Justification_and_Approval_FA2544-20-C-0001_GOAL SOLVE_Redacted.pdf

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

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 1 of 4March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 1 of 4

Was a J&A approved for the preceding acquisition? Yes No

Is this a new or amended J&A Document? New Amended ( Prior to Award Only! )

Is this a Bridge Action as defined at AFFARS 5302.101? Yes No

Dollar Value of this Acquisition: < $700K > $700K and < $13.5M > $13.5M and < $93M > $93M

Contracting Activity: HQ USSF/ESD

Purchase Request (if available):

Program / Project (and PE, if applicable): Space Analysis for Rapid Development of Validation Tools and Systems and to create a Government Open Astro Library (GOAL) and implementation of Sim-Over Live Virtual Environment (SOLVE)

Program Type (PEO, Enterprise, of Operational): Enterprise

Authority: 6.302-1 – 10 USC 2304(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements

Estimated Contract Cost (including options): $ 1,350,000.00 J&A Type: Class Individual

COORDINATION (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

24 Apr 2020

Project Lead / Program Mgr / Requiring Activity Timothy P. Payne

USSF S3/6Z / 719-556-3706

Signature

Date

28 Apr 2020

Contracting Officer Patrick W. Clark

USSF/ESD / 719-554-6012

Signature

Date

27 Apr 2020

Local Legal Reviewer Katherine A. Illingworth

SPOC 21 SW/JA

Signature

Date

28 Apr 2020

Chief of the Contracting Office (COCO) Richard Boast

USSF/ESD / 719-554-2652

Signature

APPROVAL (AFFARS 5306.304(a) )

Date

28 Apr 2020

Competition Advocate Col Robert S. Widmann

AFICC/KS / 719-554-5300

Signature

PAYNE.TIMOTHY.P. Digitally signed by

PAYNE.TIMOTHY.P.

Date: 2020.04.24 15:02:38 -06'00'

ILLINGWORTH.KATHERI

NE.ANN.

Digitally signed by

ILLINGWORTH.KATHERINE.ANN.

Date: 2020.04.27 15:31:05 -06'00'

CLARK.PATRICK.W. Digitally signed by

CLARK.PATRICK.W.

Date: 2020.04.28 09:36:15 -06'00'

BOAST.RICHARD. Digitally signed by

BOAST.RICHARD.

Date: 2020.04.28 10:49:29 -06'00'

WIDMANN.ROBERT.S. Digitally signed by

WIDMANN.ROBERT.S.

Date: 2020.04.28 19:53:22 -06'00'

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 4March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 4

I. Agency and Contracting Activity.

USSF/ESD

150 Vandenberg St.

Peterson AFB, CO 80914

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

The Government intends to solicit sole-source, a commercial, firm-fixed price, new contract to Rim Technologies Inc. for purchasing existing proprietary software applications with unlimited government purpose data rights as well as a service for providing 20 "Sprints" over a 5 year period to be used for development, numerical validation & verification, trade off analysis, simulation and testing of operational and simulated multi-phenomenology data and systems for the space domain.

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

Rim Tech owns a proprietary application and environment to run analysis and validation faster than currently within the government's capabilities. Rim Tech is the original designer, developer, and manufacturer of the software application being procured. A Notice of Contract Action (NOCA) was posted March 11th on beta.SAM.gov for 15 days. The NOCA stated the intent to sole source to Rim Tech for this proprietary software application. All responsible sources were requested to submit a capability statement, proposal or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. At the closing of the notice on 26th March, no responses were received. Estimated value for the 20 Sprints (approximately each Sprint) and purchase of unlimited government purpose data rights is $1.35M.

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

FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements (10 USC 2304(c)(1))

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

The Government received an unsolicited proposal from RimTech in the second quarter calendar year 2019. It is considered a valid unsolicited proposal due to its innovation and uniqueness. In the opinion and to the knowledge of the Government evaluator, the meritorious proposal is the product of original thinking submitted confidentially by one source, it contains new, novel, or changed concepts, approaches, and methods, was not submitted previously by another, and is not otherwise available within the Federal Government.

This proposal provides an original approach that allows USSF to use both simulated and operational data to explore different concepts of operation that support more tactically relevant timelines as laid out in Gen Raymond's Space Enterprise Vision.

