Redacted_TTC_JA_Teletronics_TTC.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Naval Air System Command

NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION

21983 BUNDY ROAD

BUILDING 441, Unit 7

PATUXENT RIVER, MARYLAND 20670

J&A Number 17-0236

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity.

Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWC-AD) Patuxent River, MD

2. Description of the Action Being Approved.

This Justification and Approval (J&A) is for the sole source award of an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Teletronics, a Curtiss-Wright Company for the supply of Airborne Instrumentation Data Acquisition system hardware and associated repair services.

The hardware and associated repair services will support the Naval Air Systems Command

(NAVAIR) Special Flight Test Instrumentation Pool (SFTIP) which falls under the AIR 5.2 Air

Vehicle Modification and Instrumentation (AVMI) department. Delivery Orders will be issued for the required hardware and incidental services on a Firm Fixed Price basis. This action will result in an IDIQ contract with an ordering period of five years. This IDIQ contract will be a follow-on to the current IDIQ contract, N00421-12-D-0012, which was awarded to Teletronics

Technology Corporation (TTC), a small business, in CY 2012. This award was made prior to the sale of the company. TTC was acquired by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, a large business, on

January 4, 2017. The acquired business will remain TTC and operate as a large business within

Curtiss-Wright's Defense segment. TTC is located at 15 Terry Drive, Newtown, PA 18940.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

TTC is the sole manufacturer and seller of the required Airborne Instrumentation hardware that is currently in use by the NAVAIR SFTIP. The SFTIP maintains an inventory of over $100 million of flight test instrumentation equipment, and currently has over $49 million in TTC hardware consisting of data acquisition units, solid state recorders, high speed sampling devices, signal conditioners, power supplies, etc. These modular devices come together to form complete airborne instrumentation data acquisition systems for use on F/A-18, P-8, V-22, F-35, C130, Triton, Fire Scout aircraft, various helicopter platforms and a variety of other Navy aircraft and

Central Test and Evaluation Investment Programs (CTEIP). The resultant contract will include over 2,100 parts which are also found on the TTC commercial price list. These items are considered to be commercial items as defined in FAR 2.101 in that they have been procured by commercial companies, with no modifications in the commercial marketplace. The contract will also include a line item for repairs to the commercially available Airborne Instrumentation hardware.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority.

TTC is the sole manufacturer and seller of the TTC Airborne Instrumentation hardware that is currently in use by the NAVAIR SFTIP. Many Navy aircraft programs have instrumentation systems that utilize TTC High Speed Data Acquisition System (HSDAS) units. These instrumentation systems were developed by prime contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed

Martin, under system development contracts. These prime contractors specified fully integrated

TTC HSDAS, the design of which was proprietary to TTC. Therefore, the initial investment in data acquisition began with TTC's HSDAS. TTC's products have gone through significant environmental testing required for each program as well as flight readiness reviews prior to installation. Utilizing any other vendor's HSDAS would require the Navy to duplicate its efforts in regard to aircraft data system modifications in order to build, install, test and qualify a completely new instrumentation system. Specific areas that make a HSDAS highly specialized include size, weight, physical interface compatibility, software and programming compatibility, unique data measurements requirements, analog parameters, and ability to adapt to different size requirements from adding or removing modular units from existing units.

In addition, the existing technical data and specifications for the Airborne Instrumentation hardware was developed by TTC and are considered proprietary. TTC's design is proprietary and it is a complex collection of data acquisition system subsystem components. No other company could build HSDAS components that could be interoperable with TTC HSDAS components and result in a fully performing HSDAS system. Data rights for these HSDAS units cannot reasonably be purchased to allow for this requirement to be competed. For these reasons, the equipment being procured is highly specialized. TTC is the sole manufacturer and seller of the

TTC hardware required for this procurement. Other manufacturers make aircraft instrumentation equipment that is similar in function but their equipment is not electrically, or mechanically, compatible with the existing TTC hardware that is currently used by SFTIP. Components of existing TTC systems must be completely compatible in order to work as part of an integrated instrumentation system. This hardware is modular in design and many of the items currently being procured are direct replacements for existing hardware.

