JHU JA Redacted 05.18.21_Redacted.pdf

Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition

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I. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC), PEO Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) Contracting Office (PZH) at Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts is the contracting organization responsible for this proposed contract action. The Procuring Contracting Officer is

II. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is an Individual Justification & Approval (J&A) for a single award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) Laurel, MD. The $30M contract will have an ordering period of five years comprised of one year basic contract, beginning 24 March 2021, and four consecutive one-year options. The resulting task orders will mostly likely be, but are not limited to, Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) and Cost Reimbursable (CR) contract types. The appropriate contract type will be selected for each task order.

This proposed acquisition will result in a new contract to provide strategic and technical expertise to the Air Force NC3 Integration Directorate (AFNWC/NC) and associated offices on matters related to Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) health monitoring and assessments, cybersecurity, modeling and simulation, validation and verification, and related topics. The five year contract duration inclusive of all options is required to satisfy the special need for long-term support from the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). The goal of this contract structure is to provide a contract vehicle that permits objective and independent support, in accordance with FAR 35.017(a)(4), to eliminate administrative costs of annual negotiations, and to foster the required program continuity. This work is currently being accomplished by JHU/APL under a Navy contract. The Navy contract will be unavailable to support AFNWC after the completion of the current Task Order (Task Order 20-F-8015) Period of Performance (PoP). In accordance with FAR 35.015(b)(2), additional research was done to determine if another suitable basic agreement was already in place that could meet the requirements of AFNWC, and none were found. Of note, AFNWC/NT currently has an IDIQ in place with JHU/APL, but after discussions and emails with AFNWC/PZNK and AFNWC/NTZ, it became clear that there is insufficient PoP of only left on their IDIQ and the remaining ceiling is already fully accounted for use by other offices, so this vehicle was deemed to not be a suitable avenue to meet our requirements.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value).

Services to be provided under the contract include the following: system engineering, system of systems engineering, and enterprise system of systems engineering across the NC3 nuclear enterprise. The scope of this UARC focuses on developing innovative strategies, concepts, and technology across the NC3 enterprise. JHU/APL works to advance and apply science, technology, system engineering and strategy to effectively enable the Government to make better decisions and implement solutions to complex challenges of national and global significance.

The type of funds to be utilized for this contract action will be 3600 Research and Development (R&D) funds. The estimated value of the task orders to be issued under the contract is $30M. The AFNWC/NC Integration Directorate task order cost estimate over the 5 years is estimated to be ~$14M. We surveyed other offices with work within the NC3 PEO portfolio, like the E-4B System Program Office (SPO), Senior Leader Network (SLN) Program Management Office (PMO), and Very Low Frequency (VLF) Enterprise PMO, for interest in this contract vehicle and their estimated costs combined with our own led us to the $30M estimate cost figure for the IDIQ with centralized ordering through our office. Over the course of the IDIQ PoP the E-4B SPO estimated ~$2.4M, SLN PMO estimated ~$5M, and the VLF Enterprise PMO estimated ~$7.5M worth of potential work. Coupled with our own estimate that puts likely potential use of the IDIQ at ~$28.9M, with some room for additional cost growth.

JHU/APL's involvement across the Department of Defense (DoD) programs provides valuable insight into how systems are used across the Services and the DoD. This is a critical aspect necessary to meet the growing requirements for system engineering and support across the NC3 enterprise. Other specialized needs include the following:

1) JHU/APL performs strategic system test and evaluation activities and provides technical engineering that directly supports strategic communications assessment programs, to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Polo Hat (PH) NC3 Assessment Program. JHU/APL has verified the ability of selected AF NC3 platforms, configuration elements and constituent systems to

March 2020 Page 4 of 9 meet Joint Staff Nuclear Command and Control System Technical Performance Criteria (NTPC) standards.

2) Through the AF and Navy Continuing Evaluation Program (CEP) assessment and analysis projects, JHU/APL has developed in-depth experience and performance records for more than 25 NC3 data sources across the operational spectrum, from command centers to support units.

