J_A.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION

IN REPLY REFER TO:

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN

EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity.

Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWC-AD) Lakehurst, NJ

2. Nature and/or Description of Action being Approved.

This Justification authorizes and approves the issuance of a delivery order for the procurement of

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. brand name Galaxy S8 phones (P/N: SM-G950UZKAXAA) in support of the National Guard Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Response

Enterprise (CRE) Information Management System (CIMS) implementation. It is the intent of the Government to issue a solicitation via the FedBid.com website for participation in a reverse auction. This requirement will be issued only to National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition

Contract (GWAC) holders. The period of performance is anticipated to be 30 days.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services Required to Meet the Agency’s Needs (including the estimated value).

NAWCAD Special Communications Mission Solutions (SCMS) Division has been tasked by the

National Guard Bureau (NGB) to upgrade the communications equipment used by the Homeland

Response Force (HRF) and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield

Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP). The HRF conducts command and control; casualty assistance; search and extraction; decontamination; medical triage and stabilization, fatality search and recovery to save lives and mitigate human suffering.

The CERFP locates and extracts victims from a contaminated environment, performs mass patient/casualty decontamination, and provides treatment as necessary to stabilize patients for evacuation. To support response missions, the HRF and CERFP units require remote communication capability to collect and transmit environmental sensor data and initiate and maintain communications during a suspected or actual CBRNE event.

To support the necessary information sharing and communications capabilities, each HRF and

CERFP requires a cellular device compatible with the Mobile Field Kit (MFK) software, an

Android based software application used to collect and transmit environmental sensor data. The sensor data is required to provide the operational picture during a CBRNE event, allowing teams to identify dangerous areas via the sensors, as well as track the location of victims and team members. The requested Samsung Galaxy S8 brand name devices will also be used by the NGB

HRF and CERFP staff to remotely communicate with each other. The Department of Defense

(DoD)/Army requires that all devices that are connected to a DoD network are approved by the

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

4. Identification of the Justification Rationale (see FAR 16.505(b)(2)) and, if applicable, a

Demonstration of the Proposed Contractor's Unique Qualifications to Provide the

Required Supply or Service.

FAR 16.505(a)(4) – The requirement is for an item peculiar to one manufacturer.

The NGB is deploying cell phones with the Android specific MFK software product. The NGB has accredited and fielded Samsung brand phones acquired under contract. Although other devices have an Android operating system and are approved by DISA, only the Samsung device has been tested and fielded with the MFK software.

The equipment identified is the only known configuration to meet all the requirements by NGB for this effort. Samsung is the sole manufacturer of the equipment needed for this requirement.

Samsung has authorized distributors available through the NASA SEWP V contract vehicle.

Based on the above, the Government will limit the competitive field to authorized distributers of the required Samsung equipment.

5. A Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the

Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The Contracting Officer has determined that awarding a delivery order for the required Samsung brand name devices using the NASA SEWP V GWAC vehicle represents the best value and will result in the lowest overall cost alternative to meet the Navy’s mission requirements. The price design for NASA SEWP V is a proposed discount off the offeror’s commercial price list. A

Price analysis for NASA SEWP V contracts was conducted in accordance with FAR

15.305(a)(1), to ensure that a fair and reasonable price is paid by the Government.

NASA SEWP V has already determined the prices contained within its vendors’ contracts to be fair and reasonable. Reasonableness of proposed prices was established in accordance with FAR

15.403-1(c)(1)(i)(B), which provides that a price is based on adequate price competition if two or more responsible offerors, competing independently, submit priced offers that satisfy the

Government’s expressed requirement and there is not any finding that the price of an otherwise successful offer is unreasonable. To verify price reasonableness, offerors were instructed to submit their published price catalog or published schedule of list prices in a form regularly maintained by the manufacturer or offerors, such as a catalog, price list, schedule, or other verifiable and established record.

Use of the FedBid reverse auction tool is anticipated to result in additional cost savings to the

Government due to Offerors’ ability to provide increased competitive pricing due to the unique structure of the FedBid reverse auction tool. In addition, the Contract Specialist will conduct a price analysis which shall include a review of commercial price lists and historical purchases.

6. Any other Facts Supporting the Justification.

If alternative cellular devices are selected for this requirement, the Government will incur irrecoverable duplicative costs to field and maintain two devices. Estimated costs would include the following efforts: Replacement of previously procured devices; Cyber Security Accreditation:

The Government would have to accredit the alternative device and would incur costs to perform a cyber audit, develop a new configuration, perform security scans and evaluate, and to modify the cyber documentation package; Technical documentation: The Government would incur an additional cost to maintain the alternate device of costs to modify manuals, modify the quick reference catalog, and modify training manuals; Recurring Maintenance: The Government would incur an additional annual cost to maintain the alternative device. Costs include the following: to validate and update STIGS, validate MFK, validate Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK), validate physiological monitoring system, validate NucSafe sensor software, validate other applications, document changes to software, and perform quarterly cyber scans); and Sparing: The Government would incur additional costs for sparing efforts required for the alternative device.

Market research was conducted to identify commercially available cellular device solutions compatible with the NGB Android specific MFK software product. Although both LG

Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd can provide a DISA approved device with an

Android operating system, only the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. device has been tested and fielded with the MFK software.

Further market research was conducted to identify vendors who can provide the Samsung

Electronics Co., Ltd brand name cellular devices. Five (5) vendors were identified through the

SEWPV market research request: Better Direct, LLC, CDW Government LLC, SHI International

Corp., Sterling Computers Corporation, and World Wide Technology.

A synopsis was not posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website because

NASA SEWP contracts have been synopsized in FedBizOpps and satisfy the requirements of the

Competition in Contracting Act (Pub. Law 98-369) and FAR Part 5, Publicizing Contract

Actions.

7. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome any

Barriers that Led to the Exception to Far Opportunity before any Subsequent Acquisition for the Supplies or Services is Made.

For the reasons stated above, at this time, only Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. brand name

Galaxy S8 phones can meet the requirements of this effort. The Government will continue to evaluate other technologies that would allow future competition by attending industry trade shows and hosting on-site vendor visits to learn more about specific manufacturers and products.