Redacted JA Tether_redacted_Redacted.pdf

Control Number: ARC-J&A24-1639

Justification Review Document For

Other than Full and Open Competition - FAR Part 6

Program/Equipment: Product Manager (PdM) Air Warrior (AW) requests approval to award a new Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Firm- Fixed-Price (FFP) contract on an other than full and open competition basis to Survival Innovations, LLC, 49 South Country Lane, Mills River, NC 28759-4600, CAGE Code: 3SRG4. This award will procure quick release tether variants in support of US Army requirements.

Authority: 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3204(a)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A) - Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

Amount: Total Value: Minimum:

Prepared by:

Name: DSN Title: General Engineer Date: 15 Nov 2023 E-mail: l

Procuring Contract Officer:

Name:

Title: Contracting Officer Date: ------------- E-mail: j

Technical Representative

DSN

Title: Technical Chief, PM AW Date: ------------- E-mail:

Requirements Representative:

Name:

Title: Assistant Product Manager Date: ------------ E-mail:

DSN:

Signature: Date:

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION FOR THE AIR SOLDIER

SYSTEM TETHER FULL RATE PRODUCTION CONTRACT

1. Contracting Agency: Department of the Army Contracting Command- Redstone Arsenal (ACC-RSA), CCAM-ARC, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama 35898-5280.

2. Description of Action: The Product Manager, Air Warrior (PdM AW) requests approval to award a new five-year (60-Month) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract on an other-than full and open competition basis, to Survival Innovations LLC, 59 South Country Lane, Mills River, NC 28759-4600, CAGE Code: 3SRG4. This anticipated contract, estimated at a total value of , with initial obligations minimally estimated at will provide the ability to award additional tasks during the remaining Ordering Periods available on the contract. PdM AW will utilize FFP Contract Line-Item Numbers (CLINs) for each individual task or delivery order issued under the IDIQ contract for the predominant procurement of supply requirements. The Government projects award for 4th Quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. The PdM AW will use Aircraft Procurement, Army (APA), Other Procurement, Army (OPA), Operations and Maintenance, Army (OMA), and Foreign Military Sales (FMS), as well as funding from the Air Force and Navy.

The anticipated period of performance for this action is date of Award 2024 for 60-Months through 2029.

3. Description of Services and Supplies: This requirement is for the procurement of the Crew Specific Kit, part number 1005850-1-2, and the Personal Restraint Tether, Attenuating, short and long, part numbers 10181553-1-1 (short) and 10181553-1-3 (long). The primary purpose serves as a cabin restraint in the event of unexpected aircraft motion causing aft crew unintended exit. The attenuation tethers are designed to reduce the falling stress on the harness lowering injury from sudden motion stop. The estimated values by ordering period are:

Quantities Ordering Period 1

Ordering Period 2

Ordering Period 3

Ordering Period 4

Ordering Period 5 Total

Crew Specific Parts 1005850-1-2 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 12,000

Personal Restraint Tether, Attenuating Short (five feet long) 10181553-1-1

1,600

8,000

Personal Restraint Tether, Attenuating Long (ten feet long) 10181553-1-3

4,000

Table 1. Estimated Quantities by Ordering Period

Table 2. Estimated :Values by Ordering Period*

• Assumes 3% inflation per year.

4. Authority Cited: The authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: The proposed source for this planned contract action is Survival Innovations LLC, 59 South Country Lane, Mills River, NC 28759-4600, CAGE Code: 3SRG4. Survival Innovations is the original designer and prime manufacturer of the fully qualified tethers. Safety tethers with shock attenuation and quick release hooks are commonly available to the roofing and construction industries with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) qualification. Indeed, many of the purchase description requirements are derived from the same American National Standards Institute standards used by OSHA. Unfortunately, the OSHA standard drop requirement is 3 feet while aircraft cabin mobility requirements have a 10-foot-long tether. OSHA fall arrest requirements are targeting 95th percentile male users with a worn safety harness which would have a top falling load of 250 pounds or less. When wearing a combat best with body armor, pistol, survival radio, etc., a 95th percentile male aft crew member can easily exceed 300 pounds, far over what standard off the shelf fall arrest tethers for the construction industry are designed to withstand. When aircrew fall out of an aircraft cabin door, the tether must withstand the additional stress of airflow buffeting the user while the pilot finds a place to land. Furthermore, the tethers must be flame-retardant, which is not standard to construction equipment safety tethers. For these reasons, Survival Innovations is the only qualified source. No other solutions exist that satisfy these requirements, and any future solutions would require additional development, testing and qualification before being considered a suitable replacement. Survival Innovations Company owns the proprietary technical data for the tether, and no other contractor has access to their proprietary data.