JHU/APL will provide all services utilizing NC3 knowledge for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center NC3 Integration Directorate (AFNWC/NC):

IV. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

This action is authorized under 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(3) as implemented by FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii), which states that "full and open competition need not to be provided for when it is necessary to award a contract to a particular source in order to...establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other non-profit institution or a federally funded research and development center."

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

A non-competitive award to JHU/APL is planned under the authority cited in paragraph IV. Fostering Long-term relationships between the DoD and UARCs is highly encouraged in the July 2010 "Department of Defense University Affiliated Research Center Management Plan." Maintaining a continued relationships between JHU/APL and the DoD ensures that the uniquely specialized engineering capabilities essential to the NC3 mission, are always current and available from a reliable source to provide quick response capabilities.

The UARC with JHU/APL was established specifically to provide objective and independent engineering support to the DoD and other Government agencies as approved. JHU/APL has extensive knowledge of systems that are established to meet the needs of the Air Force and other DoD agencies. JHU/APL's vast technology base and response capability are necessary to allow the Air Force to respond to new and high priority short-term requirements. The utilization of JHU/APL's pool of experts strengthens the Air Force's overall resource capabilities and reduces risk by providing this ready capability with experts already familiar with Air Force programs. These advantages increase the probability of achieving mission success. JHU/APL has been designated the Air Force UARC for systems engineering, modeling and simulation and integration. They provide over 75+ years as a technical advisor for DoD and 50+ years of experience with CEP assessments for the US Navy and over 20+ years of experience with CEP and PH assessments for the USAF.

JHU/APL possesses an extensive breadth of capabilities and has been involved in broad programs of long-term research and development of major USAF and other DoD systems. The scope of its efforts extends across several areas of science and technology, includes many different warfare elements, and involves many types of activities, from basic research to full-scale operational system testing.

The technical staff of JHU/APL includes specialists in many scientific and engineering disciplines, as well as systems engineers who can direct teams engaged in the development of complex combat and even multiple-platform systems.

Further, JHU/APL has proven capability not only in research and development, but also in the resolution of problems related to the production of systems, to the introduction of equipment into full operational status, to maintenance, and to logistics. The unique capabilities of JHU/APL stem from the body of knowledge, experience, data, and facilities established through more than a half-century of highly diversified work solving problems for the Navy and for other defense organizations.

JHU/APL Core Competencies Maintained for the USAF

JHU/APL has developed core competencies in research, development, test, and evaluation, systems innovations, integration, and engineering in support of the DoD's warfighting capabilities. The specific core competencies are

March 2020 Page 5 of 9 provided as follows:

1. Strategic Systems Test and Evaluation. Quantitative performance evaluations of complex including ballistic and guided missile systems, C3 systems, and other related combat and weapon alternative and modified systems; collection of development of instrumentation, as appropriate. Independent operational systems strategic and tactical systems; evaluation of requisite data.

2. Information Technology (C4ISR/IO). Research, development, and assessment of defense command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, information operations, cyber operations and information technologies; application of these technologies to battlefield information management, intelligence systems and information warfare systems; operational evaluations and vulnerability assessments of current and planned systems; development of system architectures to improve intelligence systems and to improve the effectiveness and coordination and reduce vulnerability among forces; and demonstrations and testing of these systems.

3. Simulation, Modeling, and Operations Analysis. Development, verification, validation and application of simulations, models, and operations analysis techniques to determine mission effectiveness and performance assessment of current, planned, and proposed systems; and coordination of employment of these systems.

In general, AF PEOs and program offices have a relatively small organic systems engineering and integration workforce.

This small organic force is primarily charged with "engineering management" while JHU/APL provides the detailed and more technical systems engineering and integration support. JHU/APL supports the entire Air Force.

