W911S026FA014 Redacted.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE//FEDCON

Control No. Eustis 2026-2

5. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 3406(c)(1) as implemented by FAR Part 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) – The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

6. Reason for Authority Cited:

a. As described at FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A), when the agency’s need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays. Since the existing contract has expired, it is required to execute a sole source, interim bridge contract with the incumbent contractor, full and open competition need not be provided for. The contract is required to allow continuation of essential services.

b. This contract is required due to the amount of time it will take to resolve the post-award protest at GAO, received on 29 September 2025. The task order contained a 1-month phase-in period that began on 22 June 2025 until the unsuccessful offeror submitted a protest with GAO on 1 July 2025. MICC Ft. Eustis took corrective action and a notification of award following corrective action was announced on 16 September 2025. Following the debriefings, an unsuccessful offeror filed a second protest with the GAO, challenging the Army’s source selection decision. W911S025F0142 expired on 22 October 2025, during the government shutdown, and currently there is a lapse in service. If a contract is awarded to a company other than JANUS, the new contractor will need the entire one-month phase-in period in order to prepare for and properly support the AIMD mission to provide applications support services for FCC.

c. The services performed by JANUS provide essential support to Army transformation and acquisition processes. The Army Capabilities and Architecture Development and Integration Environment (ArCADIE) and the Forge Modular Data Environment (Forge) provide the digital infrastructure for developing and integrating capability requirements, mitigating Army gaps, and maintaining authoritative data sources. ArCADIE enables architects and engineers across the Army and Joint community to develop model-based digital requirements aligned to validated threats.

Forge synchronizes concept development, experimentation, and threat-based capability analysis activities that are operationally relevant to the future force. These systems are foundational to the Army’s ability to execute transformation priorities and maintain strategic overmatch.

These services and all related tasks require significant Government and contractor involvement over prolonged periods in order to effectively facilitate and support the Army’s transformation priorities. Any sudden disruption in the performance of this critical program could result in gaps in defense readiness. Given the circumstances, JANUS is the only entity that has the necessary manpower, resources, and proven technical proficiency to perform these mission critical services without the required phase-in.

d. Alternatives: There are no other reasonable alternatives that will ensure uninterrupted critical services than to award a contract to JANUS. JANUS has the necessary personnel to provide applications support services for AIMD. In the absence of a contract award, unacceptable delays would cause a significant mission impact.

1) Suspend operations: There is a clear and present need for the Army to continue this critical service; therefore, to forgo services until resolution of the protest is not a viable option.

2) Use in-house personnel expertise: AIMD does not have sufficient experienced staff, training, or qualifications to carry out the services currently provided by JANUS and there are no available Government personnel able to supplement this work with the experience required to execute the tasks contained in the Performance Work Statement

(PWS).

3) Compete a short-term requirement: There is insufficient time to compete a short-term requirement and have another contractor performing within the timeframe available due to the necessary one-month phase-in. Conducting limited competition for the contract would create significant operational risk particularly when combined with the phase-in period. and a new contractor would not be able to perform the critical duties in such a short period. To maintain continuity and stability with the AIMD applications support services program, a contract award to JANUS must be executed. JANUS has the necessary personnel and experience to ensure continued operations of all functional areas related to application support services for the extended period.

e. Impact if justification is not approved: AIMD runs two databases on behalf of the Army, without minimum maintenance support to handle sudden disruption. Without the bare minimum of maintenance contractors to support ARCADIE, the Army Architecture repository will not be operational, and the Army architecture mission will fail, resulting in the inability to provide architecture and capability requirements data (formerly JCIDS) to the Joint Staff on behalf of the Army. Without the bare minimum of maintenance contractors to support Forge, FCC and T2COM will not be able access and maintain Army Gaps, Capability and Threat-based Assessments, and Warfighting Concepts that underpin Army Transformation decisions.

The furlough/lack of appropriations did not enable FCC to put in the extension as planned. Employees were unable to work, and the FCC did not have the funds for an extension, as Army Budget Office (ABO) had not provided any to FCC. The only funds the Army provided was Association of the United States Army in October and that Defense Travel System was done through Headquarters Department of Army staff. Additionally, FCC worked to get the services deemed as “excepted services” but was unsuccessful before the government shutdown ended.

Award of this contract to any other source would exponentially increase litigation risk and also require a phase-in period, which additional time would cause harm to the mission. Furthermore, it would be unreasonable for the Government to pay for two phase-in periods within a short period of time. The Government provides for a phase-in period in the award under protest and, if the bridge is awarded to another source, would provide a phase-in period for another contractor as well. Two one-month phase-in periods within one year is both unreasonable and unduly burdensome.

Not awarding a minimized support contract during the protest would result in a continued break in service that would severely jeopardize AIMD’s ability to complete this critical application support services and seriously impair operations. AIMD is the Army’s Operational architect IAW AR 25-1, DA PAM 25-1-1, AR 71-9 and AR 71-32 and has been tasked to maintain the Forge Modular Data environment on behalf of the Futures and Concepts Command (FCC) Commanding General and the Transformation and Training Command (T2COM) Commanding General.

7. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Due to the complexity of the AIMD application support services, a phase-in is required to acclimate any new staff. The current task order expired 21 October 2025. Because of the ongoing GAO protest, there is no time to include a phase-in for this contract if a vendor other than JANUS was selected for this interim solution. This requirement is unusual and compelling under FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A), and JANUS must receive the award. No Request for Information (RFI) nor Request for Proposals (RFP) was posted due to the exception listed in FAR 5.202(a)(2) as this contract action is made under the conditions described in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A).

a. Effective Competition: Because this is a sole source action, effective competition is not applicable.

8. Actions to Increase Competition: As indicated previously in Section 6, JANUS is the only entity that can realistically perform the interim support services. A contract for application support services provides the only viable solution to prevent unacceptable delays that would cause a significant mission impact until the GAO protest ruling is decided. This contract does support the current competitive action by allowing the Government to meet this requirement until the protest is resolved

9. Market Research: Market research was conducted for task order W911S025FA027 in accordance with FAR Part 10 and DFARS 210.001 in August 2024. See Market Research Report located in the contract file. Information in that report was revalidated in November 2025 to ensure no major changes have emerged since the original report in November 2025.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement History:

Contract: W911S0-21-D-0006