Redacted Justification and Approval.pdf

Control No: JA-20-Adel-024

Contractor:

REDACTED

Supply/Service: Survivability Engineering Services

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR 8.405-6 LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

UNDER THE GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

FEDERAL SUPPLY PROGRAM

Programs/Equipment: Analytical, technical, development and administrative services for personnel survivability and modeling and simulation projects.

Authority: Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41U.S.C. 251, et. Seq) and Title 40 U.S.C 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.405-6.

Amount: REDACTED

Prepared by: Adrian Barber DSN: 290-1503

Contract Specialist Date: 11/06/2019 Email: REDACTED

Contracting Officer: Christopher Moy DSN: 290-2021 Contracting Officer Date: 11/06/2019

Technical: Penny Willard DSN: 298-7233 Program Coordinator Date: 11/7/2019

Requirements: Stephanie Snead DSN: 298-6341 Branch Chief Date: 11/7/2019

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

Program Manager: REDACTED mailto:christopher.r.moy.civ@mail.mil mailto:penny.t.willard.civ@mail.mil mailto:stephanie.l.snead.civ@mail.mil

REDACTED

Legal Counsel: REDACTED

Advocate for Competition: REDACTED

REDACTED

FAR 8.405-6 Limited Sources Justification Under the General Services Administration

Federal Supply Schedule Program

1. Contracting Activity:

U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) – Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) Adelphi Division

CCAP-SCA

2800 Powder Mill Road Adelphi, MD 20783

2. Description of Action:

REDACTED requests a Firm-Fixed-Price Task Order under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Program with Altus, LLC, 1101 Main Street, Darlington, MD 21034-1403. The Government will execute this action against FSS contract REDACTED. Projected award is REDACTED Army funds will be used.

_X_ An acquisition plan is not required because this procurement does not meet the threshold at Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 207.103(d)(i)(B) Acquisitions for production or services when the total cost of all contracts for the acquisition program is estimated at REDACTED or more for all years or REDACTED or more for any fiscal year.

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

The U.S. Army REDACTED requires personnel survivability, lethality, and vulnerability research and methodology development engineering services. The Contractor shall recommend new procedures as applicable for REDACTED and other personnel survivability and system and squad-level performance projects. Specifically, the Contractor shall support continued development of the REDACTED source code using established methods, practices and techniques. The requirement ranges from specific tasks to complex work for which guidelines and precedents are usually applicable, but interpretation and analysis may be required. Assigned tasks include gathering, researching, verifying and analyzing facts, skilled use of basic tools and techniques of the field (e.g., surveys, data bases, MS Windows based software, financial systems, data collection methods, JAVA, C), selecting and applying established methods, practices and procedures, requiring only minor changes, supporting the development of work proposal documents using historical data, and researching new sources and coordinating with managers, employees, or other Contractors to obtain information. The purpose of all tasks associated with this effort is REDACTED

REDACTED

A Firm-Fixed-Price Level of Effort (FFP-LOE) Task Order is contemplated with an estimated ceiling of REDACTED (Please see attached IGE). A FFP-LOE Task Order type is determined to be appropriate because the requirement is not well defined where projects will not have a clear start or finish. This Task Order will have a base year and three (3) one (1) year option years as follows:

Base Period: 4/01/2020 to 3/31/2021 Value: REDACTED Option Period 1: 4/01/2021 to 3/31/2022 Value: REDACTED Option Period 2: 4/01/2022 to 3/31/2023 Value: REDACTED Option Period 3: 4/01/2023 to 3/31/2024 Value: REDACTED

Total: REDACTED

4. Authority Cited:

Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41U.S.C. 251,

et. Seq) and Title 40 U.S.C 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.405-6 and substantiated by the following:

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A). An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays.

