JA.sgnd_Redacted.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SU RFACE WARFARE CENTER

DAHLG REN DIVISION

61 49 WELSH ROAD SUITE 203

DAH LGREN VIRGIN IA 22448-5130

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

IN REPLY REFER TO

J&A Number:13721 Code: 024

N00178-17-R-2055

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCD), Contracts Division Code 0242.

2. Description of the Action Being Approv ed

This justification is for the award of a Cost-Pl us-Fixed-Fee (CPFF)/Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID / IQ) Sole Source contract to Intermat, Incorporated for the delivery of Carbon - Carbon Shape Stable Nosetip (SSNT) materials .

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The proposed contract is for the fabrication of Carbon - Carbon Shape Stable Nosetip (SSNT) materials; developme:pt and fabrication of advanced reentry materials including alternate nose~ips, antenna windows, control surfaces, wings, flaps, leading edges, heatshields and aeroshells; associated acceptance and quality assurance testing; . and supporting engineering studies. The procurement is required to support U.S. Submarine Launched Baliistic Missile (SLBM) reentry systems and Foreign Military :Sales (FMS) activities.

The estimated value of this five year ID / IQ Contract is (the table below funds are represented in the millions ) , and utilizes Weapons (WPN) , Research and Development and Evaluation (RDT&E) and FMS funds as indicated below:

J&A Number:13721

The Government's minimum needs have to be verified by the certifying technical and requirements personnel .

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

The justification is based upon the author1ty of 10 U.S.C 2304 (c) (1), as implemented by FAR 6. 302-1 (a) (2) satisfying a requirement for unique supplies available from only one source .

S. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

It has been determined that there is only ?ne source that can provide this unique Carbon-Carbon SSNT for all Continuation with Intermat as SSNT's source gives the Navy direct line of sight to legacy production methods and processes . Line of s i ght to Legacy is critically important in the very low risk tolerant SLBM environment . The previous contract was conducted by Intermat, a solely owned subsidiary of Fiber Materials Inc. (FMI) Biddeford, ME. As of approximately November 1, 2016, FMI was acquired by Edgewater Capital Partners III . Edgewater Capital is a US-owned private equity management / investment firm. The details and background presented in this recommendation should be construed as applying equally to the FMI and Intermat entities.

Intermat and their parent company, Fiber Materials, Inc. (FMI) are uniquely qualified to conduct the efforts required by this contract . Both Intermat & FMI have been the sole supplier of Carbon -Carbon Composites, SSNT for the . The unique SSNT technology has proven to be the most effective solution devised for ensuring reliable, repeatable, and accurate reentry body flight performance in extremely harsh , reentry environments. In order to perform the breadth of missions a~signed to the the Navy needs to adapt the SSNT technology to the and to any future strategic (nuclear) and/ or conventional reentry systems.

It is of the utmost importance to maintain ; consistency when fabricating these materials. Since billet weaving and densification procedures for these materials have a profound effect on their thermal and mechanical properties and their ablative and aerodynamic flight performance, use of the identical SSNT weaving and procegging cycles is absolutely necessary. Intermat's Carbon-

Carbon weaving and processing cycles are PFOprietary. Only Intermat can reproduce these billet weaving and processing cycles, and thus is the only supplier who can fabricate the additional materials.

In addition, Intermat has developed increased weaving capacity through the procurement of two additional large block auto looms.

The additional looms were designed by Intermat and have been used successfully under the current effort for weaving flight-worthy carbon-fiber preforms that meet all relevant weapon specifications.

Materials produced under the proposed contract must be compatible with existing materials already produced by Intermat under the current contract N00178-13-C-1020. N00178-13-C-1020 was awarded as a Sole Source to Intermat. The material generated by this effort is needed for evaluation for use in a very limited number of military applications. There is no market for this material in the private sector. An investment in the personnel and capital equipment required to develop a second source currently is not warranted due to the small amount of dollars available o~ a yearly basis for Carbon - Carbon SSNT and other re-entry materials. An investment would be necessary to develop a second source for this material, including weaving and processing equipment, personnel and training, as well as the separate costs of material ground-testing. In addition there would be significant costs to flight test new material from an unqualified supplier. At a cost of well per flight test, the costs to the Navy would be extremely unsupportable in order to Navy-qualify any new supplier of this material, assuming new production efforts are even successful. A new source would have to develop the 3D weaving technology by themselves and would then have to develop the high temperature and pressure carbon pitch densification process by themselves. It's estimated that it would take five (5) years for another supplier to be in position to produce any SSNT~like materials, and another five (5) years before they could replicate current SSNT performance. It is estimated that it would take up to approximately for another viable source to be developed. Such a time frame is unacceptable due to it being incompatible with current SSP SSNT flight qualification efforts.

Waiting for establishment of a new SSNT source would put program plans behind schedule.

Based on the foregoing, Intermat, Incorporated is the only source that has the capability of satisfying the Government's requirement for Carbon-Carbon SSNT reentry materials.

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

The proposed contract was synopsized on Federal Business Opportunities (FEDBIZOPS) website on 15 November 2016. NSWCDD received no responses from industry.

