Redacted Limited Sources Justification over SAT - ESI Order Extension 24F0007 P00003.pdf

Control No: [REDACTED]

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FOR LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION – FAR PART 8

Programs/Equipment: Palantir Platform Licenses for the Maven Smart System (MSS) and Field Service Representatives (FSR).

Authority: 10 United States Code 3204(a)(1) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

Amount: [REDACTED]

Prepared by: [REDACTED]

Contracting Officer: Phillip Amador Phone: 575-678-3523 Contracting Officer Date: 11 MAR 2024 Email: phillip.j.amador.civ@army.mil

Technical: [REDACTED]

Requirements: [REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

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

Legal Counsel:

Limited Sources Justification – FAR Part 8

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

2. Description of Action: [REDACTED] request approval for a two (2) month bridge modification to existing firm-fixed price order, [REDACTED], issued against the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) under the General Services Administration (GSA) Contract vehicle with Palantir USG, Inc. (Palantir), 635 Waverley St., Palo Alto, CA 94301. W911QX-24- F-0007 is an order issued against BPA N66001-19-A-0044 with Palantir. Projected award is March 2024 and [REDACTED] funds will be used.

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

[REDACTED], in support of [REDACTED], has a requirement to provide the [REDACTED] with Maven Smart System (MSS) and ancillary software support. The MSS is a unique capability that combines an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled mission command system and is integrated with hundreds of data sources. The MSS is a multi-functional tool suite driven by significant data integrations to enhance situational awareness, enable joint collaboration, build pattern of life, perform advanced analytics, fuse data, automate workflows, and provide mission command capabilities to the warfighter.

The Government requires access to a software platform and associated platform labor support [REDACTED].

The instant effort requires the purchase of licenses for the Palantir Platform (PT-PG- CLOUD) and requisite software support (i.e., field service representatives (FSRs) and software engineers) in order to meet the [REDACTED] mission requirements.

[REDACTED].

Period of Performance: Two (2) months.

Total Value: [REDACTED]

4. Authority Cited: 10 United States Code 3204(a)(1) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (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.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

Due to increasing unrest and conflicts world-wide, [REDACTED] require access to MSS and ancillary software support. [REDACTED].

This new work modification will act as a bridge effort to the existing order [REDACTED] to augment any potential lapses until the follow-on is awarded. The follow on [REDACTED] requirement was accepted by Adelphi Contracting Division on 27 July 2023. Determination & Findings (D&F) Authority to Enter into a Follow-On Production Contract or Transaction was submitted to the [REDACTED] for review and approval on

20 November 2023. Multiple requests were made by [REDACTED] to push their completion date as follows:

06 December 2023 – initial request to push completion date to 29 December 2023 11 December 2023 – request push completion date to 12 January 2024 03 January 2024 – request to push completion date to 24 January 2024 23 January 2024 – request to push completion date to 16 February 2024 06 February 2024 – request to push completion date to 26 February 2024 21 February 2024 – request to push completion date to 01 March 2024 26 February 2024 – final request to push completion date to 07 March 2024

[REDACTED]

Palantir’s MSS was developed and demonstrated under competitive contract [REDACTED] which was awarded under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation W911NF-17-S-0003 to Palantir USG, Inc. [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] has termed [REDACTED] as the MSS. During the course of this BAA, Palantir utilized their proprietary Platform (PT-PG-CLOUD) and customized it, performing numerous tests and demonstrations, as well as integrating capabilities to learn what worked and did not work for the warfighter. MSS was developed, demonstrated, and built on proprietary Palantir Platform (PT-PG-CLOUD). The BAA effort developed and demonstrated a number of novel capabilities on this Palantir Platform.

[REDACTED]

Additionally, the MSS is scalable, has the capability to quickly add feeds as well as more data sources, and it also has additional analysis tools. [REDACTED]. Due to the MSS being built on the proprietary Palantir Platform, licenses to this Platform are required to be procured in order for [REDACTED]. In addition to the requirement for the Palantir Platform licenses, the Government also requires the requisite software support FSRs and Engineering labor.