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B). Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

_X_ 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 was not previously issued under a sole-source or limited-sources procedures.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

This is a logical follow-on because of the possible loss of Government time and money that would be required to train and replace the specialized skill and technical expertise of the current Contractor. As a result, the Government would have reduced capacity to support Army Acquisition programs requiring REDACTED. In addition, the Government would have no capability to support Army modernization efforts in support of the REDACTED, which is to field the REDACTED. These delays would impact Milestone decisions on Army systems, which could result in delays costing millions of dollars.

In order for REDACTED research to complement and build upon previous efforts and develop new methods and techniques, REDACTED needs continued research and

REDACTED

development of REDACTED that requires detailed knowledge of the REDACTED program. DAC is the Army’s focal point for REDACTED and expertise. REDACTED helps Program Managers (PMs) enhance system and soldier survivability/lethality in the systems they are developing. Results of REDACTED, against the full spectrum of battlefield threats, are provided to the PMs, Evaluators, and Department of the Army decision makers. REDACTED conducts the necessary investigations, simulations, laboratory/field experiments, and analyses to quantify the REDACTED when faced with REDACTED, ballistic, directed energy, REDACTED contamination effects, and environmental threats.

The REDACTED is the tri-service model for assessing operational casualties and is owned, developed, and maintained by REDACTED is used for REDACTED requires specific engineering and analytical services in order to satisfy the needs of its customers. REDACTED has the required in-depth knowledge and unique skill sets to perform the services required to fulfill REDACTED requirements, since they have been providing the required services under three (3) prior contracts and/or Task Orders:

REDACTED. The research and technical experience that REDACTED has obtained since inception of their previous contracts and Task Orders have been an on-going evolving transition as the Army continues to develop and enhance its REDACTED system and capabilities and other related software tools such as REDACTED

REDACTED has been responsible for developments in the REDACTED program, which has been the focus of their work with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for the past

REDACTED and is the cornerstone of REDACTED for ARL and REDACTED has determined that no other source (see section 6. Market Research below) is capable of meeting the Government’s requirements due to the intimate knowledge REDACTED has acquired for REDACTED ARL Tools and the REDACTED methodology and model/tool development. Specifically, REDACTED has experience and in-depth knowledge in all of these areas. No other source has this detailed and in-depth knowledge that is required for REDACTED mission and programs.

REDACTED is owned, developed, and maintained by REDACTED is an evolving software package that changes with the needs of our customers. The Government plans to continue to release new versions of REDACTED Each quarter new versions are released to the workforce. Each version may contain updates, modifications, error corrections, etc. to the source code. Version numbers are assigned for record keeping purposes. REDACTED is currently released for use by the Navy, Air Force and other members of the Army.

REDACTED is embedded within the Air force REDACTED, and it has been provided to the REDACTED

REDACTED

REDACTED is also embedded in the REDACTED which is released to the DoD community for use. The Government does not plan on publically releasing the source codes but will only release the code when REDACTED has collaborative software development agreements with other Army centers. The other Government agencies and their Contractors have the ability to gain knowledge and expertise. Also, REDACTED currently has contracts with REDACTED and REDACTED (on-site Contractors) that work closely with other Contractors and may provide support on current projects/programs. This would allow other Contractors to possibly use the REDACTED methodology and gain in-depth knowledge. These are complex codes. Use of the model does not imply that the user will gain in-depth knowledge that will permit them to become an expert in its architecture and thus gain a high-level of performance in software development. Releasing the code for use and providing Verification & Validation (V&V) documentation for REDACTED will not provide the information necessary for external parties to develop the expertise required to maintain and develop the code. Becoming an expert in REDACTED is a hands-on learning process and studying REDACTED documentation is a small part of the learning curve.

