are capable of interoperability with the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. Continuous review of the state of industry capabilities will enable the Government to obtain the information necessary to best influence its decisions and capitalize on commercial waveform development for tactical military radios.

The limited five (5) year scope of this Class J&A demonstrates to industry partners the Government’s interest in increasing competition within waveform development for the tactical radio community. PM TR has continuing engagements with industry partners through semi-annual Technology Exchange Meetings (TEM). PM TR will continue to use these platforms to communicate to all interested industry partners capability gaps, emerging user requirements, and technology development roadmaps. Collectively these actions will keep industry partners apprised and help inform their roadmaps for product development.

The U.S Army Network Cross Functional Team (N-CFT), Development Command (DEVCOM), and Command, Control, Computers, Communication, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center are continually investing in science and technology programs for new and emerging waveform technology. It is expected that these programs will progress and eventually mature a capability that may be suitable for future PM TR procurements. Pending the outcome of these programs, such a capability would be software defined with full Government Purpose Rights (GPR) and would result in increased competition for waveform capabilities.

8. Market Research: The Government has 18 minimum required key waveform attributes (see Table 2) for maintaining performance and over the air interoperability with the primary Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) line of sight waveform. Market research was conducted in accordance with FAR 10.002 to determine the extent, capability and maturity of other sources with software networking waveforms.

Furthermore, market research was conducted to determine if the products were capable of meeting PM TR needs for integration with the ITN. It revealed that TrellisWare® Waveform Technology is currently the only waveform that can meet all the Government’s key waveform attributes. A RFI was posted to SAM.gov website initially on 9 December 2022 and updated on 6 January 2023. Responses from industry were due 19 January 2023. The intent of the RFI was to seek market research on industry available waveform technology and radios suitable for Secure but Unclassified (SBU) communications in the ITN. Currently the primary waveform used for SBU in the ITN is TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. The information gathered allowed the Government to assess the current state of industry and identify if there are waveform capabilities that have the required attributes for maintaining performance and seamless integration of voice and data into the ITN. Seamless integration of voice and data into the ITN requires over the air interoperability.

PM TR requested that the vendors provide responses in the form of a white paper.

Section 4.4.12 of the RFI was used specifically for obtaining information on key attributes of the vendor’s waveform capabilities. These minimal key attributes were used to conduct an additional assessment of the waveforms ability to meet objectives for performance and over the air interoperability with the primary ITN line of sight waveform. The waveform(s) in each response were assessed against each technical attribute and the respective metric listed in Table 2, titled “Technical Attributes and Assessment Metrics”. The assessments were made against the metric for the technical attributes, in “whole”, and not in “part”; there was no partial ratings. For example, attribute 3, “Voice” has five (5) sub factors. If the vendor’s capabilities meet or exceed all five (5) sub factors, the rating against that attribute would be “Y” for “Yes, Meets Capability”. On the contrary, if the vendor’s capabilities don’t meet or exceed one or more of the five (5) sub factors, the rating against that attribute would be “N” for “Does Not Meet Capability”. If the vendor provides a negative response (NR), the rating against that attribute would be “NR”. This allows for a normalized approach to assessing the state of each vendor’s capability, what gaps in capability exist, and the realism of achieving interoperability with currently fielded capabilities. These attributes collectively represent the minimum criteria and are critical for data, voice, security, and networking interoperability. To achieve interoperability with currently fielded capabilities, a vendor’s response would need to collectively meet all 18 attributes.

TABLE 2 Technical Attributes and Assessment Metrics

Attribute Assessment Metric 1 Channel

Bandwidths Ability to support both Wideband Channels and Narrowband Channels.

Wideband Channel sizes; 1.2 MHz, 3.6/4 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz Narrowband Channel sizes; up to 50 KHz

2 Frequency Band Ability to operate in ultrahigh frequency (UHF), long band (L-Band), short band (S-Band) for applicable Wideband Channels sizes.

Ability to operate in very high frequency (VHF), UHF, L-Band, for Narrowband Channels sizes.

3 Voice Ability to support digital voice communications.

• Support Push To Talk (PTT) Voice.

• Support at least Enhanced Mixed-excitation linear prediction

(MELPe) Vocoder.

