NSWCPD Consolidation DF No. 0222-25-135-00 21JULY2025-SEA 025C-22REDACTED.pdf

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104 ing

Code:

D&F No: 0222-25-135-00

DETERMINATION AND FINDINGS

AUTHORITY TO CONSOLIDATE CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

Upon the basis of the following findings pursuant to the authority of 15 U.S.C. § 657q, as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 7.107-2 and the Navy Marine Corps Acquisition Regulation Supplement (NMCARS) Subpart 5207.107-2, it is hereby determined that the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) Cyber Vulnerability Assessment Tool (CVAST), Situational Awareness, Boundary Enforcement & Response (SABER), and Development Security Operations (DevSecOps) Engineering Services requirements may be consolidated.

FINDINGS

1. Identification of Requiring Agency and Contracting Activity

This Determination and Findings has been prepared by the NSWCPD, a contracting activity under the authority of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

2. Nature/Description of Action

NSWCPD is planning to issue a single solicitation for engineering and technical services to support all activities associated with developing software and/or hardware solutions that perform Information Extraction on listings in Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) or Intelligence sources, analyze the extracted information using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and/or Machine Learning, parse and/or translate data between multiple formats, analyze the Cybersecurity Posture of NCSs, support Modeling & Simulations (M&S) activities, perform Vulnerability Assessments and Analysis, perform Threat Analysis, perform Risk Assessments, recommend and evaluate Security Controls and Mitigations, and finally Data Modeling and Data Analytics in support of the above activities. Tasks include development and testing of software and/or hardware solutions for cybersecurity, design and implementation of risk analysis techniques, algorithms, or heuristics, systems engineering analysis, development and evaluation models of NCS, mission, and cybersecurity concepts, and performance of cybersecurity risk assessments, comparing, verifying, and validating cybersecurity risk assessment processes and results, and finally installation and configuration of cybersecurity software and hardware solutions at all applicable hosting locations. This procurement action will consolidate these requirements which had been previously contracted separately by three (3) Contractors, EHS Technologies Corporation, The GBS Group, and Noblis MSD, LLC, as detailed below.

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

PHILADELPHIA DIVISION

5001 SOUTH BROAD STREET

PHILADELPHIA PA 19112-1403

IN REPLY REFER TO:

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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a. SABER Engineering Services Support

On 16 April 2020, Task Order No. N6449820F3005 was competitively awarded under a SeaPort-NxG Small Business set-aside to the GBS Group under Contract No.

N0017819D7048 ($12.6M) to provide engineering and technical services in support of Cybersecurity M&S, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), analysis, & assessments, limited to Code 50, at NSWCPD. This Task Order has been extended and expires 31 March 2026.

b. CVAST Engineering Services Support

On 11 May 2020, Task Order No. N6449820F3006 was competitively awarded under a SeaPort-NxG Small Business set-aside to EHS Technologies Corporation under Contract No. N0017819D7566 ($13.9M) to provide support to NSWCPD Division 53 with its work on Modernization Programs and in its capacity as the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for various Hull Mechanical & Electrical (HM&E) Cybersecurity systems and equipment.

The programs consist of cybersecurity situational awareness, boundary defense as well as cybersecurity modeling, simulations, assessments, and analysis engineering efforts. This Task Order has been extended and expires 31 March 2026.

c. DevSecOps Services Support

On 12 February 2021, Task Order No. N6449821F3003 was competitively awarded under a SeaPort-NxG unrestricted procurement to Noblis MSD, LLC under Contract No.

N0017819D8085 ($20.1M) to provide engineering support activities associated with HM&E controls for the Future Surface Combatant. This Task Order expires on 11 February 2026.

The combined value of all three current Task Orders is $46.6M. After consolidation, the combined efforts will have an estimated value of $ and will be competed as a Small Business Set-Aside under SeaPort-NxG with a period of performance of one (1) 12-month base period and four (4) 12-month option periods. The difference between the aggregated value of the prior three (3) Task Orders ($46.6M) and the follow-on on consolidated procurement value of $ can be largely accounted for by three primary cost drivers:

a. The need for a richer labor skill mix and an increase in expected labor hours, driven by the ongoing development and fleet-wide adoption of the CVAST and SABER software across multiple ship classes. Additionally, continued emphasis on DevSecOps reflects cybersecurity best practices at every phase of the software development lifecycle.