The Government requires a Contractor that has expertise in: REDACTED methodology and REDACTED model software, REDACTED methodology and REDACTED software that extends REDACTED for small arms incapacitation and survivability analysis. The Government also requires expertise in REDACTED methodology and software, the REDACTED which is a software architecture for evaluating the effects of Soldier equipment on individual Soldier performance. In addition, the Government requires expertise on a host of web-based software tools that supports REDACTED focus on REDACTED and by enabling collaboration and data sharing internally and externally across different information technology (IT) networks. A few examples of ongoing projects which were started under the existing Task Order which require the specialized expertise only available under the REDACTED Task Order are provided below. The ongoing projects noted below will continue with the next Task Order.

REDACTED are currently being developed and used to support the REDACTED Urgent and Full Materiel Release scheduled for FY20. Loss of continuity of personnel support development of software, as well as the verification and validation will result in the Government’s inability to provide analytical data characterizing this weapon system’s performance, which is needed by Army Evaluators to support Army recommendations and decisions related to these material releases in REDACTED.

REDACTED uses test data collected through the use of an anthropomorphic test device. It is used to assess the type and severity of injury to Soldiers in vehicles that encounter IEDs. REDACTED is currently going through development concurrently with the REDACTED program which has produced new higher-fidelity anthropomorphic test device known as REDACTED test device. The first use of the

REDACTED

REDACTED test device is scheduled to occur in FY21. Continuity in the review of

REDACTED data and algorithms for REDACTED the data basing of this information and the associated development of the REDACTED code is critical to meet the Army and

DoD requirement to use REDACTED and REDACTED for the REDACTED for upcoming

Live Fire Test and Evaluation in FY20 and FY21.

The REDACTED development began in spring 2019 when the decision was made to merge REDACTED and parts of REDACTED and some HRED components) to enable data sharing, knowledge management and coordination across two separate IT infrastructures and networks. This effort leveraged existing web-based personnel survivability collaboration and project management software and will be ongoing throughout the rest of FY20. Loss of software Subject Matter Experts (SME) on this project will significantly degrade the ability to complete the development of REDACTED as well as its predecessors which are still in use today across the Army and DoD. Two such examples of web-based systems that were developed prior to REDACTED and which we still maintain today are: 1) ARL Tools which is used by members of ARL, REDACTED centers and their customers, and 2) the REDACTED, which is used by

REDACTED to collaborate with its geographically dispersed partners including the

National Ground Intelligence Center, the Public Health Command, the Armed Forces

Medical Examiner, the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, Naval Health Research Center, PEO Soldier and others. Loss of expertise to maintain and develop these tools would be detrimental to the conduct of business across REDACTED in the area of survivability, lethality and vulnerability.

If these specific services were not acquired from REDACTED the Government would incur significant delays supporting Army modernization, Test, Evaluation and Readiness efforts, which would use these tools to address Army requirements. The Government estimates a minimum of REDACTED, which is based on a Government staff year and the time/labor hours it would take an experienced developer/SME to mentor and train a new Developer/Analyst. Also, the Government estimates at least one (1) year for a new Developer/Analyst to become “independent” on their assigned work taskers. There would be hours of hands-on training and observation required to learn the required methods and techniques of REDACTED research and methodology. The first year would be a “mentoring” year and a new Developer/Analyst would be teamed with an experienced Developer/SME. Again, this is based on the experience of a Senior Government Developer/SME.

During these delays, the Government would have reduced capacity to support Army Acquisition programs requiring Live Fire Test and Evaluation Support. These efforts require the use of REDACTED. In addition, each capability effort supports Army modernization, which supports the REDACTED The REDACTED is one of the Army’s highest priority effort to field the Next Generation Squad Weapon systems. These delays could impact Milestone decisions on systems to be fielded, which could result in

REDACTED

delays costing millions of dollars. In addition to increased costs, a delay in this research would have harmful effects on the Army’s ability to protect the warfighter in the battlefield. As mentioned, the results of the research performed under this Task Order will be provided to Army decision makers, whose decisions need to be well-informed and up-to-date in order to maximize the survivability of soldiers in the field. Consequently, the year-long potential delay would likely result in increased casualties. As a result of limits on government hiring, REDACTED is reliant on Contractors to meet its deliverables.

