NOPNAV20180413_DMO_ISRT_LSJ_NECO.docx

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVSUP FLEET LOGISTICS CENTER NORFOLK

700 ROBBINS AVE, BLDG 2B

PHILADELPHIA, PA 19111-5083

IN REPLY REFER TO

08 February 2018

LSJ# 18-012

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FOR MAC ORDER (above SAT)

1. IDENTIFICATION OF AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: This is a Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity. The requiring activity is Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV N81 and N96); the contracting activity is the Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department Philadelphia Office.

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF CONTRACT ACTION: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304a through 2304d. This is a limited source action to be awarded as a new task order to the large business identified in paragraph 3 below. The placement of a firm fixed price task order is anticipated.

3. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED SUPPLIES/SERVICES: The proposed acquisition is to continue with both the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (TCPED) in the Disrupted/Disconnected, Intermittent and Limited (D/DIL) Environment and Maritime Targeting Data (MTD) Pedigree Study modeling and findings, which began under contracts N00178-06-D-4812-NS01 and NS02, and continued under contract N00189-15-D-Z017 awarded to Metron, Inc. This study will examine the U.S. Navy’s current and potential fiscal and procedural investments in ISR TCPED to support over-the-horizon-targeting (OTH-T), to include consideration of satellite targeting data, using the overarching ISR TCPED in D/DIL mission thread/study and the Maritime Targeting Data Pedigree study model, now applying it to the emerging Distributed Maritime Operations DMO) concept. The intended period of performance for this requirement is one calendar year from date of task order award. The IGE for the required services is approximately $$$$$$. The contractor identified to support this requirement is Metron, Inc. under the awarded N81 Analytic Studies MAC contract N00189-15-D-Z017.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF THE JUSTIFICATION RATIONALE AND/OR DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS: The statutory authority which permits not providing each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,500 issued under a multiple award contract is 10 U.S.C. 2304c, as implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C), “The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency as a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.”

(a) Describe in detail reason for purchasing and why it is beneficial to the Navy

This instant requirement is for Developing Resilient ISR and Targeting (ISR-T) for Distributed Maritime Operations; the Study focus will build off of the ISR TCPED in D/DIL and MTD Pedigree Studies. It is a continuation of a concurrent two-pronged, three-year effort that consists of building a cross domain model with SPAWAR. The ISR-T for DMO Study will continue analysis, expand the Navy’s ISR-T network and platform data, and generate additional outputs, products, and results all stemming from the original studies. This continuation will provide measurable metrics for ISR TCPED and Targeting by leveraging techniques already used on the ISR TCPED in D/DIL and MTD Pedigree Studies, specifically the Modeling and Simulation (M&S), and will supplement the previous effort by providing more specific programs and scenario excursions, as well as consider a more complete network, in the ISR-T realm. The M&S will be conducted primarily to evaluate the operational benefit of specific ISR-T related investments by quantitatively assessing the wholeness of ISR TCPED for targeting in a D/DIL environment, ultimately supporting Naval warfighting capabilities. Furthermore, understanding the trade space between numerous National Information Systems, their performance and latency, as well as target error bounding, as modeled and understood from the MTD Pedigree Study, could enable the Navy to better leverage SCI data provided from National Information Systems to achieve Maritime Targeting Capability mission. Using the previous studies, N81 and N96 will be able to assess the Navy’s current ISR-T capability in DMO and effectively identify systems, pathways, or platforms that will provide the most effective return on investment to complete the kill chain. The ISR-T for DMO mission thread must be added to the original assessment in order to ensure a holistic approach is taken in the Navy’s investment in the warfighter and their capabilities in ISR. This is to address the fact that the Navy has not yet fully identified the gaps, nor planned mitigation measures to conduct adequate ISR-T in DMO.

Award to a new vendor that lacks context and experience in the ISR-T in D/DIL mission area, and particularly the model developed to date for these purposes, will result in significant duplication of cost and effort to the Government and would be exceptionally challenging in the time available for the study.

(b) Reasons for not providing a fair opportunity to all awardees

Metron, Inc. began work on the initial efforts of OPNAV N81 ISR TCPED in D/DIL and MTD Pedigree Studies under contract N00189-15-D-Z017, task order 0010 and 0011 in 2015. In the past year Metron conducted a large update of ISR-related platform and system information into GENSER ExAMs model, and additionally transferred this robust model to the TS-SCI level of ExAMS to model satellite contributions, all of which would be leveraged for this Resilient ISR-T in DMO Study. The instant requirement is a specific mission thread that will further develop recommendations for a holistic Navy ISR investment strategy, by rounding it out with a previously unexplored area of DMO. The ISR study series began in May 2008 and ended Sept 2017, and nearly $2.6M has been expended to complete ISR-T modeling. During this time Metron, Inc. conducted the requisite background research, data collection, leveraged and developed the appropriate Department of Defense Architectural Framework (DoDAF) products to support the analysis, defined the operational scenario analytic assumptions, study limitations, and study constraints.