The level of team involvement with Air Force programs provides managers with valuable cross-linkage and a true "systems" engineering environment, an increasingly critical aspect necessary to meet the growing requirements for NC3 interoperability. Other specialized needs include the following: (1) the ability to work closely with industry, academia, research labs, and Joint Warfighter to ensure solutions are developed from an enterprise-wide/cross-program perspective; (2) the continual availability of high quality scientists, and engineers needed to address complex issues in sufficient quantities to meet demand; (3) the requisite skills, technical depth, and a continuity of experience with systems engineering, and integration to meet the challenges of rapid technology advances, changing mission roles, unprecedented systems, conflicting requirements, and complex interoperability issues critical to success of Joint operations; (4) an independent perspective on critical issues and technological developments; (5) the ability to be a trusted agent, with special access to Government and contractor sensitive and proprietary information (including intelligence data and program planning information), their employees and facilities.

Organizations in the private for-profit marketplace do not offer an acceptable alternative source to accomplish all or part of the anticipated work program. The recurring competitive selection of commercial service contractors is not a viable option to obtain this type of support. There is no alternative to JHU/APL that provides a high-quality, conflict-free capability. The Air Force's competitive awards for systems engineering services to the private sector are accomplished via various advisory and assistance contract vehicles. JHU/APL has visibility across DoD systems and is therefore in a better position to address interoperability issues and work at an enterprise acquisition level, which enhances the NC3 mission.

The Air Force requires an organization that can recruit and sustain highly skilled engineers, retain or terminate these employees as technologies change, reassign key technical personnel as DoD priorities dictate, and create teams familiar with recent developments across the Services and DoD agencies. It is more effective for the Department to continue to obtain these capabilities from UARC rather than create a federal workforce having the broad systems engineering expertise necessary to cover the DoD arena.

While the private for profit sector plays a significant role in developing the Department's Capabilities, it is unable to fully satisfy the role of JHU/APL for the following reasons: (1) current procurement policies make it virtually impossible for a single contractor to win a preponderance of competitions for this support. Consequently, it is not likely such a contractor could have both the breadth and the depth of knowledge and involvement across DoD to provide full technical support to systems engineering and systems integration. Without such a broad base of involvement overall integration would be jeopardized; and (2) the DoD requires a "trusted partner" with broad access to classified, sensitive, privileged and proprietary information for the entire range of the systems in order to support internal planning, source selections, and other actions that demand a unique degree of objectivity and trust. The private for-profit sector simply is unable to establish this sort of relationship that is free of incentives or the possibility of conflict of interest.

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In conclusion, JHU has demonstrated the greatest level of capabilities and has a great depth of experience in every area that the government called for responses to. Other Offerors were found to be marginally capable and were unable to fully respond. In addition, to what we required for capabilities, JHU has also identified additional capabilities that would provide great benefit to the NC3 program and will enhance our program effectiveness.

The special constraints imposed on the UARC ensure it maintains the highest degree of objectivity and that the private industry can trust it with access to proprietary information. The combination of ceiling limitations, limits on non-UARC work, and definition of core work ensures the UARC will not exploit its special relationship with the Government.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under

FAR 5.202 applies.

The Request for Information (RFI) was published on the beta.SAM.Gov website, formerly FedBizOpps, in February 2020 with a submission date of March 2020 due back to the AFNWC/NC office. The program office received four responses and the results of the four vendors are described in Section VIII. Appropriate notification will be publicized in accordance with subpart 5.2.

VII. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer will determine that the cost for all task orders and the IDIQ contract (ceiling amount) are fair and reasonable. JHU/APL will be required to provide certified cost or pricing data with its proposal for a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract type. This data will be used to support the Government evaluation of the proposed estimated cost. The AFNWC/NC Program Office will accomplish a detailed proposal evaluation including cost and price analysis of all proposals.