• Support 32 or more voice groups.

• Support voice switching between multiple voice groups.

• Support simultaneous monitoring of at least two voice groups.

4 Data Ability to support the following:

• Internet protocol (IP) networking: Unicast and Multicast

• Configurability for mobility, latency, etc.

• Data rate adaption

5 Simultaneity Support the transport of Voice and IP Data simultaneously 6 PLI Service Ability to support efficient transport of Variable Message Format (VMF), Cursor On Target (COT), and Protobuf based Position Location Information

(PLI).

7 API API support for Tactical Assault Kit, for plugin integration.

8 Multi-hop Relay Support for inherent, automatic relaying of voice and data, for up to eight (8) spatial hops.

9 Scalability Ability to support at least 400+ nodes in one frequency channel, in the most restrictive Wideband Channel of 1.2 MHz. Provide information on actual field demonstration(s) where this was performed, with actual hardware.

10 Transmissions Range Ability to achieve the following point to point range:

Wideband Channel Mounted Configuration: At least 10 km in open terrain with Radio Frequency Line of Sight.

Wideband Channel Dismounted Configuration: At least 3 km in open terrain with Radio Frequency Line of Sight.

Narrowband Channel Mounted Configuration: At least 15 km in open terrain with Radio Frequency Line of Sight.

Narrowband Channel Dismounted Configuration: At least 7 km in open terrain with Radio Frequency Line of Sight.

11 Long Range Mode Ability for waveform timeslots to support propagation guard times for ranges up to 320 Km.

12 Security Domains Ability to isolate and support Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) for Voice and Data, at least 2, Secret and Unclassified.

13 Colorless Core Transport

Ability to transport and relay Secret and Unclassified security domains on the same network, simultaneously.

14 RF Network Security

Ability to support at least commercial advance encryption standard - 256 (AES- 256).

15 RF Transmission Security

Ability to support at least commercial AES-256.

16 Anti-jam Low Probability of Interception (LPI) mode

Support for fast frequency hopping anti-jam low probability of interception electronic protection.

17 Portability 1) Support for being portable across 3rd party vendor platforms, to include US Army Program of Record (PoR) platforms (3rd party vendor is considered another independent business entity, not a company’s subdivision or subsidiary or affiliate).

2) Provide examples of the 3rd party platforms that have been ported across.

18 Exportability Support for exportability to US foreign allies.

As a result of the RFI posted on 9 December 2022 and updated on 6 January 2023, the following assessment is provided for the responses received. The 9 January 2024 RFI provided that if a company submitted a response to the 2023 market research (W15P7T-23-R- SBU1) it had the following options:

1) If you have a negative response to the requirements listed in paragraph 2 items (a) through (e), and you have no significant updates to “Paragraph 4.4.12 Attributes & Descriptions” from your previous submittal, and do not wish to submit a formal negative response, your company will be credited with a response for record, albeit negative.

2) If you have a response to the requirements listed in paragraph 2 items (a) through (e), and you have significant updates to “Paragraph 4.4.12 Attributes & Descriptions”, request responses be provided to the requirements listed in paragraph 2 items (a) through (e), and ONLY updates to “Paragraph 4.4.12 Attributes & Descriptions” from your previous submission.

Additionally, if a company did not submit a response to the previous market research (W15P7T-23-R-SBU1), it was instructed to provide a response to the requirements listed in paragraph 2 items (a) through (e).

No vendors responded to the updated RFI posted 9 Jan 2024 on SAM.gov. Thirteen

(13) vendors responded to the previous 2023 RFI (W15P7T-23-R-SBU1). The Government’s assessment of those responses is below and remains valid.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History: The Government has invested significant time, cost, and resources into the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. The below listed procurements are for tactical radios with the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology.

Maintaining over-the-air interoperability between our Warfighters and partner allied nations is of paramount consideration, and the foremost reason the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology be used on current and future tactical radios.

The inability to continue acquiring the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology will result in the Government being at risk for maintaining critical battlefield communications used to reduce casualties and loss of life. Furthermore, the Government would have to make a significant capital investment into the acquisition, integration, and testing of another capability, commensurate with the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology.