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

b. Increased labor rates from the midpoint of the previous Task Orders' period of performance to the midpoint of the consolidated contract period, reflecting prevailing market conditions and competitive compensation trends necessary to retain and attract qualified personnel.

c. The consolidated effort includes broader support for system sustainment, integration, and test infrastructure, including investments in continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, test environments, and cybersecurity compliance tooling. These enhancements are essential to ensure secure, scalable, and resilient software delivery in alignment with evolving fleet and mission cyber survivability and distance support requirements.

These (3) cost drivers are estimated to account for $ cost difference between the prior procurement and follow-on procurement.

3. Results of Market Research

As discussed in detail below, market research indicates that there are four (4) Small Businesses deemed capable of providing the required services at fair market prices. In accordance with FAR 19.502-2(a), this requirement shall be set-aside for Small Businesses.

Market research was performed through a review of previous acquisitions for similar requirements and discussions with the requiring technical divisions.

In accordance with FAR Part 10, a determination has been made that the cannot be met by a type of service customarily available in the marketplace as they are not of a type offered and sold competitively in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace based on established catalog or market prices for specific tasks performed under standard commercial terms and conditions. The DoD Commercial Item Database within PIEE was queried before making this non-commercial determination.

Preliminary Market Research revealed three (3) businesses as potential sources with experience in similar requirements. The chart below lists the companies:

Name of Company CAGE Size Small Small

Large

Planning: A Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information (RFI) was posted on the SeaPort-

8 August 2024 to make SeaPort-NxG users aware of forthcoming Request for Proposal (RFP). The Sources Sought Notice/RFI

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104 closed on 20 August 2024 and no questions or concerns were received. A total of thirteen (13) responses were received. The chart below lists the companies and whether the companies were deemed technically capable:

Name of Company CAGE Size Appear

Technically Capable

Small Yes Small No

Small No Large Yes

Large Yes Small Yes

Large Yes Small No

Large Yes Small Yes

Small Yes Small No

Large No

Of the thirteen (13) responses received, eight (8) were determined to be technically capable. Of the eight (8) technically capable responses, four (4) are Small Business concerns.

Program History: Historically, the SABER/CVAST/DevSecOps engineering support requirements were competed under the SeaPort-NxG Multiple Award Contract. Below is the recent history:

a. SABER Engineering Services Support

In 2020, when Task Order No. N6449820F3005 was competed as a total Small Business Set- Aside, there were five (5) offers received in response to the solicitation, of which one (1) offer was found to be technically acceptable ( ).

b. CVAST Engineering Services Support

In 2020, when Task Order No. N6449820F3006 was competed as a total Small Business Set- Aside, there were four (4) offers received in response to the solicitation, of which two (2) were found technically acceptable ( ).

c. DevSecOps Services Support

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

In 2021, when Task Order No. N6449821F3003 was solicited on an unrestricted basis. There were three (3) offers received in response to the solicitation, all of which were from other than small businesses that were found to be technically acceptable (

Small Business Impacts: NSWCPD has considered the potential impacts of this consolidation to Small Businesses. As noted above, market research indicates a reasonable expectation of obtaining offers from two (2) or more responsible Small Business concerns that are competitive in terms of fair market prices, quality, and delivery. Therefore, in accordance with FAR 19.502-2(a), this requirement shall be set-aside for Small Businesses. Thus, in accordance with 15 U.S.C. § 657q(c)(1)(D) and FAR 7.107-2(a)(4), NSWCPD has found that this consolidation in-and-of-itself will ultimately have minimal/limited impacts on contracting with Small Business concerns. This consolidation determination has received concurrence from ness Programs (00K).