The Government’s requirement cannot be satisfied by any other vendor in the marketplace. No licenses from other vendor(s) would provide [REDACTED] the required capability. Additionally, Palantir has over 800 patents for different aspects of the Palantir Platform (to include digital data processing, digital information transmission, image data processing, etc.). As a result, only Palantir products and its personnel have the requisite knowledge and experience to provide the required FSR support for the licenses.

As detailed in Section 8, extensive market research has been performed that has identified other possible Government systems and private sector vendors offering products potentially capable of meeting the Government’s requirement, but all alternatives identified have systematically been eliminated as viable solutions that can meet this requirement; none provide all of the system functionality the Government requires. Overall, the alternative products were determined to not possess the requisite combination of required specifications. This includes: [REDACTED]. As a result, these alternative competing systems do not meet the requirement.

Pursuing alternative vendors to satisfy the Government’s immediate requirement is not feasible. An alternative vendor requires the development and testing of an entirely new MSS-type system before any licenses to that system could be purchased. As highlighted earlier, at this time, only the Palantir MSS toolkit meets all Government requirements.

Development of a new MSS-type system would require several years of delays, [REDACTED].

[REDACTED]. Additionally, significant program delays would occur when attempting to ramp up an alternative vendor to begin delivery in accordance with the Government’s required timeline. Due to the aforementioned, it is determined that Palantir USG is the only source that can provide the Palantir Platform License and associated support.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

This procurement is exempt from synopsis in accordance with FAR 5.202(a)(11) – the proposed contract action is made under the terms of an existing contract that was previously synopsized in sufficient detail to comply with the requirement of 5.207 with respect to the current proposed contract action. The DoD ESI is a mandatory source for commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) software per DFARS 208.7402(a). As required by the DoD ESI Ordering Guide, the justification will be posted to sam.gov simultaneously with the issuance of the Request for Proposal (RFP).

a. Effective competition: Not applicable; competition is not anticipated for this requirement. This acquisition will be a sole source under authority 10 United States Code 3204(a)(1) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

b. Subcontracting competition. No subcontracting possibilities exist, as this requirement is for the purchase of commercial items specific to one (1) manufacturer.

7. Actions to Increase Competition:

As previously stated, the DoD ESI is a mandatory source for commercial software per DFARS 208.7402. Palantir is the Original Software Manufacturer of Palantir licenses.

Palantir USG holds a single award BPA for the DoD ESI with no authorized resellers.

CDAO is actively searching for offerors with expertise in these technologies described in section 3, through Army Research Laboratory’s (ARL's) BAA Solicitation W911NF-23-S- 0001, which includes relevant topics for the AI/ML type of work that was realized through [REDACTED]. Additionally, [REDACTED] and other stakeholders are continuing market research efforts to identify offerors with capabilities to provide these types of technologies. However, due to the nature of this effort, the technology's speed of development and urgency around implementation, it is in the best interest of the Government to conduct these efforts with an experienced vendor whose proprietary platform has been demonstrated as successful. Prior to the initiation of any future acquisitions for the aforementioned requirement, the marketplace will be continually surveyed in order to determine whether additional sources have emerged that can fulfill the Government’s requirements. If a vendor that can provide a license with capabilities comparable to those available via Palantir’s licenses, a future requirement could become available for competition.

8. Market Research:

Market Research was conducted during the last year (January 2023 through February 2024) by [REDACTED], and prior to that by [REDACTED]. The market research included numerous methods as cited below.

The [REDACTED] team in coordination with [REDACTED] regularly meet with industry through industry engagements, review white papers submitted to [REDACTED] open BAA on new battle management capabilities, attend industry demonstrations of combatant command exercises, and review [REDACTED] capabilities being developed throughout the defense department. Only the Palantir Maven Smart System has the current technical maturity to satisfy the requirement. Therefore, no vendors were identified that could fulfill the Government’s requirement.

