Redacted Exception to Fair Opp.pdf

CUI

Control No: JA-21-Adel-132

Contractor: Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA)

Supply/Service: AJEM Code Suite Support

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR PART 16 EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY JUSTIFICATION

For Actions Exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT)

Programs/Equipment: The United States (U.S.) Army Combat Capabilities Development

Command (DEVCOM), Data and Analysis Center (DAC), requires Advanced Joint Effectiveness

Model (AJEM) code suite software development support.

Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304c(b)(2) as implemented by FAR Part 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) – Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

Amount: REDACTED

Prepared by: Swati Jain DSN: REDACTED

Contract Specialist Date: 5 April 2021

Email: swati.jain2.civ@mail.mil

Contracting Officer: Joseph Dellinger DSN: REDACTED

Contracting Officer Date: 5 April 2021

Email: joseph.m.dellinger2.civ@mail.mil

Technical: REDACTED DSN: REDACTED

Operations Research Analyst Date: 5 April 2021

Email: REDACTED

Requirements: REDACTED DSN: REDACTED

Branch Chief Date: 5 April 2021

Email: REDACTED

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support limiting competition.

Controlled by: US Army

Controlled by: ACC-APG Adelphi

Division

CUI Category: General Procurement and

Acquisition

Distribution/Limited Dissemination

Control: FEDCON

POC: Joseph Dellinger REDACTED

Program Manager:

5/26/2021

X

Program Manager Signed by: BOMBOY.LOUISE.A.1275842636

CUI

CUI

Control No: JA-21-Adel-132

Contractor: Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA)

Supply/Service: AJEM Code Suite Support

Legal Counsel:

5/25/2021

X Rebecca Clark

Legal Counsel Signed by: CLARK.REBECCA.FRANTZ.1228895039

CUI

FAR Part 16 Exception to Fair Opportunity Justification

Under Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Contracts

For Actions Exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT)

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) – Aberdeen Proving Ground

(APG), Adelphi Contracting Division, 2800 Powder Mill Rd, Adelphi, MD 20783

2. Description of Action: The U.S. DEVCOM DAC requests a Firm Fixed Price – Level of

Effort (FFP-LOE) type of task order (TO) with Applied Research Associates (ARA), 4300 San

Mateo Blvd., NE STE A-220, Albuquerque, NM 87110-1295. The Government will execute this action against the General Services Administration (GSA) One Acquisition Solution for

Integrated Services (OASIS) Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (MA IDIQ) contract suite under NAICS 541330 Exception A (Pool 3). The Government projects award for

June 2021, and fiscal year 2021 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation funds will be used.

_X_ An acquisition plan is not required because this procurement either does not meet the threshold at Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 207.103(d)(i), or is an R&D acquisition and does not meet the definition of services in 10 U.S.C.

2330(c)(2).

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

This request is for a four (4) year and six (6) month TO in support of DEVCOM’s AJEM development. AJEM is used for conducting the ballistic analyses that are provided to materiel developers, system evaluators, and senior decision makers at the Departments of Army and

Defense (DoA and DoD). In addition, AJEM is the standard tri-service (Army, Air Force, and

Navy) SLV Survivability, Lethality, and Vulnerability spell out acronym here as this is the first instance used analysis code. Continued development and maintenance of this code suite is critical to DAC’s mission and that of our tri-service partners, specifically the Joint Technical

Coordinating Group for Munitions Effectiveness (JTCG/ME) and the Lethality and Weapons

Effectiveness Branch of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWC/DD). This contract provides software development expertise for the AJEM code suite. AJEM is a compilation of Army developed codes integrated into one (1) code suite comprised of Modular

Unix-based Vulnerability Estimation Suite (MUVES), Stochastic Analysis of Fragment Effects

(SAFE), Stochastic Quantitative Analysis of System Hierarchies (SQuASH), the Fast Air Target

Encounter PENetration (FATEPEN) module which are critical to the ballistic (SLV) analysis process that is the tri-service (Army, Air Force, Navy/Marines) standard. This standard is for predicting penetration of ballistic threats into material targets, specifically for the JTCG/ME and the Lethality and Weapons Effectiveness Branch of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren

Division (NSWC/DD). FATEPEN is an integral part of AJEM, which compiles and links to the code suite in order to compute fragment penetration of targets testing within AJEM for DAC’s research and development of the suite for Army systems. This new TO provides continuation of the efforts completed under TO W911QX16F0013 issued to ARA.