Should a gap in capability occur as a result of loss of expertise provided by REDACTED DAC will not be able to complete their technical programs on schedule or provide deliverables that other organizations are awaiting to complete multi-agency programs that are directed by both the REDACTED

This effort provides support to injury biomechanics and analysis, REDACTED Program, and to REDACTED For injury biomechanics and analysis, the expertise to characterize response of armor is used to determine potential for injury, support test methodology development, develop test devices, model and simulation tools, and perform analysis.

This effort provides support to soldier protection analysis by characterizing threats, personal protective equipment, assess human vulnerability and perform analysis to support concept, design and REDACTED, and are crucial to the REDACTED program providing fragment analysis, injury mechanism analysis, injury biomechanics, body armor analysis, and understanding injury patterns. Finally, this effort provides support to the REDACTED program, specifically the injury biomechanics portion of the program.

6. Actions to Increase Competition:

Based on the previous Limited Source Justification, the following actions were taken to increase competition:

1.) a.) Action:

A Notice of Intent REDACTED was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on REDACTED with a closing date of REDACTED The notice was posted as a mechanism to expose the requirement and determine if any new companies had expanded their expertise in REDACTED The Notice of Intent announced that the Government intended to solicit and negotiate with only one source and provided the public an opportunity to review the requirement and respond. In addition, this posting informed the public that this was not a request for competitive proposals. However, any responsible source who believed they were capable of meeting the requirement could submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which would be considered by the agency, only if received by the closing date and time of this notice.

b.) Results:

REDACTED

One vendor responded within the established timeframe as an “interested vendor” within the FBO website, but did not submit a capability statement, proposal or quote. The vendor was REDACTED and the Contractor POC was REDACTED. On REDACTED, the Contract Specialist reached out to REDACTED in order to request a capability statement in regards to the posted Synopsis. On REDACTED, Contractor POC REDACTED responded with a capability statement with a broad list of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), but did not specifically provide any detailed capabilities regarding analytical, technical, development and administrative services for personnel survivability and modeling and simulation projects involving REDACTED. Therefore, the Contract Specialist requested a five (5) day response deadline from REDACTED through REDACTED, or REDACTED to provide relevant capabilities and/or experience in accordance with the requirements as described in the Synopsis.

However, to date REDACTED has not provided a response. Therefore, there are no sources other than REDACTED that can meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

2.) a.) Action:

Release mature/updated versions of REDACTED “users” (not to the public) when changes, modifications, and debugging occurs. These modifications/updates are made to the source code based on requirements from PMs, other Government agencies and the Warfighter. These updated versions may help REDACTED “users” and their Contractors (i.e. REDACTED) compete in future procurements.

b.) Results:

Mature/updated versions of REDACTED have been released to REDACTED “users”, but not to the public. The REDACTED source code will also not be released to the public.

Currently, the REDACTED source code will only be released to the extent that the Government has collaborative software development agreements in place with other Army centers (“users”) who wish to contribute and wish to use Contractor support (“users”) to contribute to that development. As REDACTED matures, the Government expects to continue and release new versions of REDACTED for various uses such that other Contractors such as REDACTED may continue to gain more detailed and in-depth knowledge that will permit them to compete in future procurements. Although some aspects of the REDACTED program are currently available to the public, the enhancement of this program through the services to be provided under this Task Order will allow the Government to further develop and prepare a more complete technical data package to include an advanced version of REDACTED for public release. This will allow other companies to gain the skills and expertise to meet potential future Government needs in this area.