VIII. Description of the market research conducted and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

A Request for Information (RFI) was published on February 4, 2020 on the beta.SAM.Gov website, formerly, FedBizOpps. The RFI was specifically asking for NC3 experience in Polo Hat and CEP data sources, NC3 operations, models incorporating DTRA codes, and DoD . Four vendors replied to the RFI submission. A thorough evaluation was conducted on the four submissions; three of them did not possess the required capabilities to perform the work in NC3. Three of the four submissions have personnel from previous jobs that could provide some analysis, based on prior experience in the field, but that is not what was being asked of the submission. The submissions all failed to provide the relevant organizational past performance experience with Polo Hat and CEP assessments required for this effort. Only JHU/APL has the relevant organizational past performance with Polo Hat and CEP assessments along with access to cutting edge university resources and personnel with current experience in the field to support our requirements. Our analysis of the three inadequate RFI responses as well as JHU/APL's response are summarized below.

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JHU/APL has some 7,000 employees and JHU/APL is currently tasked to analyze PH data sources for the Navy and has analyzed PH and CEP data sources for the Air Force. They have a long history of working with the Navy. JHU/APL's MASSC model incorporates Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) codes to reflect NC3 environments. JHU/APL performs strategic system test and evaluation activities and provides technical engineering that directly supports strategic communications assessment programs. They have verified the ability of selected AF NC3 platforms configuration elements and constituent systems to meet Joint Staff Nuclear Command and Control System Technical Performance Criteria (NTPC) standards. Recently they used PH results and other NC3 metrics to develop 19 comprehensive AF NC3 relevant data packages, including statistical confidence interval calculations. Through analysis work and other NC3 related projects, JHU/APL have developed experience with 30 relevant NC3 data sources across multiple categories for weapon platforms, command centers, and supporting elements such as the KC-135 tankers by evaluating NC3 performance or developed metrics. In addition to those categories, they also support sensor collection and correlation activities, and have extensive experience with operating and evaluating communication systems from both a performance and cybersecurity perspective. Based on JHU/APL's knowledge of and experience with various data sources and their role in the NC3 enterprise, they have developed a large set of technical capabilities such as NC3 data collection, NC3 performance analysis, NC3 mission modeling, NC3 requirements verification, NC3 reliability engineering analysis, PH results measurement and analysis, statistical confidence interval calculations, investigation of RF physics and propagation problems, and NC2/NC3 operational expertise including prior military platform/command center/command post PH experience. Through the AF assessment and analysis projects, JHU/APL has developed in-depth experience and performance records for more than 25 NC3 data sources across the operational spectrum from command centers to support units. The CEP data sources supported are weapons platforms such as submarines, bombers, and Launch Control Centers (LCCs) for missiles. They all support command centers analyzing Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) transmission and reception results. The data obtained from CEP efforts supports several other programs and is the empirical data for further digital engineering initiatives across the DoD. CEP data is integral to the development of modeling and simulation capabilities supporting NC3 operational plans during pre-attack, trans-attack and post-attack phases of nuclear and conventional conflict. In addition to providing support and analysis to exercises and assessments they also developed, a unique

March 2020 Page 8 of 9 comprehensive NC3 modeling and simulation capability designed to provide mission-level, systems of systems analysis and prediction of NC3 performance, which relies on the DTRA modeling codes.

JHU/APL has been a technical advisor to the DoD for over 75 years. JHU/APL has been performing for AFNWC/NC for the last two years. They have extensive experience with NC3 including the entire 50 year history of CEP for the US Navy and over 20 years of CEP analysis for the USAF. Support to Polo Hat involves work that enables or satisfies Polo Hat program objectives and tasks, or directly utilizes Polo Hat assessment data. JHU/APL has developed a prototype capability to import and evaluate PH operational bomber performance data into their modeling suite. The PH data was ingested into their MASSC model then used to perform simulations to include PH realistic mission performance parameters against modeled threat and environment parameters.

This allows for empirically based prediction of bomb performance against threat and environment conditions only feasible or practical through modeling and simulations. Operationally, this activity captured the mission, scenario and platform-centric parameters into the MASSC model, yielding more realistic and operationally relevant results. Separately, they demonstrated this prototype as a means to potentially increase confidence in PH operational results for stressed NC3 conditions and contested or jamming environments.

