JNA - Vulcan 24May24 FINAL REDACTED.pdf

CUI

United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Justification and Approval (J&A) For Vulcan Ecosystem Software as a Service (SAAS) Subscription Services

17 April 2024 carlos.cotto Cross-Out

J&A No. 24-3811

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

Authority: (10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(2), as implemented by FAR 6.302-2)

Project/Program Name: Vulcan Ecosystem Software as a Service

Component/PEO/Other: SOF AT&L AR

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): $5,000,000.00

Type J&A: (Individual or Class )

J&A No.

24-3811

1. Agency and Contracting Activity: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(1))

Program Office: SOF AT&L Acquisition Resources (AR) United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Special Operations Forces Acqusition, Technology and Logistics (SOF AT&L) 7701 Tampa Point Blvd MacDill AFB, FL 33621

Contracting Office:

HQ USSOCOM/SOF AT&L-KR

7701 Tampa Point Blvd MacDill AFB, FL 33621

2. Description of Action: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(2)) Bridge Action Yes or No

Approval is being requested for an out-of-scope modification to contract no. H9241523C0002, to allow current services to continue beyond the current contract�s end date of 30 April 2024, which is necessary due to a mandatory stay placed on the award of the follow-on contract, due to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) protest.1 This bridge extension under H9241523C0002 includes a base period of 4 months and two 3-month option periods. The contract with Spathe Systems LLC., 5401 W Kennedy Blvd. Suite 750, Tampa, FL, 33609, will continue to use O&M funding for the Vulcan Software.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(3))

This requirement is a short-term continuity of services to provide Vulcan subscription services which provides a comprehensive and validated Technology Domain Awareness Platform for USSOCOM Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (SOF AT&L) and Special Operations Forces (SOF) technology scouting efforts. It provides a streamlined approach and custom process from initial technology discovery to collaboration and experimentation, evaluation, assessments, and the generation of detailed Government reports. The system provides support for a critical capability needed to continue executing multiple key technical assessment events for Science and Technology (S&T), Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and Naval Special Warfare (NSW), which are actively in progress.

4. Authority Cited: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(4))

1 While the GAO protest was dismissed, and the stay lifted, on 17 April 2024, the stay was in place from 22 March � 18 April 2024, preventing any progress toward executing the follow-on contract; thus, while the stay has been lifted, USSOCOM�s need for this modification is still unusual and compelling, as discussed below.

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J&A No. 24-3811

10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(2), Unusual and Compelling Urgency, as implemented by FAR 6.302-2

5. Reason for Authority Cited: (FAR 6.303-1)

USSOCOM must execute this non-competitive modification to extend contract no. H9241523C0002�s period of performance because USSOCOM�s need for these services is of such an unusual and compelling urgency that it precludes full and open competition, and delay would result in serious injury to the Government. The planned new contract for these services cannot be awarded or performed due to a mandatory stay, stemming from a GAO protest, and allowing these services to lapse would cause the Government to be seriously injured.2

Without this extension, three areas of immediate and serious impact to USSOCOM, specifically for United States Naval Special Warfare Command (NSW), Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) are outlined below.

1.) S&T leverages Vulcan year-round for Technical Experimentation (TE) events for Planning, Execution and Reporting. S&T is currently in the middle of TE 24-2 taking place in April at Avon Park, FL and 24-3 from 3-7 June in Red Springs, NC. Planning for TE 24-3 is underway, and Vulcan is already populated with the 24-3 Scout Cards from our SAM.gov Request For Information (RFI) and must remain available to support ongoing voting on experiments for the event by the TE across the USSOCOM ecosystem, which also requires referencing past government evaluations elsewhere in the database. Vulcan must remain available to support the assessment process by Government data collectors during the actual event.

In addition, the system must be available to provide formal feedback to the developers and summary reports across the Department of Defense which is all done through the Vulcan platform. In summary, reconstituting the data and finding alternative tools for the assessments and reporting would be cost and time prohibitive, and would result in cancellation of an event and would have serious impact on the event, which has been in the planning stages for 6 months, would have enterprise-wide benefits, and has incurred good-faith resource investments from industry and academic technology development community as they developed their experiment nominations and participation plans. This would result in mission failure and loss of funds already expended for S&T TE�s in progress.

a) Cancellation of TE 24-3, as all data from industry response to our RFI, the Government�s experiment selection, and the means to conduct assessments during the event and provide feedback to industry and across DoD will be lost and cannot be reconstituted in time to execute the event. Government and industry resource investments will be lost.

b) Loss of access to TE 24-2 and previous TE data, which informs industry�s engineering and business decisions on how best to support SOF and is a Department-wide resource of technology assessments.

c)

2 See footnote no. 1.

Cross-Out d)

2.) NSW is currently conducting the largest technical experimentation and assessment event through Vulcan. There is an onsite assessment event taking place at Virginia Beach in April. Between 4/1/24 and 6/1/24 Vulcan and NSW curate reports that go to both the Government and individual companies, which are all created within the Vulcan platform. This is critical for access for the USSOCOM Program Executive Offices (PEOs), NSW, and others to support transition strategies. We also use Vulcan to provide follow up ROI surveys for technology transition using Vulcan.

