N00167 0223 19 006-00.1 Redacted 9 30 20.pdf

J&A Number: 0223-19-006-00.1 Code: 02

P.R. Number: TBD

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

JUSTIFICATION

1. Agency and Contracting Activity

Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD), Contracting and Acquisitions Department, Code 0223.

2. Description of the Action Being Approved

The proposed contract action is for a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF), completion type, single award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to T. Carroll Associates, Inc. (T. Carroll) with a five year ordering period, on a sole source basis.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

NSWCCD�s Vulnerability Assessment Branch, Code 665, has a follow-on requirement for weapons effects engineering and computer program development support, in the continued development and maintenance of the Ship Vulnerability Model (SVM) program. The proposed contract action will support the SVM program by:

a. Maintaining and de-bugging the existing SVM software;

b. Conducting survivability studies into the vulnerability of US aircraft carriers using SVM;

c. Training NSWCCD survivability engineers on the use of legacy vulnerability Modeling & Simulation (M&S) tools; and,

d. Performing or supporting experimental studies of US Navy platforms.

J&A Number 0223-19-006-00.1

The SVM program is used to model the effects of weapons impacts and detonation against ships using an engineering approach that is based on physical test data. SVM provides a unique toolset for vulnerability analysis by running large scale Monte Carlo analysis, which is a computational technique that makes it possible to include the statistical properties of a model's parameters in a simulation. The physical test data has been created by the Navy over the last 60 years and represents a large asset to the Government.

The SVM program is used as an essential feature of the Navy's vulnerability assessment process for aircraft carrier acquisition and Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFT&E) assessment. The program is also a key element in developing weapons effectiveness analysis for aircraft carriers and weapons effectiveness studies for mission planning purposes.

The SVM program has supported the vulnerability assessments of the CVN 78 Class acquisition program for the past 20 years. The Navy’s Vulnerability Technical Warrant Holder (TWH) (SEA 05P) is in agreement with Program Office PMS 378T’s determination that the CVN 78 LFT&E program will continue with the legacy SVM program as the primary vulnerability assessment tool for Whole Ship Vulnerability Analysis required for the Ford Class of aircraft carriers until completion of the CVN 78 LFT&E effort in fiscal year

(FY) 24.

The Government’s minimum needs have been verified by the certifying technical and requirements personnel.

The Government estimates the proposed contract value at

, for all years. The entirety of this contract will be funded with Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds. The below table depicts the estimated dollar value by FY.

Estimated Dollar Value FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 Totals Total

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open

Competition

Pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), “The property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source or only from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the agency.� As implemented at FAR Part 6.302- 1(a)(2)(iii), the proposed contract action supports a follow-on requirement that requires the continued provision of highly specialized support services deemed to be only available from the original source.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

Development of the SVM code began in the late 1960s in an attempt to automate weapons effects on ship vulnerability.

T. Carroll became involved in the development of the current blast models used in the SVM source code in the late 1970s, and has performed all modifications and maintenance on the source code since Contract N00167-03-D-0037, which was awarded 19 June 2003.

The source code has been �well commented� to date; however, a technical data package (TDP) has not been procured due to funding limitations. A �well commented� code means that a function�s purpose is defined, and in some cases describes the variables; however, it does not provide how it links into the subsets of code, identify all the linked components from recursive imports, or, most importantly, explain the logic.

Collecting all the comments in the source code would not provide enough information for another contractor to continue supporting the code or advance the development of the code.

T. Carroll possesses unique technical and historical knowledge to modify and maintain the SVM code that is not otherwise available in the marketplace. The Government will not be able to provide another contractor with a comprehensive source code�s documentation or TDP, or provide detailed insight as to how the source code functions, to successfully modify and maintain the SVM code without creating unacceptable critical time delays to the program.

The Government�s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) estimate that it would take a full-time Computer Program Developer or equivalent, at a minimum, three to four months or 500-700 labor hours to become familiar and proficient with the source code, with no guarantees of successful performance. This, plus an additional nine to 18 months (estimated Procurement Administrative Lead Time (PALT)) to identify and select another responsible and capable source to perform this function, for a maximum total of 22 months, poses an unacceptable schedule risk to the Navy.

The Core SVM software development is complete and the software is fully operational. This action will ensure that the SVM stays fully operational, and continues to receive necessary design changes to remain adaptive to threats until it reaches its estimated end of life (EOL)

SVM poses a difficult transition from T. Carroll to another contractor based on its complexity, lack of documentation, high demand, and little acceptance of downtime. The financial, performance, and schedule risks to the Government, are not expected to be mitigated or recovered through competition. T. Carroll is the only known contractor with the requisite unique technical knowledge and experience of the existing SVM code that can perform the work without unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency�s requirements in support of the U.S. Naval Fleet.

6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerors as Practicable

A Sources Sought Notification, Market Research Questionnaire, and draft Statement of Work (SOW), were posted to the SeaPort-e Portal for 39 days, from 21 September 2018 to 29 October 2018, in Zone 2 � National Capital Zone. The Announcement included an invitation for interested parties to attend a source code viewing session, to allow industry to view the classified SVM source code that was described in the SOW.

Only one request to review the code was received.