The TTC equipment is proven flight tested equipment with current NAVAIR flight clearance approvals. The equipment has been used in the harshest of military environments and is currently installed upon, but not limited to, platforms such as the F-35, F/A-18, V-22, P-8, E-2 aircraft, MH-60, H-1 helicopters, multiple UAV aircraft. NAVAIR's AVMI department has a $49 million hardware investment in TTC equipment for use on all Navy & Marine Corps platforms. This has required extraordinary testing and flight clearance approval for each individual platform installation. The logistical investment of 128 experienced Navy personnel trained on the TTC

HSDAS is immeasurable and training cost on new hardware and software applications would result in additional cost and operational performance. Changing to another company’s products at this point would pose unacceptable schedule risks to current & future flight test programs. .

Based on these projected issues for the F-35 program and multiplying it by the number of programs supported by TTC hardware, the impact and risk associated with switching instrumentation vendors is immeasurable and unacceptable to the programs.

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

In accordance with DFARS PGI 206.302-1, a sources sought notice was placed on the

FedBizOpps on 2 March 2017. Two responses were received, one from TTC and one from L-3

Communications. Both capability statements were reviewed by the Chief Engineer in AIR 5.2.9.

The Chief Engineer stated that L-3 Communication equipment was not capable of providing instrumentation hardware to support the Aircraft Instrumentation Division (AID) at Patuxent

River because they are not direct replacements and changing hardware and software would be cost and schedule prohibitive. The AID has a large inventory of TTC equipment valued at $49M, and the parts provided by L-3 would not be direct replacement parts (form/fit/function) to modify or repair exiting systems. The Chief Engineer stated that having compatible equipment on hand is critical to AID providing a quick response to the flight test customers. A change to a different vendor at this point would also be very disruptive to efficient execution of flight test programs as prime contractors at Patuxent River NAS (i.e. Boeing, Northrop, and Lockheed) use TTC equipment. The current environment with regard to L-3 Communication equipment as a possible replaceable alternative has not changed and in fact adverse implications with regard to various test program cost and schedule impacts has increased due to utilization and expansion of TTC hardware throughout the various test programs.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost.

In accordance with FAR 15.402, the Contracting Officer shall ensure that all supplies and services provided under this contract are procured at a fair and reasonable price. The Contractor will submit a formal price proposal with pricing data and sufficient information to support the accuracy and reliability of the estimate. TTC's proposal will be reviewed by experienced technical analysts and contract specialists. As these items are considered commercial items as defined in FAR 2.101, the Contracting Officer will utilize price analysis as the basis for negotiating a fair and reasonable price.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition.

Future actions taken or planned to facilitate competition for this acquisition include participation in the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP). The Navy is a major participant in the CTEIP program to develop networked enhanced telemetry instrumentation, otherwise known as the iNET (integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry) program. iNET has three major categories of development: Vehicle Networked Instrumentation, Radio Frequency link, and the

Ground Network. The vehicle instrumentation network will enable portions of the air vehicle instrumentation to communicate using network protocols. The actual vehicle network may offer a path to foster competition. If the iNET program proceeds with standards development and multiple vendors choose to offer instrumentation components that are iNET compliant, then it may be possible to integrate a vehicle instrumentation system using other vendor's components that can communicate at the logical layer of the Open Systems model. The iNET program will result in the production of prototype hardware and associated testing. Standards maturation, based on information learned in building the prototype instrumentation systems with this equipment, will continue for two or three (2-3) years, after receipt. The timeframe for mature iNET systems/components was seven to ten (7-10) years; however, the iNET Program has encountered significant delays and funding interruptions. Full iNET implementation is scheduled for 2023. In addition to participating in the iNET development program, market research will continue throughout the contract period by attending trade shows, conferences and technical symposiums. If it is determined to be beneficial and competition becomes available, the

Government will conduct any future acquisition by full and open competition.