The estimated value of the proposed action is $11,386,486.21, inclusive of one (1) base year, three (3) one (1) year option periods, and a six (6) month Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

52.217-8 “Option to Extend Services” option. The firm requirement is for a one (1) year effort.

The exercise of option is the most advantageous method of fulfilling the Government’s need, price and other factors considered, while also mitigating risk. A new solicitation will fail to produce a better price or a more advantageous offer than that offered by the option. The estimate, derived by the calculation of an IGE which was formulated using previous contract cost data and includes labor categories, estimated hours, labor rates, and Other Direct Costs (ODC)/Travel, is as follows:

Base Period: 1 Jul 2021 to 30 Jun 2022 Value: REDACTED

Option Period 1: 1 Jul 2022 to 30 Jun 2023 Value: REDACTED

Option Period 2: 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2024 Value: REDACTED

Option Period 3: 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2025 Value: REDACTED

FAR 52.217-8 option (6 Months): 1 Jul 2025 to 31 Dec 2025 Value: REDACTED

Total: REDACTED

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 2304c(b)(2) as implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) – Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

The Government still has a need for software development expertise for the AJEM code suite.

The only Contractor available that can provide immediate continuation of services with no stoppage is the current Contractor, ARA. DAC is currently utilizing FATEPEN for testing that was started during the previous order W911QX16F0013 issued 30 June 2016 and which expires on 30 June 2021. Additionally, when AJEM is distributed, the FATEPEN executable code is included as it is necessary to do the fragment penetration piece of the analysis. It is not a separate piece of code and it can only be used within AJEM. ARA has a unique background, skillset, and familiarity with the hardware, software, and current laboratory facilities. Based on the aforementioned, it is in the Government’s best interest for this requirement to be issued to ARA in accordance with FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized” due to it being the only Contractor with the in depth knowledge and expertise of AJEM.

FATEPEN was developed by ARA and is copyrighted. The required services require in-depth knowledge of not only how FATEPEN works, but there is a need to know the systematic function along with knowing the rationale behind how FATEPEN was developed and what data was utilized (and why that data is appropriate) in the development of the model. Due to their efficient and effective model development derived from their background knowledge in code development, ARA is uniquely qualified to provide this knowledge to the Government as ARA provided extensive development of the code under the current TO, W911QX16F0013. Furthermore, AJEM is a large collection of algorithms, with which ARA has, under DAC guidance, assisted in the development of many state-of-the-art algorithms. Loss of that developmental expertise would present a high risk to many current efforts such as MUVES, SAFE, and SQuASH. There is a high risk of delaying the modernization program initiated under the current contract which would methodically re-architect and rewrite REDACTED worth of legacy code to take advantage of modern parallelization and vectorization techniques, providing significantly increased performance and visual analysis capabilities. It is expected that this will be attainable within a five (5) year period, and which is necessary to revise the modern codebase to be delivered in incremental steps. This will be the principal deliverable during the course of this TO.