3.) JSOC leverages Vulcan for Joint Innovation Medical Symposium (JIMS) and Joint Capability and

Technology Engagement (JCTE).

There is an urgency to keeping the Vulcan platform available for continued JCTE and JIMS support.

Vulcan is critical to this process as it enables each TII Lead to carefully review each proposal.

There is therefore an urgent and compelling need to keep the Vulcan platform available for continued JCTE and JIMS support.

This period of performance extension will be for a mere fourth months, with two three-month options, which is no longer than necessary for USSOCOM to award a new contract for the required services.

With regard to the requirement to request offers from as many potential sources as is practicable under the circumstances, considering the cessation of services on 30 April 2024 (13 days after the stay being lifted), it would only be practicable to obtain this brief continuation of services from Spathe Systems, as a modification to the existing contract; pursuing a continuation with any other source would require a new contract, which would not be negotiated and executed prior to 30 April 2024. See Section 6 below for additional information concerning efforts to seek additional sources.

6. Efforts/Actions to Increase Competition: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) & (11))

As stated above, this modification is for a short period of performance extension, a one-time event due to unusual and compelling urgency, which will extend the current contract no longer than necessary for USSOCOM to award a new contract for the required services. For these reasons, no additional efforts to increase competition would be relevant, beyond the extensive efforts to increase competition already made during the acquisition planning stage of the new contract for these services, which was delayed due to a mandatory stay.

In accordance with DFARS PGI 206.302-1(d), a Request for Information (RFI) was posted for the planned new contract on 14 Nov 2023 to SAM.gov. One company responded. The PM reviewed capability statement and determined that it did not meet the Government�s minimum requirements. Specifically, capability statement consisted of consulting services and did not demonstrate or outline functionality to meet the existing requirements. The contracting officer followed up with the and provided general guidance and resources to find further USSOCOM contracting opportunities.

In addition to the RFI. and per FAR 5.2, a pre-solicitation notice was publicized on 1 Dec 2023. One company, responded to the contracting officer on 4 Dec 2023, requesting information on the RFI. was provided the information the same day. On 5 Dec 2023, provided a written demonstration of its capabilities. The SOF AT&L PM reviewed capability statement and determined that it was not a ready to use capability and it did not meet the existing requirements.

USSOCOM�s market research revealed only one other potential source: Cylitix LLC. While Cylitix is a source capable of meeting USSOCOM�s requirements, given that it would require months to negotiate and award a contract to Cylitix, it would not be possible to request an offer from Cylitix and execute the above-mentioned services in time to prevent serious injury to the Government.

7. Market Research: (FAR 6.303-2(b) (8))

What follows below is a summary of the market research performed for the planned new contract for these services, which applies equally here. As stated above, this modification is for a short period of performance extension, a one-time event due to unusual and compelling urgency, which will extend the current contract no longer than necessary for USSOCOM to award a new contract for the required services.

Market research was conducted in Apr 2023. For this, an analysis of alternatives was conducted. The potentially viable options evaluated included both Government and contractor solutions: Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), Joint Technical Networking Center (JTNC), These solutions were compared against features the current Vulcan subscription provides and USSOCOM requires.

J&A No. 24-3811

In addition, as part of the market research process, a search was conducted in our USSOCOM Small Business Database and our eSOF Database which collectively hold companies and capabilities.

There were no other solutions that met the Government�s existing requirements. In summary, the findings of this report highlighted that there were no other solutions identified that could meet USSOCOM�s current unique requirements and existing functionality of Vulcan.

Lastly, in Oct 2023, additional market research was conducted. Several databases, including USSOCOM�s eSOF, USSOCOM�s Small Business Database, and the Internet were searched. No other vendors were found possessing a platform to meet the existing requirements.

8. Other Authorities/Factors: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(9))

N/A

9. Interested Sources: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(10))

As mentioned previously, two companies responded to the Request for Information and the pre-solicitation notice. Both offerings were determined to be unacceptable and did not meet the Government�s minimum needs.

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J&A No. 24-3811

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: (FAR 6.303-2(c))

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:

NAME: TITLE: Director, SOF AT&L-Acquisition Resources (AR)

SIGNATURE:

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J&A No. 24-3811

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(7))

I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. The Government will utilize price analysis, historical pricing support, as appropriate, to determine the price fair and reasonable.

CONTRACTING OFFICER SIGNATURE IN SECTION 12 BELOW ALSO SERVES AS THE PRICE FAIR AND

REASONABLENESS DETERMINATION IN THIS SECTION.

12. Contracting Officer Certification: (FAR 6.303-2(b)(12))

I hereby certify that this J&A is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: Carlos Cotto TITLE: Contracting Officer

SIGNATUR

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J&A No. 24-3811

13. Legal: SOFARS 5601-1

Legal review complete (see legal review). No additional legal objection.

NAME: TITLE: Attorney-Advisor (Acquisition)

SIGNATURE

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J&A No. 24-3811

14. Procuring Agency Advocate for Competition (PAAC): Procuring Activity Advocate for Competition (PAAC) approval threshold is Greater than $750K, but less than or equal to $7M. See

SOFARS 5601-1.

I have reviewed this document and find the J&A adequate to support other than full and open competition:

NAME: TITLE: Chief, SOF Warrior & Acq Ops Contracting Division

SIGNATUR