Contract Vehicle/ Contract

Type

Contract Number

Award Date

Competitively Awarded (Y/N)

Awardee/ Contractor

Current Award Expires

Dollar Value

TDP

(Y/N)

ID/IQ H92222-15-D-

24 Sep

Yes L3Harris 23 Sep 2021 $390M No

ID/IQ H92222-17-D-

13 Jun

Yes L3Harris 12 Jun 2023 $255M No

ID/IQ SPM8EJ-14-D-

7 Mar

Yes Atlantic Diving Supply

6 Mar 2021 $10B No

OTA W15QKN-15-9-

3 Apr

Yes Advanced Technology Int’l

2 Apr 2020 $1.25B No

ID/IQ W15P7T-15-D-

0015 and 0016

29 Apr

Yes, limited Thales DSI and L3Harris

28 Apr 2025 $3.9B No

ID/IQ W15P7T-16-D-

0002 and 0003

21 Mar

Yes, limited L3Harris and Collins Aerospace

20 Mar 2026 $12.7B No

i. Contract No.: H92222-15-D-0031, Head Quarter (HQ) United States Special

Operations Command (USSOCOM) SORD AC-K, MacDill AFB, FL 33621, (FY15 Production Buy) was awarded through full and open competition, valued at $390M, to procure Next Generation Handheld (NGHH) radios that included TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. An Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for supplies and incidental services over a five (5) year ordering period to include a one (1) year option for a total of six (6) year ordering periods (24 September 2015 – 23 September 2021).

ii. Contract No.: H92222-17-D-0021, HQ USSOCOM SORD AC-K, MacDill AFB, FL 33621, (FY17 Production Buy) was awarded through full and open competition to procure Next Generation Manpack (NGMP) radios, valued at $255M, that included TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. An IDIQ contract for supplies and incidental services over a six (6) year ordering (13 June 2017

– 12 June 2023).

iii. Contract No.: SPM8EJ-14-D-0005; Reference numbers: W90DN073130000 and W90DTV7313001ONS SFAB to procure production Handheld radios that included TrellisWare® Waveform Technology. This competitive, multiple award contract had an ordering ceiling value of $10B. Contract had a two (2) year ordering period with three (3) 1-year ordering options, totaling a five (5) year ordering period (7 March 2014 – 6 March 2021). This procurement is in response to Memorandum, Head Quarter Department of the Army (HQDA) 1st

Security Force Assistance Brigade, “Updated Urgent Operational Needs Statement (ONS) for Required Mission Command Capabilities for 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (1st SFAB), dated 30 January 2017.

iv. Contract No.: W15QKN-15-9-1004; Reference numbers: NSC-16-2000 and

NSC-16-2001, competitive Other Transactional Authority (OTA), not to exceed (NTE) value of $1.25B with terms of agreement for five (5) years (3 Apr 2015 – 2 Apr 2020), that supported the integration, testing, and certification of tactical radios with the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology.

v. Contract No.: W15QKN-15-9-1004; Reference numbers: NSC-19-9020 and

NSC-19-9021, competitive through an OTA, NTE value of $1.25B with terms of agreement for five (5) years (3 April 2015 – 2 April 2020), that supported the integration, testing, and certification of tactical radios with the TrellisWare® Waveform Technology.

vi. Contract No.: W15P7T-15-D-0015 & W15P7T-15-D-0016; Leader Radio contract with Thales DSI (0015) and L3Harris (0016) for the procurement of software-defined, 2-channel handheld radios that incorporated the waveform per preceding Class J&A. This is a limited competition, MA-IDIQ contract valued at $3.9B with a five (5) year base period and a five (5) year option period (29 April 2015 – 28 April 2025).

vii. Contract No.: W15P7T-16-D-0002 & W15P7T-16-D-0003; Manpack contract with L3Harris (0002) and Collins Aerospace (0003) for the procurement of software-defined, 2-channel radio employed by general purpose radio users capable of operating two simultaneous waveforms. The TrellisWare® waveform included in these radios were covered by the preceding Class J&A.

This is a limited competition, MA-IDIQ contract valued at $12.7B with a five (5) year base period and a five (5) year option period (21 March 2016 – 20 March 2026).