DAC is the Army’s focal point for SLV analysis and expertise. It assists Product/Program

Managers (PMs) with the enhancement of the survivability/lethality of weapons and weapon platforms being developed, deployed, or improved. DAC also focuses on improving the survivability of soldiers using these systems. Results from SLV analyses for a spectrum of battlefield threats are provided to PMs, system evaluators, and decision makers at the DoA and

DoD. DAC conducts the necessary investigations, simulations, laboratory/field experiments, and analyses to quantify the SLV of combat, combat support, and combat service support systems when faced with these battlefield threats: ballistics, electronic warfare, information warfare, chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear contamination, and environment. Additionally, it develops and maintains conventional ballistics SLV analysis codes to handle the Army’s current and future SLV analysis needs. Among these SLV analysis code suites are AJEM, Operational

Requirements-based Casualty Assessment (ORCA), FATEPEN, MUVES Took Kit (MTK), and associated SLV tools that are required to work interactively with, or as a module of AJEM. Under the previous contract, ARA started the development and configuration of the AJEM code in order to have the FATEPEN system interactively work with AJEM. FATEPEN is the primary penetration sub model for AJEM, and its use is critical to DAC and the tri-service for SLV analyses. AJEM is the standard DoD lethality evaluation computer simulation and it is coded primarily in ANSI C in the UNIX programming environment, but also incorporates FORTRAN

95, C++, JAVA, and a variety of scripting interfaces and libraries, notably Tcl/Tk, X11, and

UNIX-based shell scripts. AJEM’s core code base is JAVA.

Currently, the next generation SLV suite is under development at DAC and it is intended to incorporate current and future capabilities associated with each of the above SLV code suites, which are all required to interact with AJEM.

The risk associated with adopting new outside contractors that do not know the inert operative functions of AJEM, given the five (5) years of Government investment with ARA, is high and would jeopardize and cause delays in DAC’s primary mission of SLV analysis. DAC is seeking out ARA to develop new methodologies required for meaningful analysis of emerging systems and improve efficiencies necessary to meet ongoing needs with limited resources. Acquiring another Contractor would also delay the required development approximately REDACTED years and cost the Government approximately REDACTED in duplicative cost. The time periods and costs were calculated by the Materiel Modeling and Simulation Branch Chief and are based on historical experience regarding the amount of funding and manpower required to date for similar programs. Use of a different contractor would also cause DAC to be unable to accomplish critical mission requirements on behalf of our tri-service analysis partners, which have a goal of standardizing the ballistic SLV analysis capabilities for all of the DoD partners, thus promoting continuity amongst the partners. ARA currently has the necessary trained personnel to fulfill the requirements on the first day of performance without any downtime and can pick up with development right where they left off. Should a lapse of time or service gap occur, DAC will not be able to complete their technical programs or provide deliverables that other organizations are awaiting in order to complete the tri-service programs.

6. Actions to Increase Competition: In accordance with FAR 5.202(a)(11) – The proposed contract action will not be synopsized. As required by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D) the notice and justification will be published within 14 days after placing the order.

Based upon the information provided in section 5 above, competition for this action is not feasible as no other source is capable of providing seamless support for AJEM and access to FATEPEN source code. In the Limited Sources Justification (LSJ) for W911QX16F0013, dated 8 August

2016, it was mentioned that as FATEPEN matures, other contractors may be able to gain the detailed and in-depth knowledge of FATEPEN. Unfortunately, due to an administrative oversight, the aforementioned was not correct. FATEPEN source code is not available for release as agreed in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), dated 16 August 2012, which states that FATEPEN was developed for NSWC/DD by ARA, and is copyrighted by ARA. At this time, no other vendor is capable of meeting the technical requirements of this effort.

Subcontracting Competition: Subcontracting competition will be achieved by ARA by utilizing their existing DCAA approved processes for handling all subcontracting processes to ensure fair and open subcontracting. To date, ARA has proven to be able to find cost-effective subcontracting partners without any biases towards any specific companies. They have empowered nearly 20 different subcontractors to date with an emphasis on required skills at reasonable prices. ARA does not add any new subcontractors without reviewing them with the

Government in advance.

