Part 6 JA NIDS4 JA Signed all printed Redacted.pdf

Department of the Air Force: Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition

CUI

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APPROVALS ( RFO 6.104-2(a) Table 6-1 & R-DFARS 206.104-72 Table 206.1)

See J&A Template Guidance (https://usaf.dps.mil/sites/AFCC/AQCP/KnowledgeCenter/SitePages/DAF-Contracting-Compass/ Part-6---Competition-Requirements.aspx#exceptions-to-full-and-open-competition-mandatory) - Justification Approvals tab

NOTE 1: A signature block will appear here (replacing these notes) based on the "Dollar Value of this Acquisition" selected above. Since most digital signatures that include date/time-stamps are redacted before they are made publicly available, always insert the date in the “Date” cell when affixing a digital signature to this document.

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I. Agency and Contracting Activity (RFO 6.104-1(a)(1)):

Agency: AFMC Contracting Activity: AFNWC/PZU

II. Nature and/or description of the action being approved (RFO 6.104-1(a)(2)):

This document approves the award of a modification to Task Order FA873022F8506 to extend the period of performance and increase the overall ceiling price on a sole source basis to Peraton, Inc. The National Desired Ground Zero (DGZ) List Integrated Development System 4 (NIDS 4) contract supports the maintenance and sustainment of two legacy NIDS applications N3 and Early Plan Design (EPD), as well as developing their replacement applications, Strategic Nuclear Aimpoint Planning System (SNAPS) and EPD v2 (EPD2), respectively. The users of these applications are from USSTRATCOM Strategic Nuclear Targeting Section (J5311) and the War Plan Analysis Branch (J591). This justification is made on Individual basis.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs (RFO 6.104-1(a)(3)):

The requested extension and ceiling increase allows for continued maintenance and sustainment activities, ongoing software development activities, ongoing on-site support requirements, and integration efforts to the new Strategic Mission Planning and Execution System (SMPES) environment. This extension will allow for the following technical in-scope efforts:

1. $4M (estimated) for maintenance and sustainment activities and on-site support. Primarily, the Government will use these resources to maintain, deploy, and support the NIDS software. This includes Contractor Development Test and Evaluation (CDT&E) in which the Contractor is required to conduct functional, validation and verification, performance, security, and interoperability testing in a Government environment prior to Government Development Test and Evaluation (GDT&E).

2. $4.6M (estimated) to complete the development of SNAPS and EPD2, allowing their legacy predecessor applications to be sunset prior to the NIDS 4 contract end date, and to accommodate Strategic Mission Planning and Execution System (SMPES) requirements. This allows continued support to ongoing software development efforts in support of the USSTRATCOM's nuclear mission. Some of the SMPES efforts include but are not limited to code refactoring, mission model updates, and preparing the planning space for next generation weapon systems.

This justification is for a Time and Materials 12-month extension to the current task order and an increase in ceiling price, currently estimated to be $8,909,600.00.

IV. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(4)):

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

V. Rationale for Use of Authority (RFO 6.104-1(a)(5)):

10 U.S.C. § 3204(b)(B)(ii) and RFO 6.103-1(c)(2)(ii) provide that in the case of follow-on contracts for the provision of highly specialized services, services may be deemed to be available only from the original source when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. For the currently-known requirements of the NIDS program, ANY contract transition prior to June 2028 is highly likely to result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling USAF nuclear modernization requirements due to inclusion of legacy code and application support requirements and the difficulties associated with transition of said requirements prior to scheduled sunset and required side-by-side testing following Initial Operational Capability (IOC).

Program Background: The Integrated Strategic Planning and Analysis Network (ISPAN) is a system of systems that provides planning capabilities to United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) in support of their Unified Command Plan (UCP)

March 2026 Page 4 of 5March 2026 Page 4 of 5 responsibilities for strategic deterrence and global strike. ISPAN is the United States only nuclear planning system and is comprised of two major subsystems, the Mission Planning and Analysis System (MPAS) and the Global Adaptive Planning Collaborative Information Environment (GAPCIE).

MPAS is the nation's only comprehensive system for developing “Level 4” nuclear plans and options for the President of the United States Nuclear Decision Handbook and Fielded Nuclear Forces in support of Operations Plan 80XX. AFNWC/NCC is the designated Program Management Office (PMO) for the ISPAN MPAS Branch and as such is responsible for all management actions associated with this contract. The Procuring Contracting Office is AFNWC/PZU, which is responsible for overall contract management. The primary users of NIDS 4 applications are USSTRATCOM J53 and J59 personnel; USSTRATCOM J56 sponsors MPAS components. The primary operating location is USSTRATCOM, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

ISPAN is currently undergoing a concerted transition to the Strategic Mission Planning and Execution System (SMPES). The USSTRATCOM Commander's Objective for SMPES is to transition from narrowly defined mission solutions into enterprise solutions that are better suited to advance the overarching NC3 architecture objectives. SMPES will be transitioning the MPAS, GAPCIE, and Decision Support Service (DSS) away from separate programs and combining them into a coherent enterprise that enables the warfighter to go faster and take advantage of best-in-class solutions. The goal is to provide ubiquitous access to all mission data produced, wherever it exists, enabling quick access to information for new analyses, and access to alternate authoritative sources with little to no change to applications.

