J&A Number: 26-0180

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION

21983 BUNDY ROAD BUILDING 441

PATUXENT RIVER, MD 20670

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity.

Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Patuxent River, MD

2. Description of the Action Being Approved.

This Justification & Approval (J&A) authorizes and approves award of a contract on a sole source basis to L3Harris ForceX Inc of Nashville, TN for Venom Software Suite and GARMIN G3000 Integrated Avionics System annual product support in support of the Adversary and Specialized Aircraft Program Office (PMA-226) Integrated Product Team (IPT) for the Department of the Navy’s (DoN) Adversary F-5F+/N+ Aircraft.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

Legacy F-5F/N aircraft receiving Block Upgrade configuration change and repatriated Swiss aircraft undergoing modification under the Avionics Reconfiguration and Tactical Enhancement/Modernization for Inventory Standardization (ARTEMIS) program include pre-installation of Venom and GARMIN systems and software. Once delivered, these aircraft will require this contract effort for the sustainment phase of the Venom and GARMIN lifecycle which is a follow-on requirement but for direct vendor support. This contract action will provide Application and Technical Support for F-5F+/N+ Adversary Aircraft flight operations with information assurance, system updates, cyber and general software support, and configuration management support of the Mission System Venom Software Suite, hereafter referred to as Venom, as well as the GARMIN G3000 Integrated Avionics System, hereafter referred to as GARMIN. These support services are required to support the aircraft, System Integration Laboratory (SIL), and training devices. Venom is mission software and GARMIN is flight operational software used by the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) integrated into their F-5F+/N+ aircraft. These software packages routinely receive updates and patches requiring validation and verification ensuring the updates/patches do not interfere with aircraft operations. L3Harris ForceX Inc. relies on USN and USMC Pilot input/feedback to ensure the software remains viable and operational. The Venom and GARMIN software updates, to include cyber security patches and technical support, are necessary to aircraft mission system functionality; thus, critical to meet aircraft operational requirements.

The contract is anticipated to include a twelve (12)-month base period with four (4), twelve (12)-month options periods for continued mission system support.

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

10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority.

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.103-1(c)(2)(i), the Government determined the requirement listed above to be available only through the original source and award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of costs to the Government that are not expected to be recovered through competition in fulfilling the USG requirements.

Historically, this requirement was received as part of a previous sole source contract, to which L3 Harris ForceX was a major subcontractor. As stated in Section 3 above, this requirement will now be a follow-on requirement but for direct vendor support. As the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Venom’s software design and associated data is proprietary to L3Harris ForceX of which the Government has only limited data rights. L3Harris ForceX has the requisite knowledge, technical capability, and technical data package (TDP) necessary for technical support and configuration management of the F-5F+/N+ mission system and related software. Qualification of a new source to design, test, and integrate a new mission system and software suite is estimated at between of non-recurring engineering, and of recurring cost for hardware, software, and logistics support data. This estimate is based on the U.S. Air Force Project II data for an MPRA platform, F/A-18E/F, and the C-130J. Therefore, using a source other than the current OEM would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that would not be recoverable through competition.

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

This proposed contract action, with the Government’s intent to award a sole-source contract to L3Harris ForceX Inc., was posted with a sources sought notice on the SAM.gov website on 23 January 2026, in accordance with FAR 5.201 and DFARS PGI 206.103-170. The Government received six (6) responses to the sources sought. The response from the OEM, L3Harris ForceX

Inc. adequately addressed their capabilities to meet the requirement. The other five (5) responses were determined to be not capable.

No additional market research was conducted because it is not practicable, for the reasons discussed in paragraph 5 above, for any company other than L3Harris ForceX Inc. to meet the documented requirements.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost.

The Contracting Officer has determined the anticipated cost to the Government of the services covered by this J&A will be fair and reasonable.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition.

For the reasons set forth in Paragraph 5, NAWCAD has no plans at this time to compete future contracts for the services covered by this J&A. NAWCAD will continually monitor future source availability to assess whether a competition for future requirements is feasible.

CERTIFCATIONS AND APPROVAL

TECHNICAL/REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION

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

LEGAL SUFFICIENCY REVIEW

I have determined this justification is legally sufficient.

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION

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

APPROVAL

Upon the basis of the above justification, I hereby approve 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).