MICCJA1392Redacted.pdf

MICC Control No. 2013-92 MICC Fort Hood Control No. 13-41

JUSTIFICATION DOCUMENT

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

GAVELS UPGRADE AND SUSTAINMENT

1. CONTRACTING AGENCY: Mission and Installation Contracting Command-Fort Hood (MICC-Fort Hood), 1001 761st Tank Battalion Ave. Room W103, Fort Hood, Texas 76544

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: Negotiate a three-year Sole Source, Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Trex Enterprises for highly specialized equipment and services as a follow-on to contract W9115U-11-C-0003. The purpose of the new IDIQ contract will be to produce additional Geometric Automated Video Location System (GAVELS) hardware for the Army Test and Evaluation Command, specifically for the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate (ABNSOTD) and design, develop and integrate new capabilities, hardware and software, into existing GAVELS systems. Also, the contractor will provide GAVELS sustainment support for both the ABNSOTD and FIRES Test Directorate (FTD) systems. FY13 (and future year) Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds will be used to fund the development, production and sustainment.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: This contract will develop the capability within the software for the GAVELS-Night Vision Capability (NVC) to track paratroopers and low velocity airdrop loads. The contractor will produce a system consisting of, at a minimum, eight Data Collection Systems (DCS), one Data Reduction System (DRS), and a Remote Control System (RCS). All system software will be delivered to ABNSOTD and FTD and loaded on the GAVELS NVC. FTD and ABNSOTD at times share GAVELS assets. For this reason, it is imperative that the FTD and ABNSOTD systems be 100% compatible. The FTD GAVELS and the ABNSOTD GAVELS shall maintain a competitive hardware and software package that allows each GAVELS to be interchangeable between directorates. Total estimated cost for this effort is approximately $4,408,975.50 for production, of which $1,454,121.50 is for the purchase of additional hardware and $308,312 for three (3) years of sustainment of all GAVELS fielded systems. The minimum expenditure on the contract would be $2,954,854 and the maximum would be $4,717,285.76.

4. AUTHORITY CITED: The statutory authority permitting sole source procurement is 10 U.S.C 2304(C)(1) as implemented by FAR6-302-1(a)(2)(iii), Only one Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Needs.

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED

a. BACKGROUND: The GAVELS concept was developed by the FTD, formally

Fire Support Test Directorate (FSTD) at Fort Sill, OK. Because of the immediate need for this instrumentation, the Army's Operational Test and Evaluation Command (OPTEC) funded an austere version of GAVELS in 1998. This austere version was developed by Integrated Sensors Incorporated (ISI) of Utica, NY. The austere GAVELS was designed, developed and used as the field test instrumentation package for the Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) conducted at Fort Greeley, Alaska.

GAVELS enhancement was originally procured from Integrated Sensors Incorporated (ISI) under contract (DATM01-99-D-0100). A follow-on Purchase Order was issued based on the previous Sole Source contract with ISI. In 2009, the Government issued a 100% competitive Small Business Set-Aside solicitation to industry for a new GAVELS requirement under W9115U-09-R-0001. Four offers were received in response to the solicitation. Of the four, one was deemed late and therefore not considered for award. The remaining proposals were evaluated and deemed outside the fair market price as they were approximately 35% or more higher than the independent Government Estimate and therefore deemed unaffordable. Based on non-affordability the Government cancelled Solicitation W9115U-09-R-0001. A request was submitted via the Small Business Coordination Record (2579) for the removal of the GAVELS requirement as a small business set-a-side and approval for full and open competition. Approval was received from the Small Business Specialist to proceed with full and open competition. Four proposals were received in response to the solicitation and all four were evaluated. Award was made to TREX Enterprises.

b. ALTERNATIVES: Currently there are no other alternative sources within the Government available to meet the needs of this requirement and there are no other systems within the Government that can be modified to meet the needs of this requirement. Additionally Market Research conducted has not identified any commercial equivalent or commercial product that can be modified to meet the needs of this requirement.