Significant Army investment has already been made in the current Survival Innovations Tether. The total Army investment on the current and preceding Survival Innovations contracts alone totals approximately $450K and does not include the additional investments made in platform integration, testing, and evaluation. Another consideration with developing an alternate source is the time involved with the development and qualification of comparable capability, which would not support current fielding schedules for the Aircrew Combat Equipment (ACE) :Vest. The effort to qualify a comparable capability with an alternate source would take at least 12 to 24 months at an estimated cost of approximately $500K. Activities would include build of hardware prototypes and completion of qualification testing. Current program funding levels and schedule do not support the development and qualification of an alternate source without being able to leverage the Army's prior investments in the Tether program.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

a. Effective Competition. The tether was initially awarded through a full and open competition under prime contract FA8075-14-D-0025, delivery order FA807517F1418 dated 6 June 2017. A Sources Sought/Request for Information for this Tether requirement was issued on 2 June 2023 and closed on 23 June 2023. The incumbent, Survival Innovations Company, responded to the RFI with a fully qualified solution that meets all requirements and is ready for immediate production. Another company, Expert Brand provided an email with no supporting documentation on how they would meet the Government's requirement. As required by FAR 5.201, the Government continues to survey the market to ascertain whether other sources and technical alternatives can be developed to increase competition. The Contracting Officer shall publish the notices required by FAR 5.201 no later than April 2024 and any bids or proposals received shall be considered. However, due to the reasons stated in paragraph 5, competition is not anticipated.

b. Subcontracting Competition. The contract will include applicable FAR provisions ensuring competition in subcontracting, including FAR 52.244-5, "Competition in Subcontracting," FAR 52.219-8, "Utilization of Small Business Concerns," and DFARS 252.219-7004, "Small Business Sub- Contracting Plan Test Program".

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government continuously reviews engineering and hardware requirements to identify potential candidates for breakout for any follow-on requirements. However, due to the critical interfaces and functional requirements associated with maintaining interoperability and compatibility with the aircraft tie down rings, hoist hook and survival vest D- Ring attachment, the Survival Innovations Tether would be costly to reverse engineer and requalify. The US Government does not own the data rights to the Tether hardware. The US Government requested Survival Innovations provide a rough order of magnitude for the sale of its intellectual property rights in the Tether. Survival Innovations informed the US Government that Survival Innovations would be willing to consider selling the data rights at a starting price of . This would not be cost effective for the US Government because we would have to realize a future savings of 25 percent of the current estimated breaking even in five years. Unique knowledge of the interfaces between fielded systems and the lack of technical documentation owned by the Government for currently fielded systems makes Survival Innovations the only source capable of satisfying the Government's immediate requirements under this contract.

8. Market Research: Air Warrior conducted market research in accordance with FAR 10.002 within the last 12 months. The Market Research Report/Commerciality Determination (MRR/CD) was approved on 4 September 2023. As previously discussed, the Tether is not a commercial product. FAR Part 12 will not be used in this acquisition. The market research techniques used consisted of discussing the proprietary nature of the hardware and processes used in manufacturing the Tether with knowledgeable persons in the industry; personal experience; review of source lists for identical or similar items obtained from Government, professional, and/or industry sources; internet searches to review catalogs and/or generally available product literature, and discussions with knowledgeable persons in Government who are familiar with the proprietary nature of Survival Innovations' product. Survival Innovations has made significant investment in the Tether to provide a product suitable for the AW application, no one other than Survival Innovations can satisfy this requirement.

