JA - GPINS YPG 20200526fg _Redacted.pdf

Control No: YPG-2020-2 Contractor: Cibola Information Systems

Program/Equipment: GPINS

Version – September 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR PART 6 JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN

FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Program/Equipment: Global Positioning Integration and Navigation System (GPINS)

Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) as implemented by FAR Part 6.302-1 -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

Amount: $675,481

Prepared by:

Contracting Officer: Edgar Angulo DSN: 899-6172 Contracting Officer Date: 27 May 2020 Email: edgar.angulo.civ@mail.mil

Technical:

Requirements:

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Program Manager:

_________ Date: See Digital Signature

Legal Counsel:

DSN:

_______ Date: See Digital Signature

Small Business Specialist, Small Business Program:

__________ Date: See Digital Signature

FAR Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Yuma Proving Ground, 301 C Street, Bldg. 2100, Yuma Proving Ground, AZ 85365-9498

2. Description of Action: This justification for other than full and open competition (J&A) supports the modification of contract W9124R-15-C-0006 to allow an additional period of performance of five months (1 June 2020 through 31 October 2020) to continue the acquisition process for the follow-on contract. This J&A seeks approval of a contract extension in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Clause 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services. This is a noncompetitive Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) contract with Cibola Information Systems (CIS), 11694 E. Calle Gaudi, Yuma, Arizona 85367. The extension will be incrementally funded using Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 and 2021 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The Global Positioning Integration and Navigation System (GPINS) services requirement is necessary to obtain the expertise and performance to support the Instrumentation Division located at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (USAYPG) ,Yuma Test Center’s (YTC) Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) test mission with the development, maintenance, and expansion of Global Positioning System (GPS) instrumentation; the development of new advancements in the Improved Vehicle Tracking System (IVTS) and WindPack systems; and the customization/ integration of GPS instrumentation for individual test programs to include but not limited to electronic warfare systems, ground combat systems, and ammunition systems located at USAYPG. Over the years, the USAYPG mission and specialty as the only air delivery developmental tester in the U.S. Army has made the GPINS services requirement critical due to the uniqueness of mission scenarios and USAYPG at the cutting edge of air delivery instrumentation and data collection technology. The services requirement includes executing and conducting research necessary to remain on the leading edge of GPS instrumentation and its application to range instrumentation or operational navigation systems with integrated mission equipment packages and state-of-the-art technology to capture guidance, navigation, timing, and control data and may include the application of GPS radio frequency countermeasure applications. Work may be performed at several locations simultaneously within the United States and at various locations outside the Contiguous United States in response to the diverse needs of the developmental testing community in providing guidance, navigation, and timing solutions.

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

5. Reason for Authority Cited: As described at FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), when the supplies or services required by the agency are available only from one responsible source, or for DoD, NASA and the Coast Guard, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other types of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for. CIS is the only responsible vendor that can satisfy the Army’s requirement.

a. Background:

1) The GPINS services requirement has been part of the mission at USAYPG since the late 1990s. CIS was awarded the initial contract with the specification to begin development of the IVTS with GPINS as a component system. Subsequent contracts with CIS for the continuation of GPINS services added the development of the WindPack systems. Since the inception of the requirement, it has undergone multiple development upgrades. In addition to the IVTS and WindPack systems, the technology relies on ground stations that provide differential GPS corrections and are specific to the CIS developed technology.

2) The Government has made a significant investment in the GPINS technology and capability through contracts with CIS who owns the rights and proprietary hardware and software associated with the systems. In the more than 20 years of GPINS services that USAYPG has been using IVTS on air delivery missions, CIS has built and maintained 215 IVTS variants at a hardware cost of $1.2 million. The WindPack system has undergone five major upgrades at a hardware cost of $125 thousand. Challenges specific to air delivery instrumentation include operating at high altitude, functioning in a high static electricity environment, and being subjected to high-gravitational forces as parachutes deploy. In addition, range instrumentation systems used in the execution of the USAYPG test mission often utilize GPINS GPS technology with differential corrections for more precise positioning and/or timing. GPS and navigation systems technology expertise, system development, customized manufacturing, and system integration in extreme environments are all required.

3) USAYPG has three ongoing GPINS development efforts involving IVTS and

WindPack systems under the current contract, which will enhance mission capability.

An ongoing significant design challenge associated with GPINS services requirements is the operation in an extreme airdrop environment and high likelihood of destruction through the mission test process; therefore the systems must be readily designed, replicated, and available at a cost point within budgetary constraints.

a) The WindPack is a small parachute system used on airdrops to measure wind speed and direction. The current development effort is adding pressure and temperature data recording to enhance its mission capability.

b) The ground-up development of a Six Degree of Freedom Vehicle Tracking System (6DVTS) which combines a six-degrees-of-freedom Inertial Navigation Unit (INU) with IVTS has been in progress for five years and, although nearing completion, is not yet fully deployed. The 6DVTS will be a revolutionary capability for USAYPG, providing payload attitude data from the point it leaves the aircraft to when the parachute deploys and includes a built-in integration for post-mission data processing.

