W91CRB-14-D-0028-0001_Exception_to_Fair_Opportunity_Redacted_FINAL.pdf

Version – MAY 2016 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR PART 6 JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN

FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Program/Equipment: Evaluation Sciences Support for the U.S. Army Evaluation Center (AEC), Integrated Suitability and Methodology Evaluation Directorate (ISMED), Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304c(b)(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.

Amount: $699,680.05

Prepared by: DSN:

Program Specialist Date:

Email:

Contracting Officer: Gerald H. Taulbee DSN: 298-2851 Procuring Contracting Officer Date:

Email: gerald.h.taulbee.civ@mail.mil

Technical: DSN:

Technical Director Date:

Email:

Requirements: DSN:

Program Analyst Date:

Email:

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity.

Program Manager:

DSN:

Signature: __ ___ _____ Date: ____________________31 Oct 2015

FAR Part 16 Exception to Fair Opportunity Justification Under Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Contracts

For Actions Exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT)

1. Contracting Activity: Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground, ATTN: CCAP-SCD, 4310 Boothby Hill Road, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005

2. Description of Action: The U.S. Army Evaluation Center (AEC), Integrated Suitability and Methodology Evaluation Directorate (ISMED) requests a modification to a cost-plus, fixed-fee (CPFF) task order, contract W91CRB-14-D-0028-0001 with Joint Research and Development, Inc. (JRAD) located at 50 Tech Parkway, Suite 209, Stafford, Virginia 22556. The Government projects award in November 2016 and fiscal year 2017, Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funds will be used. An acquisition plan is not required because this procurement does not meet the threshold at Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 207.103(d)(i)(B).

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The AEC ISMED has a critical requirement for highly specialized personnel to provide technical and operational evaluation support for the Evaluation Sciences mission within AEC. The evaluation sciences include the planning and conducting of independent, integrated technical and operational evaluations of overall system reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM); design of experiments (DoE) principals and statistical analysis for all oversight programs; the application of relevant modeling & simulation (M&S) tools, analysis, and Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) federations; capturing and archiving RAM test data and generating success metrics; and developing and providing policy, methodology, guidance, standards, tools and training to the workforce.

RAM evaluation execution, in collaboration with Integrated Product Support evaluators, forms the AEC suitability evaluation for recommendations and Army decisions in support of Acquisition Milestones, Materiel Changes, and Materiel Releases. M&S task execution, in coordination with model proponents, provides solutions for system evaluations with the application of current and appropriate M&S tools. Tasks performed provide a knowledge base for system performance analysis; use of LVC environments for test and evaluation; and verification, validation, and accreditation of model, simulations, and stimulations. DoE task execution provides ATEC System Teams (ASTs) with system DoE and data analysis to support independent evaluations. DoE tasks provide input into Test and Evaluation Master Plans (TEMPs), System Evaluation Plans (SEPs), and other system evaluation reports and briefings which support the independent test and evaluation of Army Materiel.

The evaluations provide critical information to Army Department of Defense (DoD), and US Government senior leaders on the impact a system’s reliability has on the Warfighter’s mission and also on underlying operational and supports costs of the system. JRAD provides ISMED technical services in support of AEC’s technical and operational evaluation mission. The services may include, among other things, data formulation, data compilation, data arrangement, data analyses, data presentation and consultation with the suitability evaluators. The services also include test planning, System Evaluation Plan (SEP) and Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP) input and review evaluation to test linkages; review of manually collected Test Incident Reports (TIRs) for completeness, accuracy and consistency; review and analysis of instrumented data to track data packets and identify system failure point(s).

The underlying Task Order will expire 30 November 2016 and technical services must continue without interruption so that analyses can be performed for evaluations to support milestone decisions (production and fielding decisions) on key Army and DoD systems. This modification will provide the same type of services for an additional six months with the task order period of performance end date being extended through 31 May 2017. The total value of the six month extension is $699,680.05.

4. Authority Cited: 10 U.S.C. 2304c(b)(1) as implemented by FAR 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.

5. Reason for Authority Cited: JRAD is currently providing the services under this task order, which will expire on 30 November 2016. A recompete is currently in process, but due to unexpected delays, award will not be made by the period of performance end date of 30 November 2016. A final task order recompete package was provided on 9 June 2016. A draft request for proposal (TOR) was released to AEC Omnibus small business contract holders on 17 July 2016. Numerous questions were received on the draft TOR, which necessitated multiple revisions to TOR documents. In August 2016, AEC’s current leadership provided guidance to the Directorates to examine the source selection strategies for the AEC Omnibus task order to determine whether a lowest-price technically acceptable (LPTA) or trade-off source selection approach was more appropriate going forward. This examination required ISMED to again revise acquisition documents and TOR evaluation criteria.