Any future service contract requests will include new market research surveying the marketplace to determine the capabilities of other vendors for the services required. If any other vendor is determined to be capable of performing the Government’s minimum requirements, the

Government will appropriately provide fair opportunity. As the AJEM programs move forward in an effort to ensure fair and open competition, the Government plans to use both the formal

Request for Information (RFI) and market research processes to ensure that any other potential vendors are able to understand the Government requirements and potential future bids. In addition, the Government will make available any Government owned data and other intellectual property by providing AJEM suite source code except FATEPEN to any who ask and encourage others to develop inside the AJEM paradigm and give back developed code for inclusion in future releases. This will allow the Government to pursue the same or similar requirements overcoming competitive barriers.

7. Market Research: Market research was conducted between October 2020 to April 2021 by

REDACTED, Operations Research Analyst, with 15 plus years of experience within the

DEVCOM/DAC. Market research included querying Government-wide databases (available at https://www.contractdirectory.gov/contractdirectory/) for similar efforts, searching on the General

Supply Schedule (GSA) website, Internet searches, and contacting knowledgeable subject matter experts (SMEs) within Government and industry.

Market research efforts concluded that no other vendor exists within the marketplace that is capable of meeting the Government’s requirements. Loss of that developmental expertise would present a high risk to testing efforts being conducted for the tri-service community. At this time, no other entities could reasonably replace ARA’s intimate, proprietary knowledge and experience, and any attempt at doing so would cost the Government an exorbitant amount of both time and funding.

8. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History

Contract: W911QX16F0013

Contractor: Applied Research Associates (ARA)

Award Date: 1 Jul 2016

Period of Performance: 1 Jul 2016 – 30 Jun 2021

Contract Type: Firm Fixed Price - Level of Effort

Dollar Value: REDACTED

Competitive Status: Sole Source

Authority: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C). In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order provided that the original order was placed in accordance with applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures.

The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limitedsources procedures.

b. Other

The previous award, W911QX16F0013, was awarded on a sole source basis via the authority listed above as a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order. During the course of this TO, ARA, Inc., the incumbent, acquired an in-depth knowledge of AJEM, FATEPEN, and the other modules listed above as they assisted Government personnel in the development and extension of AJEM. There are no other companies that currently have the required expertise developed by the incumbent over the course of the current TO or the access required to FATEPEN.

9. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signer’s Title: Contracting Officer’s Representative

X Penny T. Willard

Technical Certifier (Tech) Signed by: WILLARD.PENNY.T.1282391488

10. Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signer’s Title: Program Manager

X

Requirements Certifier Signed by: BOMBOY.LOUISE.A.1275842636

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. In accordance with

FAR 15.403, certified cost or price data will be required.

This determination will be made using the following:

__ Cost analysis

_X_ Price analysis

__ Should-cost

_X_ IGE

__ Audit:

__ Other:

As a part of this basis, certified cost or pricing data:

_X_ Will be required.

__ Will not be required and the following exception applies (FAR 15.403):

__ Prices that will be agreed upon are based on adequate price competition.

__ Prices that were established during the original competition that are not subject to negotiation.

__ Prices that will be agreed upon are based on prices set by law or regulation.

__ A commercial item is being acquired.

__ A waiver has been granted by the head of the contracting activity (HCA) in accordance with

DFARS PGI 215.403-1.

__ The contract action is a modification to a contract or subcontract for commercial item(s). __

The estimated cost of the contract action is less than the threshold for certified cost or pricing data.

X Joseph Dellinger

Contracting Officer (KO) Signed by: DELLINGER.JOSEPH.M.1456820650

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

REVIEWS

X Allison Murray

Branch Chief Signed by: MURRAY.ALLISON.SCATES.1472104477

X Fatimata Diallo

Chief of the Contracting Office (COCO) Signed by: DIALLO.FATIMATA.1403809434

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of Advanced Joint

Effectiveness Model (AJEM) code suite software development support in the amount of

$11,386,486.21 under 10 U.S.C. 2304c(b)(2) as implemented by FAR Part 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services or supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

X

Special Advocate for Competition (SAC)