The NIDS 4 contribution to SMPES are two brand new applications (Strategic Nuclear Aimpoint Planning System (SNAPS) and Early Plan Design 2 (EPD2) that are replacing their legacy counterparts N3 and EPD, respectively. The development effort for these new applications began in January 2023, and involves the complete refactoring of algorithms written over 30 years prior in outdated languages (Ada, Fortran 77, etc.), along with a new user interface that will be fully compatible with the new SMPES architecture. It has already been determined that the legacy NIDS applications are incompatible with SMPES and therefore will be sunset as soon as their replacements are completed, tested, accepted by the users and deployed into production. The timeline for EPD2 to make it into production is currently scheduled for April 2027, however the schedule for SNAPS completion is December 2027; nearly 5 years after development began.

In each case, the sunsetting of the legacy application would take a minimum of three months side-by-side testing following IOC to ensure the new applications satisfy their respective requirements and are accepted by USSTRATCOM J56. With a current contract end date of 30 June 2027, and a possible transition to a non-incumbent commencing as early as 1 April 2027 without this extension, having a contract transition immediately prior to final delivery and government testing presents an unacceptable risk to the schedule. The outcome would likely be up to a year of delays in successfully fielding SNAPS along with sunsetting their legacy predecessors, if a non-incumbent contractor were selected for the NIDS 4 contract successor.

Additionally the SMPES planning system IPTs have been told to be ready for transition and deployment of their applications to the new SMPES platforms starting in 2027 and therefore any delays would further postpone delivering the new SMPES planning systems to USSTRATCOM well into 2028 or beyond. This extension maintains current schedule viability, enabling up to six months of side-by-side testing following IOC for SNAPS.

VI. Integrated Market Analysis and Efforts to Solicit Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(6), (8), and (10)):

The primary barrier to competition for a short-term continuity effort is this deeply entrenched domain knowledge associated with supporting and sunsetting legacy code and applications, which creates unacceptable transition risk. The Government is leveraging previous and ongoing market research efforts rather than issuing a new, redundant Request for Information (RFI) for this short-term requirement. The contracting division has formally surveyed the market for commercial agile software development services three times in the past 17 months.

Market research has been conducted on an ongoing basis to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the current market landscape. The market was most recently analyzed as part of ongoing and regular contract recompetes, specifically in November 2024 for the Data Fusion & Visualization (DFV, FA2217-26-F-B001), March 2025 for the Ballistic Missile and Analysis Service (BMAS, FA2217-26-F-B005), and February 2026 for the National Leadership Command Capability Decision Support Service (NLCC DSS, FA2217-26-R-0001).

These previous market surveys required vendors to provide evidence of their capabilities, with a specific focus on security

March 2026 Page 5 of 5March 2026 Page 5 of 5 clearances, personnel reach-back capability, and domain experience with NC3 programs. The results of these market surveys provide a current and defensible understanding of the market. All three market surveys conducted over the past 17 months have resulted in largely the same major contractors that are capable and interested in the NC3 portfolio of agile software development contracts.

No sources expressed interest in this specific requirement because no market survey was published. Based on all available market intelligence and the inherent technical requirement for continuity, any source other than the incumbent would require a significant transition period to acquire the necessary domain knowledge, leading to unacceptable schedule delays.

Therefore, the market analysis confirms that only one source, the incumbent contractor, can meet the Government's minimum requirement to ensure continuity of services for the current NIDS program for an additional 12-month extension without experiencing unacceptable schedule delays, which would lead to further increased mission risk and cost impacts.

VII. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost (RFO 6.104-1(a)(7)):

The Contracting Officer is responsible for evaluating, determining, and documenting the anticipated contract cost/price is fair and reasonable in accordance with RFO Subpart 15.4, Contract Pricing.

VIII. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification (RFO 6.104-1(a)(9)):

N/A

IX. Actions to Overcome Barriers to Competition (RFO 6.104-1(a)(11):

After the extension period and sunsetting of legacy requirements, the Government intends to competitively award a follow-on contract for the NIDS successor, Strategic Targeting Aimpoint Construction Services (STACS). As previously stated, the Government has all IP rights necessary to facilitate a future competition.

Additional focus will be applied during the extension period to segmenting the legacy requirements in addition to sunsetting. Should sunsetting not occur prior to expiration of the contract, the Government still intends to compete a follow-on for STACS absent the legacy requirements of NIDS which which will require a separate acquisition.