Redacted JandA_22R0012.pdf

CUI

Contractor: Advanced Innovative Engineering Supply/Service: Heavy Fuel Engine Design and Development

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR PART 6 JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN

FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Programs/Equipment: Heavy Fuel Wankel Rotary Engine Design and Development

Authority: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) as implemented by FAR Part 6.302-1 -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

Amount:

Prepared by:

Contracting Officer:

Technical:

Requirements:

Controlled by: Department of the Army Controlled by:

CUI Category: General Procurement and Acquisition Distribution/Dissemination Control: Distribution Statement C

FAR Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Contracting Activity: Adelphi Contracting Division, Army Contracting Command- Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG), 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland, 20783-1138

2. Description of Action: The requests a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) C-type of contract with Advanced Innovative Engineering (AIE) (UK) Ltd located at Unit 2, Ringway Industrial Estate, Eastern Avenue, Lichfield, WS13 7SF, United Kingdom (NCAGE:

U1W20) for the procurement of two (2) AIE 225CS-026 Heavy Fuel Engines and the Design and Development of one (1) Novel Heavy Fuel Wankel Rotary Engine

✓ 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:

The requires heavy-fuel (i.e., jet fuels) wankel rotary engines in support of the

Given the intended design and operational requirements, the engine must meet the following minimum requirements:

Overall system weight: <20 pounds (lbs) max engine mass Power: 25 horsepower (hp) up to 20,000 feet (ft) Overall efficiency: <0.4 pound per horsepower-hour (lb/hph) Fuel types: Heavy Fuel - Kerosene Spark Plug Lifetime: 100+ Hours if spark plug is used

The requires two (2) baseline engines (225CS engines) and the development of three (3) novel lightweight compact heavy-fuel rotary engine with an integrated compact turbocharger and a compact lightweight heavy fuel system.

Furthermore, the reliability concerns of the aforementioned components negatively impact Readiness and add Operation & Sustainment (O&S) cost which cannot be accurately estimated since there is so much variability in results when forecasting losses from lack of sustainment. Thus, it is critical for the Army to utilize a new engine that is reliably designed for military aircraft applications.

AIE Ltd has developed a wankel rotary engine that is the only engine capable of meeting the Government’s minimum requirements. AIE also retains the patents for these technologies; therefore, no other company is able to manufacture a similar engine. AIE’s patented Self-Pressurizing-Air Rotor Cooling System (SPARCS) provides optimized thermal management that leads to longer endurance and zero (0) oil loss for increased performance. AIE’s dual spring apex seal system improves the engine performance and fuel consumption. AIE’s dual spark system provides sufficient ignition energy to prevent premature spark plug fouling and ignite a wide range of fuels, providing for a minimum 150 hour spark lifetime with respect to the current Army requirement of 50 hours

Lastly, the engine’s higher compression ratio (9.6:1 vs. 7:1) with optimized ignition energy allows multi-fuel operation from gasoline to heavy fuels (i.e. jet fuels). Due to AIE’s patented design, no other source can provide an engine that runs on heavy fuels with a spark plug lifetime that meets the Army’s requirement of a minimum of 50 hours. AIE’s baseline engine, however, has to be modified for military applications.

These modifications to the baseline engine are required to be completed by AIE Ltd since they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The two (2) baseline engines will be tested at ARL to better understand the baseline capabilities. Two (2) engines are necessary as there is a chance that one may fail during testing. One (1) or two (2) of the three (3) novel engines will be assessed at the ARL lab, and the other one

(1) or two (2) will be used in an aircraft for flight demonstration.

The Government identified four (4) vendors that have developed or are developing small compact heavy-fueled rotary engines. The first two (2), are the current engine supplier to the .

The were originally procured through Army Contract Number

Furthermore, these engines run only on aviation gasoline for which the Army needs to move away from in order to reduce the logistics burden on military personnel. As a result, The third company, , has a concept to burn jet fuels in a rotary-type engine

. Burning of jet fuels in compression ignition requires a compression ratio of at least 15:1 at sea level. For unmanned systems, the compression ratio should be higher for reliable ignition at altitudes at which the air density is a lot lower than at sea level if another ignition assistant device is not used. However, the engine experiences significant coking issues at mid-to-high load conditions. Heavy fuels such as jet fuels are “coked” on the surfaces at higher temperatures, and this limits the operation of engine at the load conditions that are critical for the unmanned aircraft systems (take-off, cruise and hover conditions). The Air Force Research Laboratory had multiple Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects over the last 10+ years to convert the to run on jet fuels without success as severe ignition problems were experienced. As a result, the Government determined that the engine design by Liquid Piston does not meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

