23CWM39_JA_REDACTED.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

CRANE DIVISION

300 HIGHWAY 361

CRANE, INDIANA 47522-5001

IN REPLY REFER TO

J&A Number: CR-24175 Code: 0243

P.R. Number: N0016423CWM39

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL (J&A)

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane)

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

This Justification and Approval (J&A) seeks authorization and approval to award a contract modification on a sole source basis to Continental Tide Defense Systems (hereafter referred to as CTDS), CAGE Code: 6FRS6, 2 Meridian Blvd. STE 110, Wyomissing, PA to increase the capacity of Contract No. N0016423CWM39 by $2.0M. The contract was awarded competitively as a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) Level of Effort (LOE) type contract for the installation of the

, and ancillary industrial infrastructure, aboard

This increase will change the current LOE from 9,037 hours to 27,660 hours and the labor ceiling value from $561K to $2.6M. The current LOE is expected to be fully exhausted on .

The proposed Period of Performance (PoP) extension for the requested J&A is 63 days (15 June 2024 – 17 August 2024).

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The NSWC Crane Maritime Electromagnetic Warfare Systems Division (MEWSD) is designated as the In-Service Engineering Agent for the

Program. The system capable of providing highly effective defense for ships against Anti-Ship Missiles (ASMs). The enhances a ship’s ability to defend itself against ASM attacks by luring ASMs away from their intended targets.

This requirement is for ship alteration and installation of the

. In addition, the proposed requirement includes installation support services such as: procurement of materials and fabrication of equipment incidental to the installation of the systems; engineering, technical, logistics, and management support services; and pre- and post-installation support.

The installation aboard competitively awarded on 18 August 2023 with a period of performance of 18 August 2023 through 15 June 2024. The contract was awarded with a total LOE of 9,037 hours and labor ceiling value of $561,499. The proposed action will increase the LOE by 18,623 hours and the total labor ceiling value by $2,029,569.

CTDS has been successful to date with the installation; however, the Government-estimated LOE that was solicited and awarded was significantly under capacity due to the lack of historical data available for CVN installations. The Government utilized historical data from installations aboard smaller ships such as Landing Platform Docks (LPDs) and Guided Missile Destroyers (DDGs). The Government estimated a 20% increase in LOE to account for the size and complexities of a CVN, which did not represent an accurate portrayal of the required LOE to complete an installation of this complexity.

Additionally, final Ship Installation Drawings (SIDs) were not issued for the installation aboard prior to the solicitation; therefore, representative SIDs from were utilized for proposal purposes. Upon issuance of final SIDs, several changes were made to the drawings to include the addition of several new drawings. The number of changes made to the Government drawing package during performance has caused additional increases to the LOE and estimated cost to complete.

The increased LOE will ensure sufficient capacity is available to complete the installation in order to efficiently safeguard and protect the warfighter against potential threats. The proposed capacity increase was determined necessary to ensure protection of the ship and avoid possible devastating impacts in the event the ship is deployed without a fully functioning MEW decoy system.

The funding appropriation for these requirements will be Shipbuilding Construction Navy (SCN) and is expected to be resourced with Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funds totaling an estimated

$2,029,569. The estimated dollar value for Fiscal Year FY24 is identified below in Table 1:

Table 1: Estimated Dollar Value

FY24

SCN $2.0M

Total $2.0M

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open

Competition

10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(2), Unusual and Compelling Urgency, as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-2. FAR 6.302-2 permits contracting without providing for full and open competition in situations where 1) an unusual and compelling urgency precludes full and open competition, and 2) delay in award of a contract would result in serious injury, financial or other, to the Government.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

10 USC 3204(a)(2) allows an agency to restrict competition in the case of a follow-on contract when it is likely that an award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. In this case, only CTDS has the capability to accomplish NSWC Crane mission requirements within the required availability timeline of . The installation must be completed prior to the Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Combat Systems, Intelligence Light Off (C5ILO) test event. The C5ILO test event period is

, and it must be completed prior to the ship’s Sea Trials.

Sea Trials are scheduled to begin on ;

therefore, the installation must be completed by in order to ensure uninterrupted completion of all test and trial events.

As the current contractor, CTDS is able to provide uninterrupted services ensuring the is successfully installed within the ship’s required timelines. Moreover, the acquisition for an additional standalone contract would take approximately 9-12 for an award of this magnitude, resulting in unacceptable delays and substantial risk to the mission. If this contract modification action is not executed to ensure continuation of installation services, unacceptable delays in fulfilling the requirement will negatively impact the Warfighter as follows:

Government Estimates, and historical expenses incurred for similar tasks.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

This contract action is required to continue the mission essential services as shown in Paragraph 5 above, during the time following the Level of Effort ceiling under the current Task Order being exhausted on , and the additional 63-day timeframe for completion of the installation. For the reasons set forth in Paragraph 5, NSWC Crane has no plans at this time to compete future contracts for the type of services covered by this document.