UET Bridge JA)Final_15Feb2023-2_Redacted.pdf

Code: CT-2.78 J&A Number: 23,051

The existing contract was awarded on 30 June 2017, with an effective date of 1 July 2017. A 12-month base, with four 12-month options was awarded (60 months). On 19 May 2022, a follow-on contract was awarded for these services; however, a post-award protest filed at GAO on 20 May 2022 required the agency to cancel this contract and revisit its acquisition strategy. To prevent a gap in service, a bridge was approved on 29 June 2022, adding to the existing contract an additional six (6) months (1 July 2022 – 31 Dec 2022) with a three (3) month (1 Jan 2023 – 31 Mar 2023) additional option period.

A follow-on UET CLS small business set aside procurement is currently in process, but the source selection is not expected to be completed before the expiration of the first bridge option period of performance on 31 March 2023. Therefore, a second bridge contract is necessary to provide an additional 5 months of performance to accommodate the UET CLS small business set aside source selection, and two (2) two-month option periods of performance to accommodate any delay in source selection or delay associated with any bid protest litigation.

Estimated Dollar Value

The existing contract was competitively awarded. During the initial award of the existing contract, the pricing established within the contract was determined fair and reasonable. Since the contract pricing for the existing contract was initially determined fair and reasonable, it was determined under the current “first” bridge action to utilize the rates specified in the current contract’s last period of performance. For this second bridge action, the PM TRASYS MCSC Cost Analyst developed its cost estimate based on the current “first” bridge contract’s scope and pricing, while applying a 3% increase from FY22 to FY23 and 3.24% inflation increase to FY24 based on the latest OSD inflation indices for OMMC.

Based on the utilization of the current “first” bridge action, along with applying inflation, the estimated dollar value for this bridge action is $3,528,724.00, inclusive of the five (5) month base and four (4) one month option periods, if fully executed. The estimated costs are:

Table 1 – Funding Summary by FY (in dollars)

FY23 FY24 Total

OM,MC $3,528,724.00

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition

The statutory authority permitting use of other than full and open competition is 10 United States Code, Section 3204(a)(2), “Unusual and Compelling Urgency”.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Cited Statutory Authority

FAR 6.302-2 allows an agency to restrict competition in the case where the agency’s need for the services is of such an unusual and compelling urgency and delay in award of a contract would result in serious injury, financial or other, to the Government. The Government conservatively estimates that the competitive process and on-boarding of any other source would require at least 5 months to award and be able to provide these critical UET CLS services. A delay of this length or any potential delay or gap in services would result in a failure to sustain the continuity of the support services, risking Marines’ lives due to lack of proper egress training. The importance of this training in preventing serious injury is exemplified by the incident that occurred July 2020 and the sinking of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), which resulted in the death of eight Marines and a Navy Corpsman. An investigation noted the lack of UET conducted by the Marines and Corpsman who died; therefore, the agency has mandated UET prior to any Marine participating in waterborne operations, including regular Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) operational deployments that occur throughout the year continuously.

The agency cannot deploy Marines without having this training in place and given current MEU operational tempo will not be able to perform the Marine Corps’ assigned national defense responsibilities without having uninterrupted UET CLS services. The support services described are currently provided under the competitively awarded contract M67854-17-C-7800 that will expire 31 March 2023.

F3EA Joint Venture, LLC provides Underwater Egress Training (UET) under the current contract. ALMAR 002/22 requires Underwater Egress Training (UET) for all personnel conducting flight operations or amphibious vehicle waterborne operations. The Commandant of the Marine Corps issued this change in order to protect the health and safety of Marines participating in these mission types and to enhance readiness of military personnel. The UET services currently provided under this contract train Marines and other authorized personnel how to egress from sinking or submerged platforms (i.e., aircraft, amphibious, and ground vehicles), including the use of life support equipment, e.g., Supplemental Emergency Breathing Devices (SEBDs) and Life Preserver Units (LPUs) to increase survival rates and are the only current source of providing this mandatory training. UET is a Commandant’s service-level training program that is mandated by Marine Corps Order 3502.3C as modified by ALMAR 002/22. A gap in services would prevent the Marine Corps from being able to ensure the safety of all personnel engaged in flight and waterborne operations and will prevent otherwise capable Marines from engaging in mission sets critical to ensure our national defense. In less than 5 months, the agency will lose this critical training and be rendered unable to qualify Marines to deploy in a substantial range of operations. Thus, resulting in serious injury to the agency in not being able to execute its national defense mission. It is not possible to competitively award a bridge effort or execute another non-competitive effort before the current contract expires on 31 March 2023. Moreover, it is further not practicable to transition out the incumbent contractor and on-board a new contractor without an interruption or gap in services, which will result in an unacceptable delay or fulfilling the critical UET training requirements.