7. Market Research:

Market research was conducted between REDACTED by the Operations Research Analyst/COR, who has REDACTED of experience within REDACTED. Market Research techniques included searching the internet, the General Services Administration (GSA)

REDACTED

websites and

REDACTED

discussions with the Branch Chief, Team Leaders and a subject matter expert (SME) within the Government (Senior Software Developer/Manager). Search terms used in the GSA search were survivability, software development, software integration, ballistic, personnel, test and evaluation and lethality. There were other companies with similar qualifications such as REDACTED however they lacked the expertise that is required to support the REDACTED does not have the REDACTED development and enhancement expertise; REDACTED has experience with integrating REDACTED at the REDACTED level, but does not have the detailed REDACTED development and enhancement expertise and does not have the REDACTED model expertise. REDACTED does not have the REDACTED and REDACTED expertise. These companies were eliminated from consideration as there is a significant learning curve in working with ORCA. For example, while a computer scientist should have an understanding of programming, they won’t know the specifics of a new program and will require time and guidance/training from someone with both a broad and detailed knowledge of the new program in order to become familiar with the program.

The COR also searched the internet and GSA websites to locate other potential sources for REDACTED were found as potential sources. However, they could not meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

REDACTED does not have the REDACTED development and enhancement expertise;

REDACTED has experience with integrating REDACTED at the REDACTED level, but does not have the detailed REDACTED development and enhancement expertise and does not have the REDACTED model expertise. REDACTED does not have the required REDACTED and REDACTED expertise. These companies were eliminated from consideration as there is a significant learning curve in working with REDACTED.

Based on the above, there are no alternative companies that could provide the personnel with the expertise required to complete the tasks outlined in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). The Government will continue to conduct market research in the future to identify any other potential sources.

8. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History:

Contract: REDACTED Contractor: REDACTED Award Date: REDACTED PoP: 9/1/2008 –

REDACTED

Dollar Value: REDACTED Competitive Status: Competitive 100% small business set-aside posted to FedBizOpps for 30 days and REDACTED was the only response.

Task Order: REDACTED Contractor: REDACTED

REDACTED

Award Date: REDACTED PoP: REDACTED Dollar Value: REDACTED Competitive Status: Competitive 100% small business set-aside posted to GSA and REDACTED was the only response.

Task Order: REDACTED

REDACTED Award Date: REDACTED PoP: REDACTED Dollar Value: REDACTED Competitive Status: Non-competitive sole source Authority: Title 40 USC 501, Services for Executive Agencies; and Section 803 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2002 (PL 107-107); and 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 the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited-sources procedures.

(end of page)

REDACTED

Technical Certifier (Tech)

Signed by: REDACTED

X REDACTED

3/24/2020

Requirements Certifier

Signed by REDACTED

3/24/2020

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.

Typed Name:

Title: Program Coordinator

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.

Typed Name: Stephanie L Snead Title: Branch Chief

11. Best Value Determination/Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the order represents the best value to the Government in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(v). Additionally, I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this Task Order action will be fair and reasonable.

The anticipated price to the Government for this Task Order action will be fair and reasonable through the utilization of price analysis techniques and Independent Government Estimate (IGE). Market analysis of the prices being offered and evidence of previous contracts, Task Orders and modifications issued by the Government for the same or similar services will be compared and used for the basis of determining price reasonableness. As the required effort is non-commercial, the Contracting Officer shall require submission of cost or pricing data per FAR 15.403-1(b)(3) when applicable.

This determination will be made using the following:

_X_ Price analysis

_X_ IGE

REDACTED

Contracting Officer (KO)

Signed by: REDACTED

3/25/2020

Other:

Typed Name: Christopher Moy Title: Contracting Officer

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

Typed Name: REDACTED

Title: Contracting Officer

Contracting Officer (KO)

Signed by REDACTED

3/25/2020

REDACTED

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of analytical, technical, development and administrative services for personnel survivability and modeling and simulation projects for an estimate of $14,768,326.91 and for a period of performance beginning 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024, under Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 251, et Seq.) and Title 40 U.S.C 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services or supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

REDACTED

Date:

Senior Contracting Official Signature:

REDACTED

Senior Contracting Official (SCO)

X