N6660416P3269_-_Sole_Source_Justification_Redacted.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

Vendor and Requirement: The Vendor is Northern Defense Industries, Inc. (NDI) of Alexandria, Virginia. This project requires the integration of two sonar systems, the Sonardyne Sentinel Intruder Detection Sonar and the Biosonics

Underwater Acoustic Sentinel System (UWACS) owned by NUWC. The integration of these sensors will support the verification of threat contact alerts and the nuisance alert reduction. The sonars are commercial products purchased by NUWC six (6) years ago. Five years ago NUWC funded the sonar Subject Matter Expert (ME )to develop a

Government Approved Algorithms (GAA) module that allows the Government to introduce enhanced capabilities to the

Sentinel sonar without having to impact the Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) product. The integration will involve the two-way data transfer from the UWACS to the Sentinel GAA. The integration effort is required to support two in-water test events in FY17. The first test event will take place in the first quarter of FY17 and the second test event will take place in the third quarter of FY17.

Government Minimum Requirement/Salient Characteristics: The, minimum requirement is the ability to the data from multiple Sentinel sonars, develop a fused software module and integrate with a second sonar type (UWACS) for exploitation of the initial sonar information. Additionally, the capability to align sensors in a straightforward, expedient manner once they have been deployed is required.

Demonstration of these capabilities in an in-water environment will prove out the successful execution of these tasks.

Why No Other Vendor Meets the Government Minimum Requirements:

Given the unique nature of this sonar and the proprietary aspects of the data generated by the sonar, no other vendor is able to perform this work.

Not going sole source and trying to replicate this effort with another vendor will result in a cost overrun of at least a and push the delivery timeline one to two years past the negotiated delivery date with the sponsor. The only viable option to perform this integration effort and deliver in the timeframe needed is to have NDI perform the work.

If this requirement is not filled NUWC will not be able to fulfill its mission to provide an integrated sonar capability that will allow for an automated detection, tracking and alert on threat unmanned underwater vehicles. Not meeting this requirement will cause significant delays in a planned fleet evaluation of this capability in the FY17 timeframe. If we miss this opportunity there may not be another one. The current plan allows for a first test event in advance of the fleet evaluation and delays in the provision of this capability will put the automation aspects and performance of the system at risk.

Why Only One Source: The work to be accomplished in this contract requires unique knowledge of and access to proprietary sonar data.

Given the nature and timeframe of the requirement for this work, there is no other option than to contract with NDI to perform the work.