Data_Tactics_AF_TENCAP_J A.pdf

Control Number: RTP-FY14-06

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Program/Equipment: Agile Research of Technologies with Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) Talon Information Integration (I2) Research and Development (R&D) effort with L-3 Data Tactics Corporation.

Authority: 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1 Amount: $625,000.00

Prepared By:

Joseph Traugott DSN: 970-3988

DARPA Cell Technical Team Lead Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)

ARL-HRED-STTC

Procuring Contracting Officer:

Sherrie Blackmon DSN: 970-5499

Contracting Officer

ACC-APG-RTP

Technical Representative:

Joseph Traugott DSN: 970-3988

DARPA Cell Technical Team Lead Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)

ARL-HRED-STTC

Requirements Representative:

Joseph Traugott DSN: 970-3988

DARPA Cell Technical Team Lead Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)

ARL-HRED-STTC

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Program Manager: DSN: 970-3988

Signature:

Name: TRAUGOTT.JOSEPH.F.1232245944 Title: Program Manager (PM) Date: Tuesday, 19 August, 2014

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command -

Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG), Research Triangle Park Division (Orlando Branch) 12423 Research Parkway, Orlando, FL 32826-3274

2. Description of Action: Approval is requested to solicit for a new Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee contract, consisting of a five (5) month base period with an 11-month option period, with L-3 Data Tactics Corporation for Agile Research of Technologies with AF TENCAP Talon I2. This research effort will be funded with FY14 and FY15 (when appropriated) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) Operational Systems Development (6.7) funds.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Nexus 7 program and the AF TENCAP program have a support agreement that focuses on integrating the best of breed efforts from the Department of Defense (DOD) intelligence community and DARPA cloud initiatives to solve real-time, at the tactical edge, target disambiguation. Using the DARPA toolsets, the contractor, L-3 Data Tactics Corporation, shall introduce unique United States Air Force (USAF) datasets into DARPA's Nexus 7 cloud model, allowing the contractor to analyze current performance, research, and implement approaches for automated management and rapid reconfiguration and re-provisioning of cloud resources in support of USAF research requirements. As appropriate, results, augmentations, and lessons learned with the baseline will be shared back to the DARPA team. Based on their intimate knowledge and experience with this unique research configuration, L-3 Data Tactics Corporation shall continue to operate, extend, and manage the DARPA Nexus 7 hardware and cloud software baseline for large-scale data analytics research. Specifically, by leveraging their expertise and the core Nexus 7 architecture, data models and analytic approaches, L-3 Data Tactics Corporation shall implement specific solutions for solving long-standing track disambiguation and correlation challenges. This information analysis and processing architecture will then be used in support of the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) acquisition program and upgrades across the current Army, Navy, and Air Force systems. The architecture will then be used in support of development of program of record (POR), Predator and Reaper UAV ground stations to a modernized enterprise across the military services. These efforts will be measured against manual benchmarks of probability of detection and false alarm rates typically produced under the current manual processes.

4. Authority Cited: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) 6.302-1, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Reason for Authority Cited: L-3 Data Tactics Corporation, located at 7901 Jones Branch Drive Suite 700, Mc Lean, VA 22102-3385, is currently performing under contract number W911QX-12-C-0059, for an effort entitled, “Next-Generation Multi- Modal Analysis for Counterinsurgency,” proposed against Broad Agency Announcement number W91CRB-08-R-0073, Topic 10D: Emerging Modeling and Simulation Technologies, and is uniquely qualified to meet all Government requirements for the following reasons:

The overarching objective of the Talon Thresher and Talon I2 programs is to produce a prototype, high-fidelity air surveillance Air Domain Awareness (ADA) picture of the region of interest, integrating data from multiple security levels, and delivering to operational (Title 10) and intelligence (Title 50) users at both the Secret Collateral and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) levels. Fundamentally, the integration of Nexus 7 with USAF data for use in the Talon Thresher and Talon I2 projects will increase access and visibility of data to war fighters and analysts to enhance accelerated analysis of the data to create actionable information. The increased availability of actionable information and technology capabilities will allow analysts to rapidly identify unique associations across multiple domains that were previously lost in the volume, velocity, and variety of data. The unique modifications to Nexus 7, in this proposed new contract, allowing analysis of USAF datasets in DARPA's Nexus 7 cloud model, will solve target disambiguation in real time at the tactical edge. This is a paradigm of “moving” targets and legacy applications into a cloud computing infrastructure to allow both broader access across the enterprise as well as implementing greater security controls for user access and data provenance.

This effort will be funded with RDT&E Operational Systems Development (6.7) funds as it is primarily in support of the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) acquisition program and upgrades across the current Army, Navy, and Air Force systems. The ultimate aim will be to use this information analysis and processing architecture to support development of program of record (POR), Predator, and Reaper UAV ground stations to a modernized enterprise across the military services.

In addition, AF TENCAP is currently working with Army, Navy, and IC counterparts on realistic and affordable applications of agile information technologies. This effort will further improve the coordination between all Title 10 information enterprise participants seeking to improve real-time actionable intelligence. This includes real-time targeting and situational awareness acquired through the integration of numerous DAB-approved Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) PORs.

AF TENCAP has one of the only existing and fully accredited Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication Systems (JWICS) “clouds.” This system has been online and accredited since 2012; leveraging it will accelerate the program's ability to begin addressing data specific problems and spare it the hardships of standing up its own infrastructure.