[REDACTED]

Based on all market research performed, Palantir is the only source with the proprietary Platform licenses that the MSS was built on. This unique and proprietary Platform, built across years of field experiments to see what users demanded, combined with their proven engineering skills, confirm that they are the only source capable of executing this requirement.

Additionally, the required proprietary Palantir Platform license is available through Palantir’s Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) vehicle.

Even though the CHESS program is no longer a mandatory source in accordance with [REDACTED] Section 233 exemption, the utilization of the CHESS contracts and DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) agreements is the most cost and time efficient path to procure the subject requirement. Since Palantir is the only vendor who can meet the Government’s requirement market-wide, they are also the only ESI vendor who can meet the requirement.

9. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History:

On 29 September 2020 Contract number [REDACTED] was awarded to Palantir USG Inc. with a total contract ceiling of [REDACTED] and a period of performance from 29 September 2020 through 30 April 2022 with options to extend until 31 December 2022. This contract was awarded as a result of a proposal submitted under BAA solicitation number W911NF17S0003

[REDACTED].

[REDACTED]

1. Contract: [REDACTED] (awarded 29 Sept 2020)

2. Competitive Status: Competitive

3. Authority: Public Law 98369, "The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984" and subsequent amendments

4. Prior Justification: Not Applicable, competitive action

5. Prior Full and Open Status: Not Applicable, no prior contracts

6. Unusual Patterns: Not Applicable, no unusual patterns

7. Justification Changes: Not Applicable, no changes in authority

On 28 April 2023 Contract number [REDACTED] was awarded to Palantir USG Inc. with a total contract ceiling of [REDACTED] and a period of performance from 1 May 2023 through 30 Sept 2023. Under this contract, [REDACTED] required access to MSS along with the ancillary software support.

1. Contract: [REDACTED]

2. Competitive Status: Awarded under “Other than Full and Open Competition”

3. Authority: 10 United States Code 3204(a)(1) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (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.

4. Prior Justification: The MSS license from Palantir was the only product that met all Government requirements.

5. Prior Full and Open Status: Awarded under “Other than Full and Open Competition”

6. Unusual Patterns: Not Applicable, no unusual patterns

7. Justification Changes: Not Applicable, no changes in authority

On 29 December 2023 Contract number [REDACTED] was awarded to Palantir USG, Inc. with a total contract ceiling of [REDACTED] and a period of performance from 1 January 2024 through 31 March 2024. Under this contract, [REDACTED] required access to MSS along with the ancillary software support.

1. Contract: [REDACTED]

2. Competitive Status: Awarded under “Other than Full and Open Competition”

3. Authority: 10 United States Code 3204(a)(1) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (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.

4. Prior Justification: The MSS license from Palantir was the only product that met all Government requirements.

5. Prior Full and Open Status: Awarded under “Other than Full and Open Competition”

6. Unusual Patterns: Not Applicable, no unusual patterns

7. Justification Changes: Not Applicable, no changes in authority

b. Other Facts: Based on the data rights negotiated under BAA contract number

[REDACTED], the Government does not own any rights to code developed in performance. In that BAA, the Government retains all rights, title, and interest in and to any data and content the Government provides for transmission, storage, integration, import, display, distribution, or use in or through MSS. The Government also retains Government Purpose Rights to the United States Government (USG)-provided training data modified under the contract, USG-provided AI models/algorithms modified under the contract, and USG-provided authored code modified under the Contract.

10. 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: [REDACTED]

11. 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: [REDACTED]

12. 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 contract action will be fair and reasonable.

The basis for this determination will be made using price analysis techniques, leveraging both historical costs and the vendor’s BPA prices, and the Independent Government Estimate (IGE). As part of the basis, certified cost or pricing data will not be required, as this is a commercial item in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(b)(3).

X Phillip Amador Contracting Officer (KO)

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

X Phillip Amador Contracting Officer (KO)

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve limiting sources in the acquisition of the [REDACTED] Palantir Platform Licenses for the Maven Smart System and Field Service Representatives (FSR), for an estimate of [REDACTED] for a two (2) month extension of performance, pursuant to the authority of 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, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services or supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Command Advocate for Competition: