A03JAMIRAGEXLRedacted.pdf

Control Number: 15-A008

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) Division A, ATTN: CCAP-CCA 6001 Combat Drive Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION:

This Justification and Approval is for a new sole-source, Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contract utilizing FY14/15 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds. This contract award is for one (1) Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. (SBIR) MIRAGE XL System, which is comprised of the Infrared Scene Projector (IRSP) and Calibration Radiometry System (CRS). The Independent Government Cost Estimate for the procurement of the MIRAGE XL System is approximately $1.75M, based upon previous purchases and a quote obtained from SBIR. Delivery time is estimated at eighteen months from date of purchase. Anticipated date of award is 15 July 2015.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

This acquisition by the US Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) will purchase a MIRAGE XL System for the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) Information and Intelligence Warfare Directorate (I2WD)

The Mirage XL is a commercial item as it is sold to the public for use in various industries. The current MIRAGE XL System utilized in laboratory at I2WD was acquired during the performance of the contract

This system accepts images and displays high-resolution exact images in the infrared spectrum to a system under test

(SUT).

The CIRCM system is lighter weight, draws less power and is more capable than the older ATIRCM system. Based on these features, it opens up the capability to be installed on lighter aircraft, where the heavier one could not.

The CIRCM system is required to be evaluated at several Government Science and Technology (S&T) / Test & Evaluation (T&E) facilities., Both laboratories use the MIRAGE XL System produced by SBIR. The Lab is required to provide data that is compatible to and able to be correlated . The personnel who are running/utilizing the MIRAGE XL System were previously trained by SBIR during Factory Acceptance Training as well as have previous experience from working with the ) lab unit that was purchased during the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) transition from Ft. Monmouth to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

The Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. IRSP displays high-resolution/high-fidelity images in the Infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The optical table consists of different optics mounts, optics lenses, the MIRAGE XL scene projector and custom collimating optics assembly. These parts are positioned in such fashion to make up an optics train

The resultant data is then compared with other laboratories within the DoD for accuracy.

The CRS portion of the MIRAGE XL System is used to continuously keep the laboratory calibrated. The CRS is required when performing Verification/Validation and Accreditation of laboratories that support Science and Technology (S&T)/Program of Record (PoR) test events.

4. AUTHORITY CITED:

10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED:

Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. (SBIR) located at 30 South Calle Cesar Chavez - Suite D, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 is the manufacturer of the MIRAGE XL System. SBIR sells direct to end users.

The Government requires continued technical purchasing support associated with the Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE) domain. This request is for procurement of the MIRAGE XL System which is a complete and calibrated unit for high-fidelity testing. In July 2013, during the performance of

Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE), BAH acquired the IRSP as part of the materials for the development of current and emerging hardware requirements to support the activities in the Booz Allen Hamilton’s (BAH) subcontractor for this effort was Santa Barbara Infrared who developed the IRSP, and custom fitted the IRSP to the Government-Owned custom-developed Collimating/Combining Optics (CCO) in the Lab. The optical interface was developed by StingRay Optics who has proprietary optical lens designs that are included in the CCO. StingRay Optics is unwilling to sell the lens designs to the Government. The Government does not own the interface drawings, nor the Interface Control Document (ICD) between the IRSP and CCO.

Additionally, the Government designed/created custom software which consists of multiple computer Software Configuration Items (CSCIs) and that are only interoperable with the proprietary ICD that SBIR holds. Individual components of the requirement cannot be competitively acquired due to ICD being proprietary between the MIRAGE XL System. No other manufacturers have access to the ICD. These CSCIs have been in development for approximately two (2) years and would need to be completely re-engineered if SBIR is not the chosen source for the procurement. The Government estimates that it would require five software engineers for two years to completely re-engineer the CSCIs based on work previously performed in another laboratory.

In addition, I2WD and its customer have invested in development of the laboratory:

facility infrastructure, custom cooling, optical designs, scene generation software, calibration techniques, equipment alignment procedures, system Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The existing facility; its aforementioned software and equipment is tailored to support interfacing with the current MIRAGE XL System. Procurement of a backup system for the lab will provide feasibility to leverage to the maximum extent common CONOPS, SOPs, test equipment, tools, calibration techniques and processes without the risk of extended downtime due to the possibility of catastrophic failure of the current IRSP. If the current MIRAGE XL System should fail or malfunction, without an additional backup unit on hand, the lab could remain in an unusable state which would cause up to an 18 month schedule delay.

Therefore, obtaining an additional MIRAGE XL System for the lab would significantly reduce cost, schedule and performance risks associated with evaluating data produced by non-compatible systems.

Migrating to another vendor’s technology would require re-development of this infrastructure to accommodate a new interface. In addition, if data produced between the two systems are inconsistent, identifying the cause would be more challenging because it could be an operational performance issue or a test equipment incompatibility issue which could delay on-going testing and subsequent data analysis.