L-3 Data Tactics Corporation is the only source that can accomplish this work as they are the only company that has the intimate knowledge and experience with the core Nexus 7 architecture, data models, and analytic approaches. L-3 Data Tactics Corporation is the only vendor familiar with Nexus 7 military CONOPS algorithms that have been proven effective in theatre and that will give them the experience to carry out similar algorithm development for AFTENCAP. The AF TENCAP and ARL are interested in experimenting with existing analysis capabilities and software algorithms previously developed by L-3 Data Tactics Corporation. The DOD plans to conduct experiments and tests of these algorithms using specific USAF and DOD data sets within the next six (6) months. To recreate, or redevelop, these algorithms and hardware implementations would be extremely expensive and time consuming, possibly extending the planned experimentation schedule by three (3) to four (4) years. It is anticipated that full and open competition of this effort would result in a substantial duplication of labor and non-recurring engineering conducted under the current contract awarded to L-3 Data Tactics Corporation (contract number W911QX-12-C-0059). A conservative cost impact to the Government is estimated to exceed $4.8M and 64K direct labor hours, which is based on the current contract awarded to L-3 Data Tactics Corporation. In addition, a full and open competition would substantially delay planned experiment activities under the current contract awarded to L-3 Data Tactics Corporation.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Based on the information in paragraph five (5), above, competition for this action was not feasible. In accordance with FAR 5.201, a Notice of Intent to Sole Source was issued to Federal Business Opportunities website on 06 May 2014. The notice expressed the Government’s intent to procure the research and development efforts described in paragraph 3, above. No capability statements, proposals, or quotations in response to this notice were received from industry proposing this specific R&D effort.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research like that discussed below in paragraph 8, to stay abreast of changes in the market place and technological advancements that may enable future requirements to be acquired using full and open competition.

8. Market Research: Extensive research was conducted via the Internet and through discussions with experts at DARPA, and USAF TENCAP personnel by Mr. Gerald (Jerry) Speer, Science and Technology Manager with over 30 years of DOD engineering experience, assigned to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Human Research and Engineering Directorate, Simulation and Training Technology Center, from December 2013 to May 2014. In addition a search using the “Defense Innovation Marketplace” website was carried out and no evidence could be found of companies working in the area of large scale data analytics for the purpose of counterinsurgency.

The unique and novel nature of this research is a practical engineering factor that has resulted in no other sources being found that can accomplish this specific research and development effort and the resulting unique technological advancement. No other industry sources can provide the combination of algorithm development and cloud modeling expertise required for this effort without extensive ramp-up time and costs.

The specialized nature of this effort has also prohibited other vendors from having the necessary specific technical knowledge to perform the tasks required. Moreover, the development of several tool sets and algorithms and underlying key research findings in areas such as “Network Mining,” “Patterns of Violence,” and “Unconventional Data Sources” have been on-going for several years. To replace L-3 Data Tactics Corporation’s experience, insight, and previous development work, would cost the Government far more than the labor hours required for this task.

9. Interested Sources: A synopsis was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on 06 May 2014 stating the Government's intent to issue a sole source contract for this effort to L-3 Data Tactics Corporation. To date, no other sources have expressed an interest in becoming the prime contractor for this R&D effort in writing or otherwise. Should any responses to the announcement be received, consideration will be given as to whether there may be other responsible sources capable of providing the required design and development effort in the timeframe necessary.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History: L-3 Data Tactics Corporation has historical experience in this area of technology from work performed under contract number W911QX-12-C- 0059, for “Next-Generation Multi-Modal Analysis for Counterinsurgency,” which was competitively awarded to L-3 Data Tactics Corporation on 21 June 2012 in response to Broad Agency Announcement number W91CRB-08-R-0073. This effort addresses the substantial divide between conventional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and the needs of modern counterinsurgency (COIN). L-3 Data Tactics Corporation will use advanced computational techniques, modeling, and simulation to fuse the full spectrum of existing multi-intelligence data for multi-scale situational understanding of social, economic, and political battlefields. L-3 Data Tactics Corporation shall (1) develop advanced algorithms capable of running in a distributed and parallel cloud computing environment, (2) develop new sources of data and applications of existing data to meet the evolving intelligence needs of the Warfighter, (3) advance the state of the art in intelligence collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination for COIN, and (4) produce tools, techniques, and products of immediate use to the Warfighter.

The aforementioned contract was awarded as a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) contract type with a period of performance consisting of 24 months from date of award, with 12 months for the basic period, and 12 months for the option period, if exercised. The CPFF contract type was utilized because the effort is for research and development, not for the acquisition of commercial items, and the level of effort required was unknown.

b. Acquisition Data Availability: The current technology developed under contract W911QX-12-C-0059 is a research effort to support DARPA as part of an ongoing effort to improve U.S. Intelligence analysis capabilities. Since this was a research effort and it is still developing it has not been well documented as of yet and therefore there is no documentation to give to other contractors to recreate the system. As the technology is matured and passes from research to acquisition, efforts will be made to document the technology but at the moment documentation is not available."

c. Subcontracting Competition: FAR clauses 52.219-8, Utilization of Small Business Concerns, will be included in the resulting contract, if applicable. The PCO will encourage the maximum use of subcontracting competition for supplies, materials, and non-technical services.

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:

Name: TRAUGOTT.JOSEPH.F.1232245944 Title: Technical Certifier (Tech) Date: Tuesday, 19 August, 2014

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.

Name: TRAUGOTT.JOSEPH.F.1232245944 Title: Requirements Certifier (Req) Date: Tuesday, 19 August, 2014

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 and include a cost analysis, and input from the Defense Contract Audit Agency, to include an audit, if necessary. Additionally, other than certified cost or pricing data will be obtained.

Name: BLACKMON.SHERRIE.ANN.1069439310 Title: Contracting Officer (KO) Date: Tuesday, 19 August, 2014

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

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of the “Agile Research of Technologies with Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) Talon Information Integration (I2)” research and development effort on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.