Although there are other contractors available to produce a new GAVELS, it would take a new contractor two to four years to become knowledgeable of the Trex proprietary software and be capable of producing the modifications required to perform tracking functions. The new contractor would also have to branch off of the existing software which could cause difficulties maintaining interoperability of binaries generated by two separate branches of code. In order to work out the potential problems that branching may cause would require additional funding of approximately $500,000 which is beyond any expectation of savings that could be achieved through competition. If a new contractor was to receive this award, the time that it would take to branch off of the old system and try to achieve interoperability would result in high risk to the Government which would cause unacceptable delays in fulfilling upcoming tests.

c. JUSTIFICATION: The Government currently owns GAVELS 1.0 software and the technical data package, which is the baseline for the GAVELS. The technical data package that the Government is in possession of consists of Binary (executable) software files required for operation of all GAVELS components and subsystems. The Government also is in the possession of the Server Software Development Kits (SDK) that includes Trex ImageServer SDK with all header and import library files for all Trex ImageServer and Trex Telescope Toolkit modules used in the GAVELS system, allowing the government to make future modifications and extensions to the GAVELS system. The Government also has all 3rd party software modules used by the GAVELS, including SDKs, etc., source codes for all GAVELS-specific modules developed under the previous GAVELS contract and all software licenses acquired using GAVELS contract funds. The Government is also licensed for unlimited use and distribution of all Trex-developed software components mentioned. Although the Government owns a technical data package, the Government does not own the source codes to Trex's pre-existing modules and libraries that are currently being used with GAVELS 1.0. The Government only has access to the header and binary form. Without these source codes a vendor will encounter difficulties successfully accomplishing the work required to upgrade and perform sustainment work on the existing GAVELS as well as design, test and develop new software and hardware to ensure uniformity of performance and operation within the two systems. Award of this contract to a new contractor would also present duplications of cost to upgrade and sustain two different system versions.

Different systems would create the need for the Government to certify two separate systems for use in Operational testing. Different systems would create additional lifecycle costs for DIACAP certification (approximately $50,000). The current FTD GAVELS has met all the DIACAP requirements and has a full Authority to Operate with an Accreditation Termination Date (ATD) of 6 Mar 2015. Commonality of systems owned and operated by different divisions of the Army Operational Test Command must meet the directives of the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC). Specifically, ATEC Reg 10-15 states “An integrated ATEC-wide approach will be taken to look across all test technology projects for collaboration and leveraging opportunities in order to avoid unnecessary duplication, promote common instrumentation and foster interdependencies and reuse of developed capabilities. Future test technology acquisition efforts must align with this guidance in order to obtain funding.”

Awarding this contract to Trex Enterprises on a sole source basis presents a low risk approach to achieving compatibility between the two systems. This award would also greatly reduce the time and cost required to complete upgrades to software and produce new systems.

d. PRIOR ACQUISITIONS: The contract listed below was solicited under W9115U-10-R-0002 and issued electronically on 16 July 2010 on the ATEC Mission Support Contracting Activity (AMSCA) website at https://www.amsca.atec.army.mil and in FedBizOpps. Also posted were the Exhibits and Attachments listed in Section J of the solicitation and historical data that would aid the offerors in preparing their proposal.

The closing date for receipt of proposals was 16 August 2010 at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Four proposals were received and all four proposals were evaluated.

The proposals were evaluated by the Source Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB) Technical and Management, Performance Risk Assessment, and Cost Committees.

The award was made based on the best overall (i.e., best value) proposal that was determined to be the most beneficial to the Government, with appropriate consideration given to the four evaluation factors: Technical, Performance Risk, Small Business Participation Plan and Cost.

https://www.amsca.atec.army.mil/

Contract Number Contractor How Procured

Contract Type

Contract Amount

Period of Performance

Contractor Business

Size

W9115U-11-C-0003 Trex Enterprises

Full and Open

CPFF $1,907,600 31 Dec 2012 Small

e. IMPACT: Without this instrumentation, OTC will not be able to perform its assigned mission in support of a DOD Joint C-17 test, scheduled to start mid-January 2014, which is part of a series of tests designed to evaluate the performance impact of C-17 aircraft flying in an overload configuration. The operational impact assessment due to changes in an aircraft’s configuration to air drop operations and safety is one of OTC’s mission responsibilities. GAVELS is the only instrumentation system ATEC has that is capable of automatically visually tracking the air drop path of individually designated personnel and equipment from the exit of the plane to landing. In addition, GAVELS records the data necessary to develop a 3-d image of the drop path, which is required to understand the drop dynamics due to force such as air turbulence due to the aircraft itself and aircraft in formation with it. Without GAVELS, OTC cannot obtain the information required to provide an operational and safety assessment needed by DOD as part of this program as there is no other means to collect this information.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION: The contract to develop GAVELS NVC for FTD was awarded on the basis of full and open competition. MICC Fort Hood published a Special Notice of intention to issue a Sole Source IDIQ award for GAVELS NVC development on 8 September 2012 in FedBizOpps. No vendors responded. An amendment to that notice was issued on 11 February 2013 with additional information.

