TAISESjaRedacted.rtf

CONTROL NUMBER/PAN: KB-0061-10

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION SEE FAR 3.104

Justification and Approval (J&A) Other Than Full and Open Competition Tactical Airspace Integration System (TAIS) Engineering Services and Retrofit Contract

1. CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: U.S. Army Contracting Command, AMCOM Contracting Center, CCAM-AR-C, Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898-5000.

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: The U.S. Army requires a new Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract for Engineering Services hours for studies, analysis, non recurring engineering, logistical documentation development and maintenance, and software development. This contract will also require Firm-Fixed-Price CLINS for the procurement of TAIS hardware retrofits.

PM-ATC plans to acquire all hardware retrofits and services required from General Dynamics Command, Control, Communication, and Computer Systems (GDC4S); the TAIS Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). A new contract action will be initiated by issuance of solicitation number W31P4Q-10-R-0009. This contract action will be funded with Aircraft Procurement Army (APA), Operations and Maintenance Appropriations (OMA), and Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriations.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

Tactical Airspace Intergration System (TAIS) is a Army system to automate and integrate Air Traffic Services (ATS) and Airspace Command and Control (AC2) operations at echelons above corps, division and brigade command levels. This system must be compatible with the Army Battle Command System (ABCS) and the command and control systems used by other services and allied forces. The system supports airspace users by collecting, processing, displaying, and disseminating airspace user information. Airspace users include Army aviation, air defense, field artillery, military intelligence, unmanned aircraft systems, special electronic missions forces, special operations forces, and Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) commands/agencies, across the range of military operations from peace, disaster assistance, crisis action, mobilization, stability and support operations, and war.

This contract will provide mission essential Engineering Services efforts to maintain TAIS critical core functionality and provide capability enhancements per validated and approved requirements. These efforts will require analysis, research, estimation, and implementation of modifications. Modifications include, but are not limited to, Software Blocking upgrades to meet Capability Set (CS) software architecture requirements; technical architecture and interfaces to maintain compatibility with Army Battle Command System (ABCS) migration; Blue Force Tracker upgrades; provisioning of Link-16 capable radios; provisioning of improved data radios; 3-D Visualizer and collaboration improvements; web services to meet net-centric requirements; Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) interfaces; and commonality upgrades to enhance supportability and lower total life cycle costs across all Air Traffic Control Product Manager tactical systems product lines.

Hardware retrofits will be delivered in accordance with (IAW) Section B and F of the contract.

The period of performance (POP) for this Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee (CPFF), with Firm-Fixed-Price (FPP) options contract is from contract award, anticipated for 01 April 2011, through 31 March 2013. The estimated ceiling for each calendar year (CY) is as follows.

Supply / Service Estimated Hours Total Cost Fiscal Year 2011 160,000 37,197,333 Fiscal Year 2012 160,000 34,257,347 Total Contract Value 320,000 71,454,680

The cost of the aforementioned options can be seen in the table below provided for the total contract value and maximum estimated ceiling values.

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4. Authority Cited. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(b)(1), "Only One Responsible Source or only from a limited number of responsible sources, and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements."

5. Reason for Authority Cited. The prime contractor, General Dynamics C4 Systems, 6000 Technology Drive, Building 6, Huntsville, Alabama 35805, CAGE code 1VN18, is now, and has been for over a decade, the only system prime contractor for all facets of the TAIS program to include providing Performance Based Logistics (PBL) and depot-level support. It is the only contractor with the requisite technical engineering, production knowledge and experience, and pool of training and experienced field service representatives. It is the only available source with the ability to perform the required effort in the required time frame.