9. Interested Sources: In accordance with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205.205-71, DFARS 206.302-1(d), and DFARS Procedures, Guidance, and Information (PGI) 206.302-1(d), a request for information was posted to Sam.gov on 2 June 2023 and two companies responded. The incumbent, Survival Innovations Company, responded to the RFI with a fully qualified solution that meets all requirements and is ready for immediate production. The second company, Casual Performance Inc., doing business as (dba) Expert Brand provided an email with no supporting documentation on how they would meet the Government's requirement.

Survival Innovations is the original designer and prime manufacture of the fully qualified tether. Due to Survival Innovations' significant Tether experience, proprietary design rights, and existing Tether production facilities, Survival Innovations is the only source capable of providing this requirement in a timely and affordable manner.

a. On 2 June 2023, ACC-RSA, at the request of the AW PM, issued a

Sources Sought/Request for Information (SS/RFI) for market research.

(1) Respondents:

(a) Casual Performance Inc. dba Expert Brand 4309 Exchange Ave. :Vernon, CA 90058

(b) Survival Innovations Company, 6125 East 21S1Street, Indianapolis, IN 46219

(2) Expert Brand responded with no identified solution, only that they could build one if provided drawings. PM Air Warrior requires a vendor that can immediately deliver this capability with no additional time or research and development efforts. Since the Government does not own the drawings, we cannot provide the technical data package to Expert Brand. Survival Innovations responded with a fully qualified technology readiness level 9 solution that meets all requirements and is ready for production.

b. The primary barrier to pursuing the qualification of an alternate source is the significant Army investment that has already been made in the current Survival Innovations Tether and the cost and schedule required to approve an alternate source. The total Army investment on the current and preceding Survival Innovations contracts alone totals approximately and does not include the additional investments made in platform integration, testing, and evaluation. Another consideration with developing an alternate source is the time involved with the development and qualification of comparable capability, which would not support current fielding schedules for the Aircrew Combat Equipment (ACE) :Vest. The effort to qualify a comparable capability with an alternate source would take at least 12 to 24 months at an estimated cost of approximately . Activities would include build of hardware prototypes and completion of qualification testing. During this timeframe the Government would be unable to support the migration from the unique hardware solution previously implemented to interface with the ACE vest. Current program funding levels and schedule do not support the development and qualification of an alternate source without being able to leverage the Army's prior investments in the Tether program.

10. Other Facts: Other factors supporting the use of other than full and open completion are as follows:

a. Procurement History:

(1) Contract- FA8075-14-D-0025, delivery order FA8075-17-F-1418

Date of Award - 6 June 2017

Contractor - Wyle Laboratories dba KBR (formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root), 345 Bob Heath Dr., Huntsville, AL 35806 Survival Innovations was the subcontractor for KBR and was the actual manufacturer of the Tether.

Quantities - 160 each, limited procurement, Dollar :Value of contract:

$430,608 Tether was awarded to Survival Innovations by KBR on a sole source basis.

b. Other facts. Not applicable.

11.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.

Date: ______________________ _

Technical Chief, PM AW

12.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.

Date: ______________________

APM – Air Soldier System, PM AW

13.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. The basis for this determination will be cost analysis, price analysis, independent Government cost estimate, audit, and technical evaluation IAW FAR 15.403-4, certified cost and pricing data is required and will be obtained. The Defense Contract Audit Agency shall perform an on-site audit and provide a Final Audit Report, to be utilized by Technical and Pricing experts to develop and negotiate fair and reasonable pricing. In addition, the previous contract may be used in determining fair and reasonable cost or price.

Contracting Officer

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

Contracting Officer

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of a five (5) year contract for the Tether valued at $ on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1 ), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the supply requirements herein described have otherwise been authorized for this acquisition.

Date:

Senior Contracting Official (SCO) Joseph A. Giunta, Jr.

APPROVAL