Of the RFI responses received, only JHU/APL holds the institutional knowledge in the required areas coupled with access to cutting edge research and talent pool depth in the relevant fields to support our requirements.

IX. Any other facts supporting the use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

It is reasonably expected that only an FFRDC or UARC may possess the resources and experience to fulfill the contract tasks because of their long term experience in NC3. The results of our February 2020 RFI and ongoing market research have only strengthened our continued need for a long term relationship between the DoD and JHU. JHU/APL was the only qualified submission and showcased the extremely high level of capabilities necessary to perform the work. JHU's experience in this area provides AFNWC/NC the only avenue for the high level of expertise in the field required. Their work with the Navy gives them a competitive advantage in and of itself. There is no other viable method to fulfill the requirement that has extensive knowledge and experience that JHU/APL does with transmission and reception performance work. Based on experience, personnel, , and demonstrated performance JHU/APL provides the highest level of capabilities to provide NC3 engineering, research, analysis and development for AFNWC.

X. List of any sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

An RFI was published on 4 February 2020 on the SAMbeta website, formerly FedBizOpps. The RFI was specifically asking for NC3 experience in Polo Hat and CEP data sources, NC3 operations, models incorporating DTRA codes, and DoD experience. There were four vendors, A thorough evaluation was conducted on the four submissions; three of the four submissions did not possess the required capabilities to perform the work in NC3. Three of the four submissions have experienced personnel from previous jobs that could provide some analysis but that is not what was being asked of the submission.

JHU/APL was the only fully responsive submission that addressed all areas requested in the RFI, and was deemed completely capable of satisfying our requirements.

XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

Based on feedback from the RFI submission, the UARC provides expertise in NC3 that is not available from in-house (Government) or for-profit/procurement sources.

Reasons include conflict of issues driven by profit requirements, conflicts between organizations that compete in the development of systems for the DoD, and in some cases a lack in institutional technical expertise. For-profit Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) contractors continue to improve in these areas but are still required to focus on current programs

March 2020 Page 9 of 9 and do not have the funds to maintain expertise in areas that are not current on a contract. The UARCs have the ability to maintain their expertise across the spectrum of core work. The advantage over retention of expertise in-house is the ability to bring on new expertise as needed and to maintain cutting edge expertise whereas the federal hiring system does not allow this flexibility.

Section III documents the DoD users' comments regarding the ability of alternative sources to satisfy the requirements being performed by the UARC. These responses indicate that no alternative sources could provide the technical expertise to work with the Government and industry free of conflict for the following reasons:

1) The DoD does not have in-house civilian and/or military resources with the technical skills to satisfy the demands being met by the UARC. DoD organizations are unable to recruit and retain personnel with the requisite technical skills to satisfy the requirements. There is continued pressure to reduce the in-house expertise to reduce overall budget costs.

2) The UARC cannot produce systems for the Department and thus is not in competition with companies that compete for this work. Therefore, there is no actual perceived conflict of interest with the regard to the UARC's early involvement with system requirements for NC3, PH and CEP assessments support, system architectures, or recommendations on use of given technologies. This gives the UARC access to both Government information that is normally withheld from industry and access to industry technology that would not be shared with potential competitors.

3) The UARC is able to gain access to sensitive information from Government industry and academia because of its recognition of its freedom from the conflict of interest. A for-profit contractor would not be able to gain the same access. The UARC has maintained current and in-depth knowledge of DoD programs and requirements because of a long-term strategic relationship with the Department. Other types of organizations lack this in-depth knowledge of DoD programs and requirements.

Currently, JHU/APL is the only organization that can meet our unique requirement set at the AFNWC. In the future, we plan to continue to do extensive market research including releasing RFIs and conducting industry days in order to connect with a wider potential group of respondents. Additional efforts will be made to specifically reach out to other UARCs and FFRDCs in order to see if some of their capabilities may align with our requirements going forward.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by my (our) signature(s) above, I (we) certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my (our) responsibility, is both accurate and complete.