There is a technical gap in GPS positional data where the payload receives data inside the aircraft from a GPS rebroadcast system, but loses the GPS signal as it leaves the aircraft. Once outside the aircraft the payload reacquires GPS through satellites. This transition is violent as payload velocity is dramatically reduced and encounters changes in altitude. The 6DVTS will bridge this technical gap and ensure complete understanding of the dynamics of payloads. This capability does not exist anywhere else in the world; CIS expertise with parachute air delivery instrumentation is critical to the technology’s success.

c) The latest development for the IVTS is an effort to miniaturize the legacy IVTS for use on small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). CIS is using the extensive knowledge acquired through the development of IVTS to develop a miniaturized version.

b. Alternatives:

1) Suspension of Contract Support. The GPINS services are ongoing and critical to mission accomplishment. Suspension of the services would cause major, if not critical delay in the development of state-of-the-art GPS instrumentation for range instrumentation or operational navigation systems and disrupt all scheduled tests.

Therefore, this alternative is not viable.

2) Use of In-House Resources. USAYPG lacks sufficient manpower, technical expertise, and resources to perform the required services. Acquiring adequately trained personnel within the Government is not contemplated by the U.S. Army in the foreseeable future. Attempting to initiate actions to increase Government workforce to accomplish this mission would take years and result in mission failure during the time required to adequately recruit and staff a trained workforce. This alternative is not viable.

3) Extending Current Contract: This alternative is the only feasible alternative to provide the government with the optimum level of service for the USAYPG YTC Instrumentation Division. The services provided for the Instrumentation Division under this contract are vital to the Government and must be continued without interruption.

This extension provides the only alternative that could meet the 1 June 2020 performance period without a break in service. This maintains the continuity of operations and support without jeopardizing the ongoing development, testing, and mission schedules while ensuring there will be no degradation of services in this highly technical requirement.

c. Justification: An additional period of performance of five months is required to continue the acquisition process for the follow-on contract. As a result the current contract needs to be extended for five months, from 1 June 2020 through 31 October

2020, to meet the Aviation and Air Delivery Systems Divisions needs and avoid service interruption. This extension is within scope of the contract. In accordance with FAR 52.217-8, the Option to Extend the Term of the Contract, the period of performance will be extended for five month. The option was evaluated at time of award, the rates for the current option period were evaluated and determined fair, reasonable, and realistic pursuant to FAR 15.404-1(c)& (d) Cost Analysis and Cost Realism Analysis by the Contracting Officer at time of award. CIS has the institutional knowledge, management, and capability to meet this challenge due to the long investments in the GPINS service requirement. CIS has proprietary rights to IVTS and WindPack systems, including ground stations that are not available or interchangeable with other vendors.

d. Impact if Not Approved: Disapproval of an extension until the award of the follow-on contract would risk impacting the outcomes and data collected from various test missions in support of other test programs, the delays caused by the development of comparable products would cause mission failure for USAYPG due to the lack of services for GPINS instrumentation.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The procurement history in paragraph 10, below, describes the attempt and failure at competition for this requirement. Additionally, as discussed in paragraph 5, above, GPINS technology functionality is dependent on the linking of IVTS and WindPack systems to the ground stations which is proprietary to CIS. If the GPINS services requirement were to shift to entirely new technology, that requirement could be procured though a competitive solicitation. Although after the competition, because of the uniqueness of the requirement, any solution would require development and be proprietary.

a. Effective Competition: Historical competition has been attempted but not resulted in effective competition, including more recent competitions with only one source, nor is effective competition expected in subsequent actions. As described in paragraph 5, effective competition is not applicable.

b. Subcontracting Competition: CIS is a small business therefore a small business subcontracting plan is not required. Further, it is not anticipated that any functions under the existing requirement will be subcontracted, although they are not precluded.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: As stated in paragraph 6, above, if the GPINS services requirement were to shift so that it was not dependent on the current infrastructure, it could be procured though a competitive solicitation. Until that condition is met, future contracts will remain limited to CIS.

8. Market Research:

a. Extensive market research was conducted in accordance with FAR part 10 for the original acquisition and prior to the exercise of each of the option years under the contract. The most recent market research was conducted in June 2019 during the initial phase of the reacquisition. Other than CIS, it has been determined there are no small business concerns that have demonstrated the capability to fulfill this unique requirement. The small business that showed an interest in the GPINS did not demonstrate the capability to perform the entire requirement. The current contract was solicited as a sole source requirement.

b. A Sources Sought Synopsis (SSS) was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on 13 August 2019 with a response date of 27 August 2019. The notice was to identify potential sources that might be interested in and capable of performing the GPINS services in four specific areas: Integration & Test Efforts, IVTS, Test Planning & Execution, and Special Studies, as well as to solicit industry feedback relative to various aspects of the proposed contract. Two firms responded to the SSS: Principle Information Technology Company (PITC), and CIS.

The technical team reviewed the information received and it was determined that PITC is not qualified nor capable of successfully executing the GPINS services requirement because PITC, as a manager of information technology, does not possess the expertise in range support, IVTS, maintenance of a GNSS capability, or other conditions as described in the SSS. CIS, as the incumbent, possesses the requisite knowledge, capability, and is performing successfully on the contract.

9. Interested Sources: As described in paragraph 8 above, although another firm responded to the SSS, PITC does not meet the necessary qualifications for GPINS services.

10. Other Facts:

a. On 30 May 2015, CIS was awarded a CPFF contract, W9124R-15-C-0006, as a result of a sole source procurement in the amount of $7,912,681.

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

_________ Date: See Digital Signature

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

________ Date: See Digital Signature

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of Global Positioning Integration and Navigation System (GPINS) services on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of Title 10 United States Code Section 2304(c)(1), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The estimated value of this five month contract extension is $675,481 from 1 June 2020 through 1 October 2020. The approval is subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

EDGAR ANGULO

Contracting Officer U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Yuma Proving Ground AZ