Furthermore, Metron has the task orders for the management of ExAMs for SPAWAR. The SPAWAR orders NS01 and NS02 were awarded in 2007 and 2012 respectively and were issued as competitively awarded task orders against Metron, Inc.’s established Seaport-E contract of N00178-06-D-4812. This continuation of these studies will use the ExAMs tool developed under these task orders for conducting capability assessments and will leverage existing architectures, mission threads and system/platform data to the greatest extent possible. Metron’s continued work to improve the modeling fidelity of this government owned system will be a parallel investment in improving the Navy’s M&S capability.

The relationship between the aforementioned initial orders and these related follow-ons to the Z017 task orders is logical because the scope builds from all of the previously mentioned studies. Making an award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost and effort to the Government as evidenced by all the aforementioned prior requirements Metron has handled. It is additionally unique in that the two studies on ISR TCPED and MTD conducted in the past year can both provide components that will be the basis upon which work here could start. This would provide a more complete foundational picture than available anywhere else; Given the complexity of the topic at hand and the amount of analysis that will be needed, this will be critical to correctly building the model further to fulfil the objectives of this ambitious study. Under the previous task orders, Metron has conducted the requisite extensive background research, data collection, model building, data transition to and access of TS-SCI levels, leveraged and developed the appropriate Department of Defense Architectural Framework (DoDAF) products to support the analysis, and robustly defined the operational scenario analytic assumptions, study limitations, and study constraints. Considering the study objectives and the products created from the OPNAV N81 ISR TCPED Study series, this effort would seamlessly align as a follow-on effort, and would be conducted in time to affect Navy POM investment.

Metron, Inc., with regards to both the related ISR TCPED in D/DIL and MTD Pedigree Studies, has both the technical knowledge of Navy ISR-T CONOPs, TTPs, programs, and data flow paths needed to continue to conduct this M&S. Valuable lessons learned, specialized on the job training and education acquired to date – all of which are specifically unique to the performance under contract/orders N00178-06-D-4812-NS01 and NS02 and N00189-15-D-Z017-0010 and 0011, would be lost if awarded to another company.

Based on the above, it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the Government in terms of both cost, time, and effort to award to Metron with an exception to fair opportunity based on FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C).

5. DETERMINATION OF THE BEST VALUE: The basic contract did not establish the price for the services. Therefore, the Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office Contracting Officer will determine, using the procedures in FAR 15.4, that the price is fair and reasonable and the order represents the best value to meet the Government's needs.

6. DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH: The COR and the N81 Study SME for the current MAC and follow-on requirement conducted market research using their knowledge of the OPNAV N81 ISR TCPED and MTD Studies and prior contract vehicles. As stated above in Section 4, Metron, Inc. has completed similar studies in the past and is currently performing on several similar contract/actions. Market research indicates that Metron, Inc. is the most advantageous awardee to the Government, considering duplicate effort, cost, time and risk of lost technical knowledge.

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: This procurement uses a MAC and will be solicited and awarded in accordance with FAR Subpart 16.5.

8. ACTIONS TAKEN TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO COMPETITION: As stated above, the instant requirement is related to two previous task orders (0010 and 0011) under the N81 Studies MAC N00189-15-D-Z017 awarded to Metron. Task order 0010 was awarded on a sole source basis to Metron, and the instant requirement is considered more of a follow-on to it. The final deliverables completed under task order 0010 were consequently published at the SECRET level, and there were numerous other business entities that at the time published (DoD-wide) work that indicated that there could be possible other firms who could potentially perform related services.

As such, task order 0011 which was still related – albeit somewhat less, was competed amongst all MAC holders. Metron was awarded task order 0011, and through the evaluations, the Government learned that Metron was still the only source capable of providing these specific services as other did not possess the requisite capabilities, knowledge, and technical approaches. As a result, it was learned it is the best interest of the Government to continue to utilize a lot of the developed body of knowledge that Metron already possesses in order to take the next step, vice reinventing new model baselines and assumptions with a new contractor. Allowing for competition for the instant requirement requires an entire baselining of technical knowledge which is time and funding intensive. Beyond that, the intentions, requirements and other organizational sensitivities that are program-specific are all nearly impossible to put on paper and share effectively.

Barriers to competition were also attempted to be removed in the two following ways. First, even though the most recent related task order (0011) was competed, OPNAV N81 publishes the applicable/allowable material that is not classified either Navy or DoD-wide. In this case, the allowable information from task order 0011, which was Navy-specific, was published. However, due to the program-sensitive nature of the material, only so much was allowed to be published which prevented the widest possible dissemination of information.

Additionally, the Performance Work Statement (PWS) was also reviewed to assess whether it was too restrictive for competition, and has determined that the PWS, as written, cannot be made less restrictive without compromising the Government’s highly specialized minimum needs.

As such, between the amount of diligent effort the Government has put forth in attempting to remove barriers to competition, combined with the minimal flexibility provided due to the sensitive nature of the instant requirement and previous task orders, awarding to Metron on a sole source basis is the appropriate acquisition strategy.

9. CONTRACTING POINT OF CONTACT: The point of contact at Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office is Pete Certo; at (215) 697-1017 or by e-mail at peter.certo@navy.mil.

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