MARS FOE - Carl Odom 22560.pdf

JUSTIFICATION for an EXCEPTION to FAIR OPPORTUNITY for the placement of an order >SAT under a Multiple Award Contract (MAC)

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, Sharon M. Pritchard, as Competition Advocate of SPAW ARSYSCEN, Pacific, hereby approve the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity Pursuant to FAR l 6.505(b )(2).

JUSTIFICATION

I. Agency and Contracting Activity. Department of the Navy, SPAWARSYSCEN, Pacific (SSC Pacific).

2. Nature/Description of Action. This is a fair opportunity exception to place an order with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) under contract number N66001-18-D- 0307. This contract is part of SSC Pacific's. multiple award contract for Development, Technical, Management, and Engineering Services for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Systems within Code 564. The estimated value of this task order is $6,422,282.84.

3. Description of Supplies/Services. The Modular Autonomous Robotic System (MARS) project is a non-performance based service tasking for systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, integration support, experimentation, specialty vehicle maintenance and component fabrication and evaluation support for the MARS project, an autonomous systems development, experimentation, and evaluation effort within SSC Pacific Code 564. The scope of work involves the deployment of autonomous unmanned amphibious vehicles to demonstrate an enhanced warfighting capability to disrupt adversary activity in a given maritime region. The cun-ent effort is being performed by SAIC under contract N66001-10-D-0049, task order (TO) N66001-18-F-0515, which was sole-source awarded to SAIC with a 12 months period of performance (PoP) beginning at contract award on awarded 9 March 2018.

The MARS program's expected period of performance is for three (3) years ( one 12 month base period with two 12 month option periods), which will be managed and funded by the Offi'ce of Naval Research (ONR), Code 34.

Per SSC Pacific's Project Management policy, the MARS program is characterized as a Tier I developmental effort, that will include development of new technologies as well as the integration of technologies developed by other organizations within the autonomous systems community to demonstrate concept feasibility.

SSC Pacific is responsible for the platform hardware design and component integration, overall autonomy architecture design, autonomy algorithm development, integration of third party autonomy software components into the architecture, and the experimentation and evaluation of the overall system.

SSC Pacific maintains the domain knowledge, breadth, and depth of experience to contribute significantly to the program's success.

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(b)(3)

4. Identification of the Exception to Fair Opportunity

D a. The agency need for services is of such urgency that providing fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

lz:J b. Only one such awardee is capable of providing such services required at the level of quality required because the services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

SAIC is the only contractor able to provide the level of support required on the MARS effort as (!) using another contractor would compromise technical expertise and working knowledge that team members must possess to successfully fulfill this requirement; (2) the schedule would be adversely impacted due to another contractor's need to operate and understand the MARS software application and development, experimentation, and specialty vehicle maintenance processes; and

(3) awarding to another contractor would result in higher costs that the program cannot afford at this time.

(1) Performance: SAIC is the only contractor that can readily provide the necessmy systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, mechanical design, experimentation, integration, and specialty vehicle maintenance support vital on the MARS project. The MARS IPT team members are expected to have highly specialized technical expertise and fully understand how to operate a whole new application (MAAEV) with new methods and practices petiaining to the MARS project. The MARS development, currently performed by SAIC, has evolved quickly over the course of a year and continues to evolve in terms of technical and operational scope. The concept of operations (CON OPS) and concepts of employment (CONEMPS) for the end solution are also evolving. The uniqueness of these skillsets and experiences in systems and software engineering requires users to identify, capture, validate designs and approaches ( such as Enterprise Architect), as well as development and integrate multiple software modules (induding C++, ROS, Python, HTML/CSS, Docker, Jenkins, and Angular frmnework). These skills cannot be compromised as it directly contributes to the overall successful execution of the mission.

Recognizing the significant overall impact, to competitively solicit this requirement would elevate the overall risk from both a technical and programmatic perspective.

(2) Schedule: The rapid development schedule of MARS, which includes 6-month cyclical demonstrations beginning in (as directed by ONR), cannot afford the level of impact that would be imposed by transitioning to a new contactor as it would cause a considerable delay to the development, experimentation and demonstration schedule. This effort requires the contractor to perform promptly in continuous nature from the current effort into the new follow on task order without any delays. Although other contractors may possess more generic programmatic and software development expertise, they lack familiarity with the latest progress of the MARS ( e.g., in-process work). The Government estimates that it would take a new contractor's engineering staff an estimated 6-7 months to become fully operational in systems engineering, algorithm development, software development, experimentation, integration, processes, and specialty vehicle maintenance support in addition to the oppo1tunity cost associated with dedicating Government resources ( approx. 4-5 Government engineers) that would be required to train the new contractor in the MARS project specific systems instead of contributing to the

Version April 2018 2 project. The delay would compromise ONR and USMC mission suppott that depends on the MARS project.

(3) Cost: The cost required for a new contractor to become fully operational on the MARS project would cost the government an additional $2,000,000 in sunk costs over 6-7 months. To obtain a competent level-of-expertise in software engineering, software development, integration and mechanical design gained from the MARS task order, it would take $1,200,000 in contractor labor and $800,000 in labor for the government to provide side-by-side training on the MARS systems and applications. This would require government personnel to divide their working hours to train the new contractor; this is neither fiscally responsible nor efficient. The involved IPT team members, including SAIC, have become an integral part of the overall success of the MARS project. Using another contractor at this time would fail to take foll advantage of the investment in expertise.

In summary, SAIC is the only contractor that can provide the highly technical expertise, meet the schedule demands, and accomplish the effort without incurring an additional $2,000,000 in transition costs. This warrants an exception to fair opportunity.

D c. The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency as a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the MAC, provided that all the awardees were given fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

0 d. It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee.

D e. For orders exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source.

5. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost. Based on the historic cost information currently available, the contracting officer has adequate information to ensure that the cost to the government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable.

6. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification. SAIC was initially tasked to develop and implement this software engineering, mechanical design, development and experimentation support, and has met at meeting all programmatic needs. The contractor has demonstrated satisfactory performance in all assigned tasks.

7. Actions Taken to Remove or Overcome Baniers that Led to the Exception to Fair Oppmtunity. Final demonstration of the MARS project will be conducted at the conclusion of

Version April 2018 3 option year 2. At this time, it is anticipated that any new project would be competitive.

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TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION (FAR 16.505(b)(2)) I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this Justification and which form a basis for this justification are complete and accurate.

Technical Cognizance/or COR:

Signature: _ _____ _

/COR

Name and Title

REVIEW:

56402 Code

619-767-4784 02/20/19 Phone Date

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION (FAR 16.505(b)(2)): (c:$3K to <-$700K) I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature:

David Keene, Contracting Officer 22560 619-553-4466 Name and Title Code Phone Date

APPROVAL:

COMPETITION ADVOCATE (FAR 16.505(b)(2)): (>$700K to $13.SM):

Signature: c2-c)o-lC/

Sharon M. Pritchard, Competition Advocate 20000 619-553-3200 Name and Title Code Phone Date

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(b)(6)

(b)(6)

(b)(6)