TOR release is scheduled for early November 2016. Historically, AEC Omnibus task order competitions take up to six months for award. Providing an additional six months for performance on the current task order contract will allow for an adequate response time for proposal submittals, proposal evaluation, discussion with offerors, if necessary, and a 30-day transition in period.

JRAD is the only company that can provide the continuation of support that will allow evaluation of critical testing on numerous programs. If task order W91CRB-14-D-0028 is not extended to allow continued performance through 31 May 2017, critical programs will experience unacceptable delays. Currently ISMED has critical testing events for the WIN-T, PATRIOT PAC-3, M109 FOV, JTAGS, and TPQ-53 programs that require active test and assessment efforts as well as ongoing Center for Reliability Growth initiatives.

Evaluations of WIN-T developmental test (DT) and operational test (OT) events in 1st quarter FY17 will be jeopardized if JRAD support is not continued beyond 30 November 2016. JRAD is currently performing specialized analysis to support the suitability evaluation. Data collection and analysis from the WIN-T DT and OT evaluations must remain consistent. JRAD analyzes and runs specialized queries on instrumented data which needs to be maintained from the October 2016 to the upcoming OT in spring

2017. If support ends, AEC will be unable to complete its mission to characterize the WIN-T Increment 2 system suitability for Warfighter operators and maintainers with updated light versions of the tactical communication node (TCN) and network operations support center (NOSC). Without AEC's evaluation, the Army lifecycle sustainment managers will not be equipped with adequate information to ensure the Army's tactical network is maintained with parts and operator/maintainers.

The remaining programs, PATRIOT PAC-3, M109 FOV, JTAGS and TPQ-53 all currently have operational tests scheduled now through early 2017. JRAD will perform RAM data collection, compilation, and analyses and execute detailed instrumentation queries and analysis of data elements and network protocols, which requires extensive experience in order to be efficient. The evaluations of the operational tests are crucial for formulating recommendations to support senior Army and DoD decision makers. If contractor support were to end on 30 November 2016, it will cause unacceptable scheduled coverage, incomplete evaluations, and potential implementation of longer term and more costly contractor logistics support resulting from inadequate evaluation of organic military support for the aforementioned programs.

JRAD’s contractor personnel have the proper skill sets and knowledge of the program support tasks for ongoing test and assessments. As such, no other vendor can maintain the services without a transition period, and would thereby cause unacceptable program risk and delays. A new contractor will require a transition period to fully integrate and understand the requirements of the programs being tested and evaluated. At this time, JRAD is the only source of providing the required services to maintain the required level of analysis needed to support schedule deadlines.

6. Actions to Increase Competition: A recompete for this task order is currently underway as a set-aside to the AEC Omnibus small business contract holders. In total, there are seven small business contract holders and competition is expected to be received on this action. During the last competition on this task order, the Government received proposals from all seven small business Omnibus contract holders.

7. Market Research: Market Research was conducted for W91CRB-13-R-0009 that resulted in 11 multiple award base ID/IQ contracts. In October 2016, AEC undertook an in-house review to determine if any AEC in-house contracts were available to support AEC’s requirements. Results revealed that there were no existing AEC contracts with an available ceiling amount and technical support capabilities to perform AEC’s complex service requirements. Although Federal Supply Schedules were found that had professional engineering and analytical support vendors, none had the experience and expertise to conduct highly technical and complex evaluations without significant time impacts.

8. Other Facts:

Procurement History/Previous Contract:

Contract: W91CRB-06D-0016/0047 Contractor: VRC Corporation

Award Date: 05/19/2011 Competitive Status: Competitive Authority: N/A

9. 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.

Typed Name: Date: ________________

Title: Technical Director, ISMED Signature: _ _____

10. 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: Date: _________________

Title: Program Analyst Signature: _ ____ __

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based upon cost and price analysis, cost realism analysis, comparison with the Independent Government Cost Estimate, and negotiations, if necessary. Certified Cost or Pricing Data will not be required, as the estimated cost of the modification is less than the threshold for certified cost or pricing data.

Typed Name: Gerald H. Taulbee Date: __________________

Title: Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of Evaluation Sciences Support using an exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR 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”, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services or supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Typed Name: Gerald H. Taulbee Date: __________________

Title: Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

1 November 2016

2 November 2016

TAULBEE.GERAL

D.H.122909030

Digitally signed by

TAULBEE.GERALD.H.1229090301

DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=DoD, ou=PKI, ou=USA, cn=TAULBEE.GERALD.H.1229090301 Date: 2016.11.03 11:00:33 -04'00'

TAULBEE.GERAL

D.H.1229090301

Digitally signed by

TAULBEE.GERALD.H.1229090301

DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=DoD, ou=PKI, ou=USA, cn=TAULBEE.GERALD.H.1229090301 Date: 2016.11.03 11:00:56 -04'00'