Noncompetitive acquisition to GDC4S is justified on the basis of the following:

The TAIS system was competitively procured as a non-development item (NDI). General Dynamics C4 Systems is the prime contractor who currently asserts the proprietary data rights to the manufacturing processes, engineering data and software packages required to perform the required services, based on the use of General Dynamics Internal Research and Development (IR&D) funds in the development of TAIS. The ATC PMO will request access to the data rights in solicitation number W31P4Q-10-R-0009. The contractor shall propose all costs to obtain a copy of the technical data sufficient for competition, that the Government has provided funding for and provide a list of all proprietary or limited rights items which were not developed using Government funding. During the time period needed to receive the proposal and negotiate the technical data pricing, we must continue ongoing support to the system and development efforts, which requires the execution of this two year contract. Until now the GDC4S has designed and developed the TAIS system hardware and software and is the only TAIS system manufacturer. For over 10 years GDC4S has been the only source with the knowledge, experience, capability, technical expertise, and facilities to support the engineering and retrofit work being performed to support the TAIS fleet.

To date it has not been deemed feasible to acquire this effort from another source without the technical data and software source code. The procurement or development of the technical data and software would delay TAIS retrofit fielding by 12 to 18 months to qualify another source, causing systems to be non-mission capable, and issues with obsolescence in the TAIS fleet, causing system downtime. It is the intent of the ATC PMO to request a two year sole source contract which will allow the Government to receive a proposal for the technical data, and establish a contract CLIN in order to purchase the technical data if funded to do so. The amount of limited rights information will also need to be discussed with GDC4S, the cost required to procure possible third party and proprietary TAIS Software Licenses, i.e., Co-Motion, Oculus for Java, E3 framework, LMD license(s), and other license costs. The Government would also be required to determine the extent of any excluded descriptions or documentation of GDC4S internal “trade secret” processes. Based on the extensive software work being performed by the contractor to meet the requirements set forth by AMCOM and PM Battle Command, it is not feasible to delay awarding this two year contract until the technical data can be procured. The contractor will deliver software packages that are compliant with the technical requirements and operational functionality required by Software Blocking, Capability Set blocks, and Army Battle Command consolidation/collapse efforts. Each software delivery will provide enhanced capabilities or technical interface compliance with the evolution of the Army Battle Command System of Systems (SoS) or approved Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) interfaces. Analysis, experimentation, user input, and approved requirements substantiate the need for TAIS workstations for other mission, organizational, and personnel applications. TAIS workstations are required to support Army elements at multiple echelons with unique personnel, location, mission, and equipment requirements. Any slip in the development of these software nodes could create gaps in the end users ability to perform air traffic command and control on the battle field, endangering soldiers and the missions they perform. If the technical data can be negotiated and acquired during this two year contract, this will allow the Government to compete the follow-on contract in FY 13, if there are no data rights issues. If there are data rights issues, the Government will look at the breakout of subassemblies and components for competition. Award of the FY 11 – 12 Engineering Services contract to another source without the competitive level technical data would cause significant cost, technical and schedule risk to the current program ultimately resulting in potential software gaps, inventory depletion, and a degradation of operational capability to deployed forces. The costs required would include the ramp up associated with providing the capabilities to provide Retrofits, Software Engineering, Software Maintenance, and other Engineering related support. Those costs are estimated at $181,621,615 which was the ceiling value of contract DAAH01-01-C-0034 which was awarded 12 December 2000 on a full and open competition basis to GDC4S, for Engineering Services, Spares, and Interim Contractor Support (ICS) in order to complete the initial development work for TAIS.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition. The TAIS System was procured using full and open competition and Best Value NDI acquisition strategy. GDC4S has been the only provider of the TAIS System. There have been several efforts to attract other sources through announcements in the Federal Business Opportunities website; however, to date no other source has been able to provide services compatible to the TAIS System. Competition is currently anticipated at the subcontract level for all subcomponents which the government can receive all required technical data. Also, the Competition Advocate Shopping List (CASL) web-site was updated on 03 February 2010. A Federal Business Opportunities notice for the current requirement will be published on or about the week of 26 April 2010.