4. Benefits of Planned Consolidation

NSWCPD has determined that the consolidation of the three (3) previously awarded Task Order requirements into a single combined action provides substantial benefits to the Government. These benefits are both tangible to the Government in terms of efficiency and quantifiable in terms of favorable cost impact. The expected benefits in terms of quality, schedule, workforce, acquisition cycle time, and cost are critical to the NSWCPD HM&E Boundary Defense Systems and HM&E Cybersecurity Engineering Branches support the development, modernization, acquisition and life cycle maintenance of Control Systems across all ship platforms. These benefits are as follows:

Quality and Schedule: Consolidating all activities associated with various Control Systems, computer program development, RMF Support, Cybersecurity, testing, equipment harvesting, and installation on both in-service and new-ship-construction into one SeaPort-NxG Task Order directly aligns with the NAVSEA and NSWCPD mission and will improve the quality of the end product. Consolidation will facilitate an increase in overall quality and timeliness of the a single Contractor to effectively integrate support services and adjust resources as necessary. Consolidation will also increase the quality and timeliness of services provided by having one (1) Task Order with standard terms and conditions, with one Program Manager responsible for performance. Such efficiencies promote consistency and compliance with NSWCPD quality control processes and procedures.

Furthermore, a Contractor executing the requirement under a single SeaPort Task Order encourages higher quality and consistent deliverables when compared to the potential of having multiple Contractors executing related requirements under separate contracts. A single Contractor, in concert with any Subcontractors, may be more invested in delivering higher quality support requirements. Further, consolidation encourages innovation with respect to integration across functional areas.

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

Ultimately, to solicit and award separate contracts or Task Orders for services that are very similar in scope is inefficient. This approach would lead to higher contract costs, slippage of milestones and schedules, and quality control redundancies. There would be duplicative actions such as quarterly program review support of Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) and Data Item Descriptions (DID) deliverables, and management of the CDRLs and DIDs. The consolidation of these requirements will also reduce overlap leading to overall improvement of the delivery and quality of services.

Consolidation of the engineering support will increase the quality and timeliness of services provided by having one (1) SeaPort Task Order and enabling standard terms and conditions.

Consolidation will increase the quality of the services provided by:

Having one (1) SeaPort Task Order with standardized terms and conditions;

Having a single Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO), Contract Specialist, Contracting performance; and Promoting consistency and accountability in the execution of the Statement of Work

(SOW).

Consolidation of the three (3) Task Order requirements ensures that program management, engineering, technical, and logistic support to U.S. Navy HM&E systems, including engineering and technical services required to support CVAST, SABER, and DevSecOps are managed under a single contract requirement. Such efficiencies promote consistency and compliance with CVAST, SABER and DevSecOps processes and procedures. Having these requirements managed under one (1) SeaPort Task Order will significantly improve the quality of the Control Systems Testing and Integration Engineering Services and Cybersecurity and Information Assurance and will substantially benefit mission execution of the fleet and warfighter.

Workforce Benefits: The consolidation of the efforts will enable the Contractor to provide a better and more efficient service by leveraging the technical capabilities of its workforce.

Consolidating the required effort under a single SeaPort solicitation would provide an overall increase in workforce stability and provide consistent workforce expectations across staff supporting the effort. One (1) enterprise contract requirement is more beneficial than multiple similar contracts requirements since there will be a specific point of contact for both the Government and Contractor.

Reduction in Acquisition Cycle Times: Duplication of processes and document requirements is a significant strain on acquisition productivity. The proposed consolidation drastically reduces the documentation required to acquire the services desired thereby reducing the technical, contractual, and administrative burden of conducting multiple simultaneous competitions. There is significant benefit in consolidating the Task Orders, as removal of duplicative acquisition steps

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

(e.g., acquisition planning, solicitation, evaluation, negotiations, etc.) will compress the acquisition cycle time by at least one (1) year from the alternative acquisition strategies. This estimate is based on the average time to conduct a best value, tradeoff source selection combined with the average manpower required to evaluate multiple proposals for each competition.

Consolidation reduces acquisition, Program Management, Contracts, and Legal manpower requirements. Consolidating these requirements creates efficiencies through the reduction of Government pre-award solicitation development and proposal evaluation, as well as post-award monitoring, administration, and closeout.

