MITRE FY22 Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition_Redacted.pdf

It has a high level of knowledge about technological developments in this field and knowledge about the diverse stakeholders. MITRE’s in-depth working knowledge of the SSA/STM field enables it to quickly bring in relevant stakeholders in the SSA/STM area to create the necessary capabilities for the OSC.

Due to their unique experience developing complex systems for other Government agencies and their previous project with the Air Force for tracking space objects, they have the unique skills to synchronize the information from the vendor demonstrations for existing SSA/STM capabilities and assist the OSC with developing their requirements documents. MITRE is uniquely qualified to develop partnerships with other Government agencies who will play a key role in the development and usage of the OADR from the relationships they established from developing complex systems that are similar in nature to the

OADR.

Finally, MITRE operates FFRDCs that were established to provide federal government agencies with impartial and objective expertise. The OADR program requires impartial and objective advice because SSA/STM is an area of significant and growing commercial interest, and requires coordination with many interested parties in the private sector. The engagement of impartial and objective experts ensures that its development will not be marred by organizational and consultant conflicts of interest.

MITRE’s established impartiality will also establish trust and encourage participation by the diverse stakeholders in the areas of SSA/STM.

Without MITRE’s depth of expertise, experience, and impartiality the OADR architecture construction would not likely include sufficient input and needed requirements from other stakeholders and other domains. Specifically, the lack of MITRE’s involvement may result in an inadequately considered and constructed OADR and slower rate of OADR development. This is not an acceptable outcome because the rapid development of a robust and well considered OADR is required to advance the US Government’s national SSA/STM missions.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies (FAR 6.303-2(b)(6)).

NOAA conducted thorough market research and found that the mandatory sources are not appropriate for this requirement. MITRE is identified as uniquely qualified to provide strategic and technical program management support, acquisition planning for Fiscal years 2023 and 2024, and systems engineering management, execution and integration for the OADR program.

The exception at FAR 5.202(a)(10), “the proposed contract action is made under conditions described in 6.302-3… and advance notice is not appropriate or reasonable” applies to this acquisition; therefore, a notice required by FAR 5.2 was not publicized.

7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable (FAR 6.303-2(b)(7)).

Prior to award of the proposed order, certified cost or price information shall be obtained from the contractor and a price/cost analysis will be performed and documented to sufficiently determine that the cost to the Government of the proposed acquisition will be fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will determine reasonableness via comparison to similar contract actions, comparison to the Independent Government Cost Estimates, comparison to applicable Government rate agreements and recommendations, and/or reliance on subject matter expertise as it pertains to the proposed level of effort and/or other direct costs. The Contracting Officer will ensure that the fixed fee does not exceed 10 percent as required by FAR 15.404-4(c)(4)(i))C). If needed, the Contracting Officer will negotiate with MITRE to maximize NOAA’s ability to obtain the best value to the Government.

8. A description of the market research conducted (see FAR Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted (FAR 6.303-2(b)(8)).

The Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer conducted market research as documented in the Market Research report dated 03/02/2022. Specifically, federal mandatory sources, Commerce-Wide Strategic Sourcing Vehicles, and NOAA Blanket Purchase Agreements were searched, similar contractual vehicles were reviewed, and knowledgeable subject matter experts were consulted.

A sources sought notice was also posted from which 6 capability statements were received, however, none of the responses received were deemed capable. Based on the results of the market research, the government determined that only MITRE had the capability to adequately satisfy this requirement.

To verify that MITRE was a responsible source, the Contracting Officer reviewed the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) and the U.S. Government’s System for Award Management (SAM), and determined that MITRE had no negative records.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition (FAR 6.303-2(b)(9)).

MITRE is the only responsible source capable of providing the services and support at the required level of quality to meet the OSC’s OADR acquisition strategy. MITRE is one of three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) that are helping OSC, research and design OADR. Each of the three FFRDCs were given portions of the OADR to work on, with only marginal overlap in the system except to ensure their work is interoperable and consistent with the entire project. Through their previous task orders, MITRE was tasked with two data layers in the OADR, which means they are solely responsible for researching and designing the process, standards, formats, and system for data ingest, connectivity to external data sites. They are also responsible for recommending the cloud architecture specifications the system will need to operate on (both storage and compute) and they are responsible for data integration and curation piece of the OADR which means they are responsible for recommending on how to develop the requirements for how the system will process, store, condition, tag and organize data so that it can be easily retrieved for operations and other use cases. MITRE has several major data layer engineering deliverables that must be completed by July of 2022 or the project will not meet OSC’s publicly stated deadlines to the White House and Congress for FY 22 or adhere to its very tight systems acquisition/development timelines in FY23 needed to get to operations in FY24.

The White House’s National Space Council (NSpC) and Congress have repeatedly stressed that the OADR must be operational by FY24. This deadline imposed by these two branches of the United States Government on the OADR program is forcing the OSC work at an accelerated pace. OSC’s plan for the OADR is to have up to 27 months of development prior to Initial Operating Capability (IOC) beginning with the date in which they receive full funding which OSC anticipates receiving in FY 23.

Additionally, MITRE is the only capable source that OSC is aware of that has extensive SSA experience with the Department of Defense (DoD). The purpose of the OADR is to take over SSA and STM responsibility from the DoD, therefore, MITRE’s unique and extensive experience and technical understanding will ensure OSC will be able to develop the OADR to transition existing SSA requirements provided by DoD and promote a collaboration platform between the OADR and DoD’s system.

Awarding to another company to continue MITRE’s work on the OADR project in FY 22 will almost certainly cause the OADR development schedule to slip to an FY25 IOC at the earliest causing more political fallout from Congress and the White House for NOAA leadership and potentially set the project back by potentially jeopardizing NOAA’s FY 23 budget request to begin fully funding not only the project but the OSC office. More importantly, unnecessarily delaying the OADR development could have detrimental effects to the space industry since the OADR will server to track space traffic and debris in low earth orbit to prevent collisions with and between commercial satellites.

TIRNO99D00005 is a single award IRS IDIQ contract to MITRE; Fair opportunity as specified in FAR 16.505(b)(i) is not applicable.

10. A listing of any sources that expressed a written interest in the acquisition (FAR 6.303-2(b)(10)).