SOLVE is innovative and unique because it operates on a fusion of real and simulated Space Surveillance Network (SSN) data. Current Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Mission area modeling and simulation environments use only simulated or live data but not both at the same time. SOLVE's ability to fuse simulated and live data allows performance characterization of as-is and future systems/enterprises, additionally it supports and enhances the capability to perform numerical validation on astrodynamics algorithms used by various systems and programs to collect, process, and disseminate data to support space domain awareness and safety of flight as it applies to space.

The GOAL approach enables the use of new algorithms (developed by the offeror) and existing government developed and numerically validated algorithms in the form of application building blocks in the SOLVE environment that allows the creation of tailored analysis programs. These programs can use real, simulated or fused

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 3 of 4March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 3 of 4 input data to provide the truth or reference data required to perform validations on emerging algorithms. This purposed modular approach reduces the time necessary to produce new tools allowing the government to keep up with the ever-changing environment of pivot SDA. The initial toolset proposed includes a number of innovations that will decrease the time required to perform operational assessments of systems and numerical validation of algorithms. Most notably the ability to isolate degraded radar components prior to failure by analyzing sensor output data. These modular apps are platform agnostic and can be used outside of SOLVE by other agencies systems to increase interoperability and mission effectiveness.

The proposed product and process was independently originated and developed by the offeror. Goal/Solve approach and software was prepared without Government supervision, endorsement, direction, or direct Government involvement.

The proposal included sufficient detail to permit a determination that Government support could be worthwhile and the proposed work could benefit the agency's research and development or other mission responsibilities by providing tools and an environment that supports the fusion of real and simulated data to perform operational assessment, numerical validation, and capability exploration. Additionally the approach allows the government to continue using its substantial investment in the Fortran (F90) Astro standards software maintenance, development and validation while increasing the utility by expanding the number of platforms that could host these tools and adds new capabilities/functionality. Overall increasing mission effectiveness and interoperability.

The proposed product and service is not an advanced proposal for a known agency requirement that can be acquired by competitive methods. This proposal does not address a previously published agency requirement.

Therefore, this software and services are considered to be available from only RimTech since the source was submitted as an unsolicited research proposal that demonstrates a unique and innovative concept and demonstrates a unique capability of the source to provide the particular research services proposed. Also, this proposal offers a concept or services not otherwise available to the Government and does not resemble the substance of a pending competitive acquisition. It is determined that no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.

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.

IAW FAR 5.203(a), a "Notice of Contract Action" or NOCA has been posted for 15 days on beta.SAM.gov requesting capabilities statements from interested vendors who believe they can provide this same service. No responses were received.

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

The anticipated cost to the Government are anticipated to be fair and reasonable and Other than Certified Pricing Data submission will be required so that a price/cost analysis can be completed. Also, the contracting officer will review the price paid for same or similar services performed recently by Rim Tech on historical contracts.

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

The market research completed in third quarter calendar year 2019 supports the determination that this proposal is unique and not covered under existing programs. The research involved internet searches and reviews of government databases. A general internet search for “combined simulation and live data modeling” for space force enhancement and space situational awareness tools produced no returns. Broadening the search requirements resulted in a single commercial tool and a research-oriented supercomputer implementation by Lawrence Livermore labs. These options failed to include the full analysis capability described in the proposal: cross-platform support and use of F90 AstroStandards, a virtual environment capability, and open source code base. A search of the federal/government

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 4 of 4March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 4 of 4 databases, primarily FPDS-NG, returned university research grants from 2009 and 2013. A search on space situational awareness simulation software libraries returned no contracts. The FedBizOps search involved using NAICs code 927 for Space Research and Technology and keywords of simulation and modeling, returned a single source for a very specific NASA requirement for uncertainty propagation in large metrology databases which does not apply. Broadening the search under 927 did not provide any solicitations that match this proposal.

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

The approval of this J&A by the Competition Advocate (AFICC/KS Director) accomplishes the determination necessary that this unsolicited proposal received does offer a significant technological promise, does represent a product of original thinking, and was in fact submitted in confidence IAW DFARS 206.302-1(a)(2)(i)(1). The GOAL/ SOLVE proposal offers significant technological promise by providing analysis tools that can utilize real SSN data, simulated data and a fusion of both data types. The GOAL/SOLVE approach is a product of original thinking in that it not only allows the use of this fused data but also leverages our substantial investment in the Fortran (F90) Astro standards software to speed up creation of evaluation tools. This is expected to drastically reduce evaluation bottlenecks and facilitate faster delivery of capabilities to the warfighter.

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

N/A

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.

At the completion of this contract, the government will have Government Unlimited Data Rights. A full and open competition will be pursued for the follow on requirement.

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.