7. Actions to Increase Competition. Action to increase competition has been considered; however, given the relative low density of systems, the high cost of software development, and the fact that the production contract was solicited on a full and open basis with only one offer received, such an endeavor was deemed to be not advantageous to the Government. There is not sufficient time to obtain increased competition for the FY 11 – 12 award, until all data rights can be reviewed and it is determined whether software provided by subcontractors would require duplication in order for a new contractor to begin sustaining the TAIS fleet. Aside from increasing cost to the Government, new software development and testing would put the program at an unacceptable level of risk and required fielding schedule milestones would likely be missed. In order to allow for competition the Government would be required to obtain the technical data free from proprietary designs before the end of FY 11. That technical data would enable the Government to compete not only the TAIS Engineering Services and Retrofits but would also allow the new prime contractor to compete the subcontractor provided development efforts.

The technical data that would allow for competition of TAIS consists of all relevant commercial and product drawings, software lines of code, management plans, test plans, training documentation, and performance specification updates which the Government may acquire. The technical data package also should outline any lists associated with proprietary or limited rights information which the Government may not acquire IAW SOW C-1. As the contractor has updated the technical data package throughout the project life cycle, it is in the best interest of the Government to attempt to purchase this technical data package as part of this FY 11 – 12 contract to increase the affordability of the future contracts through competition.

8. Market Research. The TAIS Production Contract was the result of a Federal Business Opportunities announcement in December 1999, and a subsequent Request for Proposal, was released in May 2000. For this follow-on action, a market research report and commerciality determination was conducted by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Project Management Office (PMO) to identify other potential sources for a follow-on TAIS contract. Commerciality determination via internet research was conducted in September 2009 which identified numerous companies that provide production and engineering type services. However, without the technical data and expert knowledge of the hardware, software, and integration requirements, no company other than General Dynamics C4S would be able to support this requirement.

The ATC PMO, conducted further explorations of options by submitting a request on 29 July 2009 for additional market research which was conducted by the Redstone Scientific Information Center (RSIC) through the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) repository for technical reports. The research summaries independent research and development citations at Ft Belvoir. The research was based on use of the following key words: Airspace Command and Control, and Battle. The RSIC search produced 8 out of 2,130,913 documents from Technical Report citations; 1 out of 314,748 documents from research summaries; and 2 out of 173,726 documents from Independent Research and Development (IR&D) data citations. The documents identified all 11 sources as having knowledge about Airspace Command and Control, and Battle. One Technical Report citation document identified the TAIS and one IR&D data citation referenced the TAIS. All citations, research summaries and technical reports consisted of analytical study summaries that addressed Airspace Control and Command, and provided the status of progress that has been made towards development and maturation goals. The market research results provided no insight into potential sources that could provide the TAIS hardware, performance based logistics (PBL) or engineering services for the TAIS other than GD4CS. Therefore, no sources identified other than GD4CS are considered viable sources.

The ATC PMO also contacted Program Managers (PMs) for other systems to determine if potential competitors for the TAIS engineering services and retrofits existed. An e-mail was sent to Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) asking for the prime contractor's experience on B3 and similar systems but no response was received. An interview was conducted with the Logistics manager at PM Counter Rockets, Artillery, and Missiles (C-RAM) in August 2009. The Logistics Manager provided Government insights regarding the contractor for the Air Defense and Airspace Management (ADAM) program, Northrup Grumman. The Northrup Grumman’s ADAM is very similar to TAIS. ADAM consists of four computer systems (TAIS Airspace Workstation (AWS), AMDCCS, FAAD, and ADSI), while TAIS has two principal computer systems (TAIS AWS and ADSI). Field Service Representative (FSR) support is provided in theater and 24/7 help desk support is also provided; however, the FSRs for ADAM are provided through Tobyhanna Army Depot under a national maintenance contract, not by Northrup Grumman. There are 32 FSRs at Tobyhanna that support 112 shelters and 240 stand-alone work stations. The FSRs track warranty issues. For RESET efforts, Tobyhanna is responsible for depopulating the systems and sending the piece parts to the vendors. Corrosion control has not been implemented. OMA funding stream is generated through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Tobyhanna Army Depot. For depot level tasks, a repair request must be sent to a repair facility. This national maintenance contract support is not as robust or flexible as the TAIS PBL contract with GDC4S, and would not be sufficient to support the highly technical nature of TAIS required for Engineering Services, nor the PBL supportability strategy.