The Government has not attempted to organically develop or reverse engineer the MIRAGE XL system. The Government doesn't own the facilities to organically develop the Large Format Resistive Array (LFRA) which is the long lead item portion of the MIRAGE XL System. The Government will not attempt to reverse engineer this system due to its complex nature and dismantling the system will render the system inoperable.

Procurement of the SBIR MIRAGE XL System would allow results from and other Army labs continue to be corroborated and evaluated with consistency, reduce overall lab infrastructure development costs by not having to re-engineer the past five years’ worth of interface and control software, and minimize T&E risks that would impact program schedule.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document.

7. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION:

Due to the specific technical and interoperability requirements described in Paragraph 5, competition for this action is not feasible at this time to meet the Government's requirement. The purchase of this MIRAGE XL system will meet the current requirements for the Laboratory in that it provides expanded testing opportunities and redundancy of equipment required to mitigate performance risk. The Government does not anticipate the purchase of additional MIRAGE XL systems in the near future for the

Laboratory. The expected life span of the MIRAGE XL is 8 – 10 years, at which time, it is expected that technology may have matured and/or other manufacturers may be able to meet the requirement. In the future, prior to purchase of any SBIR Mirage XL system, the Government will conduct market research to determine if the market place has changed to enable a full and open competition procurement.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

The Government’s technical experts conduct ongoing market research by reviewing the World Wide Web, industry catalogs and registers, and attending the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) bi-yearly conference, Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA) yearly conference and most recently the Advanced Technologies for Defense, Security + Sensing (DSS) symposiums, which occurred in April 2015.

Additional market research was conducted when ACC-APG, in conjunction with the CERDEC I2WD EWAGS Division Technical Point of Contact, released the Request For Information (RFI) on the FedBizOps website under solicitation number W56KGU15R0031. This was released on 24 June 2015 at 15:17 hours and proposals due by 30 June 2015 at 0800 hrs. Only Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. responded to the

RFI.

Based on the above market research, the Government’s technical experts concluded that only SBIR can meet the Government’s requirements for procurement of the SBIR MIRAGE XL System.

9. INTERESTED SOURCES:

Only Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. responded to the RFI. No other sources replied to the RFI of June 2015.

10a. PROCUREMENT HISTORY CACI solicited and procured a MIRAGE XL System to support the laboratory during the BRAC transition from Fort Monmouth, NJ to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, at that time only one offeror was capable of meeting the technical requirements: Santa Barbara Infrared (SBIR).

In 2013 BAH procured a second MIRAGE XL as part of the materials for the development of current and emerging hardware requirements to support the activities in the Lab on a sole source basis. This purchase leveraged the previous four years development for laboratory design. Interface software is continuously updated in order to resolve anomalies discovered during test scenarios and shared between both I2WD laboratories, at APG, .

10b. OTHER FACTS:

The Government works with other MIRAGE XL systems in multiple laboratories across the Department of Defense (DoD) and has coordinated efforts to validate data from similar test events. Standardizing to the MIRAGE XL between multiple laboratories has reduced integration risk and the data sets that come out of the testing have been consistent. Once the laboratory is accredited the integration of dissimilar (non-exact replacement) equipment would require the entire lab to undergo re-accreditation, a 12-24 month process.

11. 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.

SIGNATURE-Team Lead

E-Signed by MCMULLEN.CURT.A.1257524880 VERIFY authenticity with e-Sign

NAME MCMULLEN.CURT.A.1257524880

DATE Wednesday, 15 July, 2015

12. 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.

SIGNATURE- Chief (Acting), E-Signed by TULLY.ROBERT.N.1228908343 VERIFY authenticity with eSign Desktop

NAME TULLY.ROBERT.N.1228908343

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination:

I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on price analysis, comparison of proposed prices to historical prices paid for the same item, published price lists, and the Independent Government cost estimate. In accordance with FAR 15.403-1(b) (3); the contracting officer shall not require certified cost or pricing data to support any action when a commercial item is being acquired.

SIGNATURE- CONTRACTING

OFFICER

NAME

14. CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

SIGNATURE- CONTRACTING

OFFICER

NAME

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of MIRAGE XL System on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c), FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A) – Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition, subject to the availability of funds, and provided the property herein described has otherwise been authorized for acquisition. If the proposed contract action is not completed within 180 days from the below date, this Justification and Approval shall be returned to the Special Competition Advocate for revalidation. Additionally, should there be changes to the requirements, basis for the justification, market conditions or increases in the estimated value of the proposed action, the Contracting Officer shall document these changes in a memorandum and obtain review/concurrence from the Special Competition Advocate.

Competition Advocate