Greystones Group attended the secure source code viewing session conducted at NSWCCD on 11 October 2018 with the Code

Technical POC, , the Contract Specialist, and undersigned Contracting Officer in attendance.

Greystone did not submit a response to the Sources Sought by the due date and time. The Specialist followed up with the Greystone attendees via email in October 2018, with no response. No other responses were received in response to the Sources Sought Announcement by the due date and time.

A second Sources Sought Notification including the questionnaire and SOW, was posted to Federal Business Opportunities (FEDBIZOPS) (now known as Beta.Sam.gov). The notice was posted for 41 days, from 8 November 2018 to 18 December 2018.

Two requests to view the code were received. Test & Evaluation Solutions (T&E) and Metamorphosis Group Inc., both attended the secure source code viewing session conducted at NSWCCD on 6 December 2018. Code Technical POCs, ;

the Contract Specialist and undersigned Contracting Officer were in attendance.

Only one response to the second Sources Sought Announcement was received by the due date and time, from T&E. Code Technical SMEs

, assessed T&E�s response and concluded that it has a low potential to satisfy the Government�s requirements in the following SOW Task areas:

I. Task 1 - T&E provided no evidence of conducting regular maintenance and debugging of SVM, ULTSTR & HULLWHIP in its response. NSWCCD SMEs identified above also determined that T&E�s estimated cost of less than $6,000, and timeframe of one to two weeks to become proficient with the source code for SVM, was grossly underestimated. NSWCCD SME�s estimate the time to learn, maintain, and extend the source code at three to four months working full time or 500-700 labor hours, at a minimum.

II. Task 2 - T&E provided no evidence of conducting vulnerability studies of US Navy platforms using SVM, ASAP, SUBVEM, ULTSTR and HULLWHIP. T&E provided no evidence of performing vulnerability analyses for aircraft carriers.

III. Task 3 - T&E provided no evidence of conducting training for the SVM, ASAP, SUBVEM, ULTSTR and HULLWHIP codes to conduct survivability analyses on ships and submarines.

The incumbent contractor, T. Carroll did not respond to the Announcement. However, T. Carroll confirmed its interest in competing for the follow-on effort and its intention to submit a proposal in response to an anticipated Request for Proposal (RFP), in January 2019.

No other responses were received by the due date and time.

In March 2019, Deltek inquired about the solicitation release date for this proposed action. Deltek was confirmed to not have responded to either of the Sources Sought discussed above, nor was there record of Deltek attending either of the two viewing sessions. A courtesy copy of the notification including the questionnaire and SOW, were provided to Deltek with a requested response date of 3 April 2019. Deltek did not respond.

A Sources Sought Notification was posted to Beta.Sam.gov (formerly FEDBIZOPS) for 15 days from 25 February 2020 to 10 March 2020. Two responses were received by the due date and time, with no requests to view the source code. NSWCCD SME, , reviewed the updated response from T&E and the response from T. Carroll, and determined the following:

1. T&E�s potential to satisfy the Government�s requirements remains low as noted by the following deficiencies in its updated response:

a. T&E has a lack of experience in performing vulnerability assessments with SVM, ULTSTR and

HULLWHIP.

b. While T&E�s response demonstrated experience conducting vulnerability, recoverability, and survivability assessment utilizing Integrated Recoverability Model (IRM) software, the IRM software utilizes vulnerability assessment output from the Advanced Survivability Assessment Program (ASAP) to conduct recoverability assessments. This shows that T&E lacks experience in actually conducting the vulnerability assessments within the existing software.

c. T&E�s response did not address any past experience in performing vulnerability studies utilizing SVM or ASAP M&S tools which would make it unlikely that T&E would be able to train others on how to properly perform vulnerability assessments with the SVM or ASAP codes.

d. T&E�s response did not list any examples of maintaining, de-bugging and documenting existing SVM, ULTSTR or HULLWHIP software.

T&E�s response demonstrated little to no direct or relevant experience conducting vulnerabilities studies utilizing SVM.

2. T. Carroll has a high potential to satisfy the Government�s requirements as the incumbent contractor because it has extensive experience conducting vulnerability assessments of US Navy platforms using SVM, ULTSTR and HULLWHIP software.

T. Carroll has performed hundreds of vulnerability assessments of US Navy platforms using SVM, ULTSTR and HULLWHIP tools. As the incumbent contractor, T.

Carroll has the experience and knowledge necessary to satisfy the requirements of the proposed action.

Based on these efforts, the Contracting Officer determined that there is no reasonable expectation of receiving a technically acceptable offer from a responsible source other than T. Carroll using Full and Open Competition procedures.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Costs

Prior to contract award, the Contracting Officer will perform a cost and price analysis pursuant to FAR 15.404-1, to ensure that the negotiated price is fair and reasonable.

The analysis and determination will be sufficiently documented in a Business Clearance Memorandum in accordance with NMCARS 5215.406-90, which will be included in the contract file.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

As discussed herein, the plan for the source code once it reaches its end of life combined with the lack of a TDP, is to discontinue its use completely, and replace it entirely.

Therefore, there is no reason to expect that a follow-on requirement will exist beyond the year 2024, and thus no actions are being taken to remove barriers to competition as the financial, performance, and schedule risks are not expected to be overcome through the competition of this action. The barriers to competition will continue to exist as long as a TDP is unavailable.