If the Government does not procure the requested engines from AIE Ltd, the Government would be required to develop its’ own technology to solve the technical constraints mentioned above. The cost of this development equates to about and over of lead-time based on what AIE’s investment was to develop the SPARCS technology; of lead-time to solve the thermal management problems based on the development investment; and of lead-time to solve the heavy-fuel ignition problems based on the investment. This totals to over in development cost and over of lead time for the Government to develop a novel engine that would meet the requirement. The Army is relying on the success of the program in order to modernize aircraft systems by 2026. Without this contract, Army requirements for modernized engines will not be met, leading to mission failure for the program. Due to the aforementioned risks and since the technologies are AIE’s proprietary technologies, the Government determines this sole source contract to AIE Ltd is necessary and reasonable.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The Contracting Officer shall publish the notices required by FAR 5.201 and any responses received shall be considered. The contracting office published a Synopsis and a Request For Information (RFI) to SAM.gov on 09 June 2022 as required by FAR 5.201, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 205-205.71 and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 206.302-1(d). This Synopsis and RFI, notifying the commercial marketplace of the Government’s intent to solicit and negotiate with Advanced Innovative Engineering (UK) Ltd, closed on 23 June 2022. To date, no other sources have written to express an interest.

In an effort to obtain competition, the following websites were used to search for potential sources: UNICOR, Ability One, One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS), and GSA. This also included discussions held with knowledgeable individuals that are subject matter experts within Government, conducting interchange meetings and holding presolicitation conferences to involve potential offerors early in the acquisition process. Despite these actions, the Government was unable to identify any other sources with the required capabilities to enable the utilization of competition for this effort.

a. Effective Competition: Neither limited nor full and open is expected for this specific action due to the proprietary nature of the requirement and the proposed Contractor is the OEM.

b. Subcontracting Competition: The proposed vendor is a foreign owned business where the performance under this contract will occur in Lichfield, United Kingdom and is therefore exempt from the requirement for subcontracts IAW FAR 19.702(b)(3).

7. Actions to Increase Competition: As mentioned above, AIE is uniquely capable of addressing the engine problems experienced by the Army’s UAS program due to their patented technology. Since the novel engines will utilize AIE’s 225CS-026 Heavy Fuel Engine as a baseline, which was developed independently over the course of and cost approximately in private investment, the Government-funded design (i.e., the integration of other commercial-off-the-shelf components with the AIE proprietary engine) would not be readily segregable from the AIE original patented design. Therefore, the Government could not manufacture the engines on its own or provide the design to other Contractors for production, making a Technical Data Package (TDP) not feasible to obtain. Separately, the integral design associated with the development of the modified version of the engines, specifically the three (3) Novel Heavy Fuel Wankel Rotary Engines, will be owned by the Government since Government funding is utilized for development of that design. However, it is anticipated that the Government will continue to require the base model of the engine in order for Government requirements to be met. Since the base model is a design that is proprietary to AIE Ltd, future requirements for the modified version of the base engine are anticipated to be sole sourced to AIE Ltd. In order to mitigate the risk of continued sole sources in the future, the Government will re-analyze available engines in the industry via market research to determine if another base model design can meet the Government’s requirements. At this time, there are currently no other companies that can meet the Government requirements for these engines and there are no authorized resellers for AIE’s engines.

ARL will continue to search the marketplace by attending conferences and exhibitions, reviewing trade journals, performing internet searches, and holding open discussions with industry experts to determine the viability of other sources – including that of potential authorized resellers – as a means to increase competition.

8. Market Research: Market research and evaluation was conducted between October 2021 and February 2022 by Technical Point of Contact One (TPOC 1), Program Manager, and Technical Point of Contact Two (TPOC 2), Deputy Program Manager. TPOC 1 has more than 25 years of experience in the field of engine technologies and approximately 12 years specifically in rotary engine technologies and TPOC 2 has more than 14 years of experience in the field of ignition and combustion.

The Government performed extensive market research since October 2021, to identify novel rotary engine technologies that have a potential for use in the . This effort was triggered by the enduring challenge The primary avenues of market research included performing internet searches, conference and journal paper searches, hosting pre-solicitation meetings, communications with experts in academia, industry and other government agencies via phone calls and emails around the world to identify novel ignition technologies that can be used for a small compact multi-fuel engine. During market research, the Government corresponded with the following prospective contractors:

Advanced Innovative Engineering Ltd (UK) (https://www.aieuk.com/) (visited for onsite meeting)

Liquid Piston (https://www.liquidpiston.com/) (visited for onsite meeting) Textron Systems AAI (https://www.textronsystems.com/our-company) (visited for onsite meeting) UAV Engines Ltd (https://uavenginesltd.co.uk/products/)

As a result of market research, the Government determined that Advanced Innovative Engineering Ltd is the only company capable of meetings the Government’s minimum requirements due to their aforementioned patented technologies.

9. Interested Sources: A Synopsis was posted on SAM.gov on 09 June 2022 and closed on 23 June 2022. To date, no responses to challenge the intent to sole source were received and no other sources have written to express interest.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History: This requirement is a first-time design and development project by AIE (UK) for the ; as such, there is no procurement history.