Lastly, the ATC PMO submitted a Request for Information-Tactical Airspace Integration System (TAIS), Solicitation Number W31P4Q-09-R-RFITAIS, posted 17 August 2009, on fbo.gov. There were four interested parties which responded to the RFI: The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, GDC4S, and ChandlerMay. An extensive review of each of the four companies’ submissions was conducted and contractors were rated based on overall ability to perform each task. The results of this analysis showed that GDC4S’s ability to support the TAIS engineering services and retrofit efforts were far superior to the other three respondents. These potential competitors also do not have access to the required technical drawing and documentation needed to fully support the TAIS system.

It has been determined that the Government’s needs cannot be met by services available in the commercial marketplace; therefore, FAR Part 12 will not be used. This requirement was also posted in the Competition Advocates Shopping List (CASL) on or about 25 January 2002, and updated 03 February 2010 .

9. Interested Sources. Notices required by FAR 5.201 will be published and any bids or proposals received will be considered for this effort. A Federal Business Opportunities notice will be published on or about the week of 26 April 2010. Any source that expresses an interest will receive due consideration under the law. Initial contract award is planned for March 2011.

10. Other Facts.

a. Procurement History: Contract DAAH01-01-C-0034 was awarded 12 December 2000 on a full and open competition (FAR 6.1) basis to GDC4S. This award for five years, including options, authorized the procurement of 53 systems, Engineering Services, Spares, and Interim Contractor Support (ICS) at a ceiling amount of $181,621,615. The last contract, W31P4Q-06-C0274, was awarded on 31 March 2006, and authorized procurement of 10 additional TAIS systems. This award was approved for 5 years sole sourced (FAR 6.302-1(b)(1)) to GDC4S, including options, and also authorized the procurement of Engineering Services, Spares, Reset of redeploying systems, update of logistics documentation, and Software Licenses at a ceiling amount of $163,764,537.

b. Acquisition Data Availability: General Dynamics Decision Systems (GDC4S) is the prime contractor who currently asserts the proprietary data rights to the manufacturing processes, engineering data and software packages required to perform the required services, based on the use of Internal Research and Development (IR&D) funds in the development of TAIS. GDC4S designed and developed the TAIS system hardware and software and is the only TAIS system manufacturer.

c. Subcontracting Competition. In accordance with FAR 19.708(b), the contract will contain all the necessary clauses requiring the contractor to develop and implement a subcontracting plan.

11. Technical and 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: Shaun D. Lee DATE:___________________________

TITLE: Acting APM, TAIS SIGNATURE:___________________________

12. Fair and Reasonable Determination. I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. The basis for this determination will be the cost and pricing analysis and the technical evaluation reports. Certified cost and pricing data will be required.

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

TYPED NAME: Debra Long DATE:__________________________________

TITLE: Contracting Officer SIGNATURE:____________________________

Approval Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of a new Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee contract for Engineering Services hours for studies, analysis, non recurring engineering, logistical documentation development and maintenance, software development, and Firm-Fixed-Price CLINS for the procurement of TAIS hardware retrofits from General Dynamics C4 Systems effective 1 April 2011 until 31 March 2013, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C.2304(c), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(b)(1), "Only One Responsible Source or only from a limited number of responsible sources, and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements," subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition. The estimated contract value for this requirement is $71,454,680.

DATE: __________________________________SIGNATURE:_______________________________