A new follow-on contract was awarded 19 May 2022 for these services; however, a post-award protest filed at GAO on 20 May 2022 required the agency to cancel this contract and revisit its acquisition strategy, requiring the current “first” bridge action in order to avoid a gap in service.

A second bridge action is being requested for additional time to award the follow-on contract. In order to properly address the concerns raised by the first protest, the agency found it necessary to re-visit its market research and acquisition strategy. The acquisition team has since released an RFI, a draft RFP for market research, re-drafted its acquisition strategy, and re-drafted its RFP.

However, additional milestones are still needed to take place including: the posting of the final RFP; conducting required Contract Review Board (CRB) reviews; conducting evaluations inclusive of technical, past performance, and price; and, other source selection activities such as the possibility of establishing a competitive range, discussions, and final proposal revisions. The agency estimates that the time needed to conduct all these additional activities will result in an award date of no earlier than August 2023, five (5) months past the contract end date of 31 March 2023. An additional five (5) month, with two (2) two-month options will provide additional time to award the follow-on contract, while also including additional options to cover unexpected delays such as responding to a protest, delays in the evaluation process, or on-boarding of a new contractor. As described in the paragraphs above, a delay of this length or any potential delay or gap in services would undermine the agency’s ability to perform its mission to secure national defense and to ensure the health and safety of Marines while performing flight and waterborne operations.

In order to further support the use of other than full and open competition, the Government posted its intention to award a second UET CLS bridge contract to F3EA Joint Venture, LLC to sam.gov on 15 December 2022 and solicited any other interested responsible source to submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation. The Government did not receive any responses from any source that expressed an interest in the second UET CLS bridge contract, or is otherwise capable of providing the UET CLS services in support of the second bridge contract. Given the absence of any potential sources, F3EA Joint Venture, LLC is the current contract holder and the only qualified source that has the technical capabilities to safely and adequately continue to perform the needed services without delays to operations or degradation in quality of services that would cause serious injury to the Marine Corps’ operational capabilities and ability to ensure the health and safety of its members.

6. Description of Efforts made to Solicit Offers from as many Offerors as Practicable

A follow-on procurement effort is in process. In conducting market research on the follow-on contract, the Government posted a request for information (RFI) on 17 August 2022 to sam.gov (M67854-22-R-8053) with a closing date of 26 August 2022, 10 days. Five (5) responses were received. The Technical Project Manager reviewed the responses against the questions included within the RFI in order to determine the companies’ capability to deliver the services needed by the Government. Of the five (5) response, four (4) were determined capable of delivering the agency’s requirement. Three (3) of the four (4) capable responses were small businesses. The Technical Project Manager utilized this information in developing its market research report, which supported an acquisition strategy of a small business set-aside.

Based on the Government’s assessment of industry capabilities, the Government determined the follow-on contract to be set-aside for small business.

In addition, the Government’s intention to award a second UET CLS bridge contract to F3EA Joint Venture, LLC was posted on sam.gov on 15 December 2022. The Government did not receive any responses from any source that expressed an interest in the second UET CLS bridge contract, or is otherwise capable of providing the UET CLS services in support of the second bridge contract.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Costs

In accordance with FAR 15.402(a), the Contracting Officer will ensure the services procured as a result of this J&A are at fair and reasonable prices. The Contractor will be required to submit a formal cost proposal with sufficient information to support the accuracy and reliability of their estimate. The contract specialist will perform an analysis of the proposal to include, but not limited to, historical pricing data, including the current contract’s rates, and up to date Department of Labor Wage Determinations. Furthermore, the Government will use the PM TRASYS IGCE as part of the evaluation of the proposal to validate that the overall price is fair and reasonable.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition

The follow-on UET CLS procurement is currently in process and being competitively solicited as a small business set-aside.