JA-AMA redacted.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL—

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (FAR PART 6.302)

1. CONTRACTING ACTIVITY.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Office of Contract Services (OCS) plans to contract on a sole source basis. This document sets forth the J&A as required by FAR Part 6.302-1.

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION.

The proposed action is a follow on contract to the current Aero Mobile Application (AMA) contract. The current contract is a competitively awarded IDIQ requirements contract that is currently expected to end on March 19, 2021. NGA Aeronautical Navigation Office (SFA) intends to contract by other than full and open competition for the follow-on (AMA) contract. Due to the increasingly demanding nature of technical services required to support the AMA, NGA has determined that only one vendor that is capable of meeting all of the government requirements set forth in the contract. Furthermore, NGA would incur significant cost associated with duplication of effort should it award to a vendor other than the incumbent contractor. NGA is requesting to award the AMA contract on a sole source basis to Hilton Software.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES.

The Aeronautical Mobile Application is a software platform that provides NGA’s domestic (Federal and State Governments) and foreign Government customers the capability to exploit NGA Safety of Navigation (SoN) Aeronautical data through an application that acts in a common and consistent manner across three separate operating systems (Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows). Currently the data required for the Aeronautical Mobile Application is provided to the contractor on a 28-day cycle by NGA and other external sources, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NavCanada. The data is then processed and modified to work with the applicable application languages to combine the data to a mobile device. The computer languages, software operating systems, and their supported versions used by the application require delivery and sustainment of approximately 4.5 million plus lines of code across the iOS, Android, and Windows operating environments in order to consistently deliver approximately 11 GB of data each 28-day cycle with the expectation of 25 GB in the near future.

The proposed acquisition is to issue a sole source, firm-fixed-price IDIQ to Hilton software. The period of performance will be for a base year with 2 one-year options.

4. AUTHORITY CITED.

The statutory authorities permitting the sole sourcing of services is FAR 6.302-1 Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements and FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A) - Award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED.

Market Research identified only one vendor, Hilton Software, capable of meeting the Government’s AS9100D certification requirement in addition to simultaneous IOS, Android, and Windows sustainment.

AS9100D is a Quality Management System certification specific for Aeronautical Data. Due to the critical role that the AMA software plays with regards to the Safety of Navigation, NGA views the AS9100D certification as a requirement essential in reducing the possibility of data or product errors that could cause the loss of life or an aircraft.

The Government also considered duplicated costs associated with awarding to a new contractor. Due to the nature of this work and related risk to the Safety of Aeronautical Navigation, there can be no lapse in service.

To ensure continuity of service, NGA would require a lengthy transition period (estimated 6 to 12 months) where both the current contractor and new contractor are performing. This period would be used to ensure that the contractor could successfully perform all required SOW tasks unassisted by incumbent contractor.

Based upon current annual costs associated with AMA, the Government estimates that the duplicated costs associated with a transition period to be approximately . Cost duplication analysis can be found in Appendix 1.

Because the Aeronautical Mobile Application supports such a large diversity of users both

The wide use of the application has created many dependencies that would be difficult if not impossible to manage if the AMA follow-on contract is awarded to a vendor other than Hilton Software. The management of these dependencies would also result in additional cost to those agencies.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

NGA also utilized Market Research in an attempt to identify previously unknown vendors capable of meeting the contract requirements. In accordance with FAR subpart 5.201, NGA will post a notice of intent to the government-wide point of entry (GPE).

7. FAIR AND REASONABLE:

The Government possesses sufficient historical cost and pricing data to develop a reasonably accurate IGCE and has adequate technical understanding of performance tasks to ensure that the cost negotiated is fair and reasonable.

8. DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED:

NGA conducted Market Research by using Internet searches, Industry Days, and conducted searches through the General Services Administration (GSA). NGA also posted a Source Sought Solicitation to SAM.GOV from 6/23/20 through 7/17/20 to gauge interest from Industry. Twelve potential vendors provided responses, however only one vendor, Hilton Software, was able to meet all of the government’s requirements.

9. ACTIONS TO OVERCOME COMPETITION BARRIERS:

The steps by NGA to foster competition include: conducting outreach to Industry and sponsoring Industry Days (Aero Week conducted bi-annually and Janus Industry Days conducted annually) to increase NGA’s industrial base and the knowledge base of vendors. Additionally, the Government anticipates that some of the vendors currently not possessing the AS9100D certification will have obtained the certification prior to the end of the planned contract performance period and that there will be sufficient vendors capable of meeting SOW requirements resulting in adequate competition.