JA for UAS Contract Extension and Ceiling Increase Signed CPO Redacted.pdf
PDF 10 MB Posted
- Solicitation number
- 20155036
About this file
This is a Justification and Approval (J&A) document for a sole-source contract modification with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Hardware and Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Support Services.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seeks to increase the ceiling for Option Period 4 from $116,815,000.00 to $905,684,142.00 and add a new Option Period 5 valued at $218,844,446.00, bringing the total contract value from $585,038,000.00 to $1,592,751,588.00. The modification, funded through FY2025 Reconciliation Act (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) appropriations, will support procurement and sustainment of a fleet of MQ-9 Unmanned Aircraft Systems for CBP, including associated Certificable Ground Control Stations (CGCS), ground support equipment (GSE), initial sparing, mission systems (radars, cameras, airborne traffic deconfliction systems, electronic support measures, communications intelligence systems, AVSim, and SATCOM systems). The contract is a hybrid Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Cost-Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) arrangement. Services include program management, engineering, repair, operational, maintenance, and logistics support to fulfill flight operations and mission support for Air, Maritime, and Land Law Enforcement, Domain Awareness, Extended Border and Foreign Operations, and Contingency and National Security Operations. The solicitation number is 70B02C21R00000018.
GA-ASI is the sole qualified contractor due to proprietary ownership of MQ-9 design artifacts, technical data, software, and the specialized Software Integration Lab (SIL) at its Poway facility. Market research conducted in 2020 and 2025 confirmed no alternative vendors possess the necessary unrestricted commercial licenses or technical expertise to perform equivalent services. The government lacks an unrestricted data rights license to enable competition. The J&A demonstrates that alternatives such as the MQ-4, transitioning to a different UAS platform, or acquiring additional platforms would result in unacceptable delays (4-6 years or longer), significant duplicative costs, training pipeline increases, program office expansion, FAA Certification of Authorization delays (up to two years), and inability to meet existing infrastructure and mission requirements.
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o Inability to efficiently and effectively complete necessary equipment upgrade/modification design and integration efforts o Inability to meet the existing 33 UAS Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certification of Authorization (COA) requirements
- The COA approval process requires a stringent review of UAS systems, procedures for normal and emergency operations, training, and other factors
- To date, the FAA granted the CBP MQ-9 system multiple COAs for operations in the southwest border region, northern border region, southeast coastal border region, and other areas
- The MQ-9 has more operational flight hours in the NAS outside of Restricted Airspace than any other UAS
- The introduction of a new type of UAS requires the re-submission of air space risk analyses to the FAA and proof of compliance with FAA COA requirements
- This will increase program costs, delay the FAA authorization to employ the new aircraft along the nation’s borders by as much as two years, and may result in an FAA refusal to authorize the employment of the new aircraft.
7. Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited from as Many Potential
Sources as is Practicable.
RFI: 2020RFIHQFLDUAS was published on beta.sam.gov on August 19, 2020.
A Pre-Solicitation Notice of Intent to Sole Source this acquisition was published on beta.sam.gov on January 19, 2021.
RFI: 2025RFIUASMOS was published on SAM.gov on May 12, 2025.
A Pre-Solicitation Notice of Intent to Sole Source this acquisition was published on beta.sam.gov on December 17, 2025.
8. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.
The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on comparison to an Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) which provides an accurate and realistic cost estimate for all program costs and requirements as currently known by the UAS PO for the next 2-years, a UAS Life-Cycle Cost Estimate (LCCE) from FY2015-FY2037, and the effective use of negotiations.
Additionally, the offeror will provide certified cost and pricing data. CBP will perform an assessment of that data to support negotiation of a fair and reasonable price.
9. Description of Market Research.
The Government is not in a position to reduce the technical specification and does not recommend acquiring data rights beyond the current license agreement as the rights would only allow for a very limited set of potentially competitive services. The original competitive UAS award determined the current acquisition strategy that involved procuring only a limited rights license in the OEM’s proprietary technical data and software package based on the original requirement and the UAS StAMP requirements have not changed.
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