The reentry materials to pe fabricated under this proposed effort and the associated engineering studies are in direct support of the Navy's SLBM nuclear weapons program . There are no non-military applications or markets for - these material~; neither are there other non-nuclear military applicatio~s for these materials. The only non-Navy domestic market for these materials in existence is the U.S. Air Force's ICBM nuclear weapons program. The U.S. Air Force RDT&E funding and demand for these ma~erials is vastly limited. There is currently no regular U.S. Air Force procurement for these materials other than occasional single purchase orders issued to FMI and fulfilled by Intermat, by requests to the Navy to provide them with materials already procur~d and in Navy inventory, or requests by the U.S. Air Force to have Intermat / FMI fabricate similar to Navy materials .

A market survey showg that there are other suppli~rs of g~n~ric Carbon-Carbon Composite materials (such as . Hitco Carbon Composites, Gardena, CA; C-CAT, Kennedale, TX, ATK Aerospace, Corrine, UT; and SpaceX, Hawthorne, CA) . These suppliers of Carbon-Carbon materials are targeted towards other non-reentry purposes, mainly for rocket nozzle applications or for use in high-performance racecar braking systems, and they lack .the capability to produce large (8x SSNT) fine-weave 3D orthogonal billet preforms and the large high pressure (15 ksi) impregnation vessels and graphitization furnaces required to densify the performance to weapon specification densities. These suppliers lack the ability .or experience to incorporate SSNT technology into their Carbon-Carbon materials. The Navy relies on a large database of ground test and flight test data developed for this Carbon-Carbon SSNT material over the course of several decades. New materials fabricated under this sole source effort must utilize the same billet weaving and processing cycles as the materials that have already been procured and flight-tested.

The billet weaving and processing cycles are proprietary and not available to any other company.

The Reentry Systems, Code A06 makes this determination based on a high level of familiarity with U.S . activities in Reentry Materials in general, and Carbon-Carbon materials in 1 particular. The Reentry Systems, Code A06 is very active in the U.S: Carbon-Carbon Reentry Materials community through co-chairmanship of the Carbon-Carbon session at the Annual U.S. Advanced Ceramic Association Conference on Composite Structures and Materials held at Cocoa Beach, FL. This is the only-ITAR restricted conference in the U.S. dealing with Reentry Materials - development, design, fabrication and test. The conference is attended by over 400 people representing every major Reentry Materials entity in the U.S. Besid~s Session Co-Chair duties, the Reentry Systems, takes advantage of the attendance to network and perform initial Market Research on Carbon-Carbon materials manufacture, application, development and test.

A06 also occasionally attends the National Space and Missile Materials Symposium held annually at various locations. The Reentry Systems, are also members of the DoD/NASA Reentry Materials collaborative team sponsored by OSD. are in regular communication with the staff at other Warfare Centers, the Army (AMRDEC), the U.S. Air Force (NWC-Hill AFB; & WL-WP AFB), and NASA.

Under this activity, we gain awareness of activities within the U.S. Government Reentry Materials community in a Government-to Government environment.

is in regular contact with the Reentry : Materials Contractor base, from Systems Engineering (Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale and Valley Forge); through component fabrication (Intermat, FMI, Hitco, Orbital-ATK, etc.) and independent test and .evaluation of alternate materials (Southern Research, Materials Research and Design) .

also holds accounts at Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and perform regular literature searches on U.S. Reentry Materials Development. also regularly read trade journals such as "Composite Structures" and Technical Journals on an occasional basis (most Reentry Materials work is Limited Distribution and not suitable for open publication). Under we provide FMS support to a Foreign Government, and have a sense of the Reentry Materials development activities which are conducted overseas.

In addition, the Reentry Systems, staff has a combined 75 years of experience with the U.S. Carbon-C~rbon and reentry materials Industrial Base.

Overall, has an excellent understanding of the state of the market for Carbon-Carbon and reentry mater~als in the U.S. as pertains to this planned procurement.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Costs

The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government for the supplies/services cpvered by the J&A will be fair and reasonable.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

For the reasons set forth in paragraphs 5 ~nd 6, the NSWCDD has no plans at this time to compete future contracts for these types of supplies/services covered by this document ~ If another potential source emerges, NSWCDD will assess whether : competition for future requirements is feasible.

J&A Number:l3721

TECHNICAL/REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION (FAR 6.303-2(b))

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and its supporting data except as noted herein, are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

COMBINED TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS COGNIZANCE:

· Digitally signed by .

LEGAL SUFFICIENCY REVIEW (NMCARS 5206.303 (90))

I have determined this justification is legally sufficient.

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION (FAR 6.303-2(a) (12))

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

~Signature Name (Print) and title (Code) . Phone/ No. Date

APPROVAL BLOCK (FAR 6.304 for Approving Official)

Upon the basis of the above justification, I hereby approve, as Competition Advocate for the Procuring Activity, the solicitation of the proposed procurement described herein using other than full and open competition,' pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) (1).

COMPETITION ADVOCATE

Name (Print) and title (Code) Phone Nb.

Thomas A. Duval Code 02 03/08/17