LSJ saber 2 -_Redacted - v3_Redacted.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

PURSUANT TO FAR 8.405-6(c) FOR ORDERS OR BPAS WITH AN

ESTIMATED VALUE EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

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THIS ACQUISITION IS CONDUCTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MULTIPLE-AWARD

SCHEDULE PROGRAM (41 U.S.C. 152(3), COMPETITIVE PROCEDURES, AND 40 U.S.C.

501, SERVICES FOR EXECUTIVE AGENCIES).

1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE AGENCY AND THE CONTRACTING ACTIVITY.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency / Office of Contract Services

2. NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED.

This justification seeks approval to establish a bridge contract to the Software Aqua Badge Engineering Resources (SABER) II task order, HM047623F0063. The requested Period of Performance for this bridge contract is 13 July 2026 thru 12 July 2027 (12 months).

The bridge contract is required to ensure continued delivery of software development, deployment, and sustainment activity in support of critical operational missions across a variety of NGA organizations.

Additionally, due to continued delays in the associated follow-on contract acquisition activity, these gap in services essential mission applications and services.

3. DESCRIPTION:

The current contract provides mission critical software development in support to multiple organizations across the agency. Current efforts on the contract directly support border security, algorithm and process automation, sensor evaluation, safety of navigation, artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and several classified mission initiatives. Without the requested approval for a bridge contract mission critical developers will no longer be available to provide subsequent development and sustainment on most, if not all, of these critical initiatives; resulting in their suspension.

The overall objective of SABER II provides software modernization capabilities in support of the many NGA critical missions and various existing, and emerging, capabilities that represent short-term, high impact problem sets (about 6-18 months in length). The SABER II requirement is comprised of a set of labor categories capable of solving software modernization and engineering problems within the scope of the Statement of Work (SOW). To meet this objective, the contractor shall provide software modernization and engineering, technical assessment, software operations, sustainment, and other required activities that leverage Commercial Off-the-Shelf, Government Off-the- DevOps toolkit, the NGA Platform-as-a-Service, and other technology required to advance NGA mission-related efforts critical to organizational and agency success.

This justification is to initiate a bridge contract to allow the necessary contract support to sustain current development efforts on critical mission focused projects that directly address the Agency demand signal for cutting edge software applications and services. This includes current mission critical support to Executive and Secretary of War identified priorities. Additionally, the increase will facilitate the

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Establishing a one-year bridge contract for SABER II is, by far, the most feasible way of achieving that objective while at the same time minimizing risk to the Government.

5. CONTRACTING OFFICER DETERMINATION THAT THE ORDER REPRESENTS THE BEST

VALUE CONSISTENT WITH 8.404(d).

Prior to award, the Contracting Officer will ensure that a fair and reasonable price is obtained.

6. DESCRIPTION OF THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AMONG SCHEDULE

HOLDERS AND THE RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH

WAS NOT CONDUCTED.

Request For Information (RFI), market research was conducted in 2025 for the follow-on to the SABER II Contract, HM047623F0063 which can be located in the contract file. Several small businesses showed interest in the new SABER III Contract. Therefore, if the bridge contract is executed, it will give the Government time to adequately compete the requirement. The original task order for SABER II was awarded in Spring 2023 as a competitive Small Business Set-aside.

7. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE JUSTIFICATION.

Software developers on the SABER II contract have been instrumental in developing, deploying, and maintaining operational and experimental applications that directly support on-going

Specifically, SABER II contract staff on the development team enabled a key capability that

. Additionally, SABER II contract staff working on the Minesweeper development team provided key applications and capabilities that directly supported in support of and . For this, the Minesweeper team was formally recognized with a NGA Meritorious Unit Citation for their efforts.

Most recently, the

, actively building software solutions and applications that are solving difficult problems faced by operational forces.

Beyond operational mission support, SABER II developers are critical in the development of other Agency wide applications including, but limited to, NOMAD and Safety of Navigation services on behalf of Aero

(SFA).

8. STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR

OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE RESTRICTED CONSIDERATION BEFORE

ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES IS MADE.

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The Government Program Management Office (GPMO) implemented initial acquisition efforts for the follow-on contract vehicle (SABER III) starting in Fall of 2024. This approach focused on incorporating an accelerated acquisition model that supported a capability to match Agency demand for Software Development capacity, such as a single or multiple award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). The belief by the GPMO and OCSA was a BPA offered more flexibility than the current contract vehicle. With the most recent transition of SABER to OCSR, there is a potential re-evaluation of acquisition strategy, significantly pushing timelines.

The GPMO still intends to pursue SABER III as a BPA with purchase orders as fast as feasible; however, with an unknown timeline, it is prudent to pursue a full-year bridge contract to allow for SABER III to be vetted, competed and awarded allowing time to address any potential protests.

9. APPROVING OFFICIAL DETERMINATION OF THE CIRCUMSTANCE THAT APPLIES

UNDER FAR 8.405-6(a)(1).

I, acting as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate, have determined that limiting sources to fewer than those required by FAR 8.405-2, pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 152(3), is justified based on the following circumstance: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C) -- In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order that was not previously issued under limited-sources procedures.