No vendors responded. On 17 July 2013 a new Notice of Intent was posted to FedBizOpps due to the period of time that had passed since the original and amendment posting dates. To date there is no generated interest from industry.

7. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION: The Government will not undertake any actions to increase competition since this is estimated to be a one-time contract with no follow-on procurements. Based on the life cycle of the GAVELS NVC system, the Government will use the system for its entire lifecycle (estimated - 10 years) and then replace the system through competition since technology constantly changes.

Therefore, the Government will not pursue getting a technical data package for building additional systems, but will concentrate on getting the technical data required to perform routine maintenance over the life of the system.

8. MARKET RESEARCH: Market Research was conducted to seek a vendor capable of enhancing the design, development, and production for the GAVELS, a one-of-a-kind Government system used to locate exploding artillery rounds and to track parachute airdrop items, including personnel and cargo, using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates and altitude. Market Research revealed that currently there are no other mandatory sources of supply to fulfill this requirement and there has been no generated interest in this requirement from industry since the competition of the previous contract. A search of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) under NAICS Code 334220 was also conducted. The search identified over two thousand small business concerns under the applicable NAICS.

Although the search revealed numerous vendors under this NAICS, this was not an indication that these vendors could provide the GAVELS needed. A synopsis of intent to award on a sole source basis to generate interest in this requirement was posted to FedBizopps and there has been no response to date.

Additionally, previous GAVELS was developed specifically for the Fire Support Test Directorate (FSTD) at Fort Sill, OK, and the GAVELS has not been offered to the general public. Based upon the specialized effort required to carry out the tasks under this requirement, and market research, the requested task has been rendered noncommercial.

9. INTERESTED SOURCES: As stated in paragraph 6 above. There have been three notices of the intent to award a sole source basis to Trex Enterprises. To date, no other sources have expressed an interest either verbally, in writing or by email.

10. OTHER FACTS:

a. Procurement History: See para 5(d) above.

b. Acquisition data availability: The Image Server software used as the basis of the GAVELS NVC data analysis software is proprietary property of Trex Enterprises. The cost to acquire rights to the software does not make good business sense as the Government would not have a return on the investment through competition.

c. Unusual and compelling urgency: Although this justification and approval does not cite unusual and compelling as a basis, there is an urgency of need for the hardware and sustainment. Specifically, this requirement for the production of new GAVELS hardware and provision of sustainment services is required to support a DOD Joint C-17 test that will start mid-January 2014. The presence of this equipment at that test is critical to the test data collection efforts.

d. Subcontracting Competition: As the intended vendor is a Small Business a Subcontracting Plan is not needed.

11. TECHNICAL/REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance included in this Justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Name: Date: 9/3/2013 Title: Electronics Engineer Signature:

12. MANAGEMENT REVIEW/APPROVAL: The requirement herein described is a valid requirement for the activity named in this Justification. The technical and requirements information contained in this Justification represent the minimum needs of the Government. The only way to satisfy this requirement is by limiting the competition as described herein.

Name: Date: 9/4/2013 Title: Acting Test Technology Director Signature:

13. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION: I hereby determine that the anticipated price for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. The techniques identified at FAR 15.404-1(b)(2), specifically the previous production and sustainment contracts, will be used to ensure award will be at fair and reasonable prices. The Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) will primarily be an analysis of the contractor’s proposed cost. Additionally, the techniques identified at FAR 15.404-1(c)(2)(iii)) will be used to further ensure award will be at fair and reasonable prices.

Name: Date: 9/11/2013 Title: Contracting Officer Signature:

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

Name: Date: 9/11/2013 Title: Contracting Officer Signature:

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of the production of new GAVELS NVC units and the sustainment of all GAVELS NVC units, both currently on hand and new production, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C 2304(C)(1) as implemented by FAR6-302-1, Only one Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Needs, subject to the availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Signature: ____________________________ Date: 25 Sep 2013 Name: Christopher W. Chapple Title: Special Competition Advocate Agency: MICC, 418th CSB

1. CONTRACTING AGENCY: Mission and Installation Contracting Command-Fort Hood (MICC-Fort Hood), 1001 761st Tank Battalion Ave. Room W103, Fort Hood, Texas 76544