Cost Savings: Pursuing the proposed requirement consolidation would result in an estimated cost savings to the government over a five (5) year period, as outlined below.

a. Source Selection: Each competitive SeaPort-NxG Task Order is estimated to cost $ to award. Reducing the number of orders from three (3) to one (1) is expected to lead to a reduction of $ in source selection costs.

b. Contract Administration: As of 21 July 2025, there have been seventy (70) modifications issued under Task Order No. N6449820F3005, sixty-three (63) modifications issued under Task Order No. N6449820F3006, and sixty-four (64) modifications issued under Task Order No. N6449821F3003. Normalizing said data over a five (5) year task order period, results in a combined total estimate of 205 modifications or approximately 68 per task order.

o The elimination of two task orders would result in a total reduction in task order modifications of 136 (2 x 68). Assuming the cost to process a modification is $ , the associated reduction in administrative cost is $ .

o There would also be a reduction in additional support staff administration if the

Task Orders were consolidated. With three (3) Task Orders in place, there is duplication of efforts for the COR, Quality Assurance, Security, and Defense Contract Audit Agency support. It is estimated that consolidation would result in approximately $ in additional administrative cost savings.

c. Program Management: It is assumed each separate SeaPort Task Order would utilize at least one (1) full-time Program Manager II. Using the average estimated fully burdened labor rates for the next five (5) years for the Program Manager II ($ /hr.) at 1912 hour per year, there would be an additional cost savings to the Government of $ if two of the current three task orders were eliminated as a result of subject proposed consolidation.

As depicted above, favorable cost impacts are expected to be realized by consolidating these efforts, estimated in a total of $ in administrative costs over a five (5) year period.

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

Although these cost savings (approximately % of the total estimated value of the consolidated -2(d)(1)(i), they do represent a quantifiable benefit of the consolidated approach in addition to the substantial non-monetary benefits described above. Further, this consolidation strategy is considered to be participation by small business. The current three task order awards resulted in $ in task order awards to small business prime contractors (2 of 3 task orders). Due to the growth associated with the proposed consolidated procurement, and the fact that proposed consolidated effort will be competed as a SeaPort-NxG small business set-aside, the associated task order value to be awarded to a small business prime contractor is expected to increase to $ .

5. Alternate Acquisition Strategies

Prior to settling on the proposed acquisition strategy, NSWCPD considered an alternative contracting approach that would have involved a lesser degree of consolidation. The alternative approach considered was to maintain the status quo and continue issuing separate competitively awarded SeaPort Task Orders for the CVAST/SABER/DevSecOps support requirements. The previous task orders were solicited competitively and received multiple offers from Small Businesses for the CVAST and SABER requirements, as well as other than Small Business offers for the DevSecOps requirement. It is not practicable to continue to compete these efforts separately from each other. The execution of three (3) separate Task Orders presents overall cost inefficiencies and delays to the Government. Separate Government Furnished Property (GFP) tracking mechanisms for each Task Order. A single Task Order would allow for one team, consisting of a prime and Subcontractor(s), vice three teams under three separate Task Orders, to perform the work providing for a quicker turnaround at a lower cost for the administrative management of the subcontractor(s) and the GFP.

Additionally, competing each requirement separately would cause undue delays, while consolidation allows for unification of requirements and streamlining of acquisition and technical efforts. Utilizing average timelines to compete the requirements separately along with the manpower needed for each competition. The same Government personnel would be required to process each competition separately. Thus, the competitions would have to be staggered in a manner that would allow adequate time to support, delaying the timeline by approximately one year.

For the foregoing reasons, this consolidated approach is necessary and justified as the benefits to the Government through quality, schedule, workforce, acquisition cycle time, cost, and ultimately fleet readiness substantially exceed the benefits of the alternative acquisition approaches.

D&F No: 0222-25-033-00.1

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SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 2.101 and FAR 3.104

DETERMINATION

Based upon the foregoing findings, I hereby determine that the consolidation of requirements described in such findings is necessary and justified, pursuant to 15 U.S.C § 657q, as implemented in FAR 7.107-2 and NMCARS 5207.170-2.

Kristine R. Boyles Date Director of Contracts, SEA02