Autonomous underwater vehicle.

This notice is in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), has a requirement to purchase the further development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Technology (Phase II), in support of the mission of the BSEE/Oil Spill Preparedness Division. The U.S. Department of the Interior, BSEE, Acquisition Operations Branch, on behalf of the BSEE/Oil Spill Preparedness Division, is the contracting office for this acquisition. The purpose of this notice is to announce the intent to negotiate and award a firm-fixed-price type of contract on a sole source basis to Phoenix International Holdings Incorporated (Phoenix), in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 15 - Contracting by Negotiation.
The initial requirements (Phase I) were to develop a robust underwater-deployable ignition system to ignite oil slicks in extremely harsh weather conditions such as those found in the Arctic. Further, Phase I was awarded to and successfully completed by Phoenix to demonstrate the ignition system from a proof of concept to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4; therefore, the TRL 4 was demonstrated in a lab environment.
The current requirements (Phase II) are for the AUV technology to be further developed using gelled fuels and oxygen into the ignition systems. Specifically, under Phase II the release platform shall be developed and tested to advance the UAV technology to TRL 7 where a full-scale prototype of the technology shall be tested and demonstrated with crude oil in a relevant environment such as the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab for ignition capabilities or/and Ohmsett for system deployment and retrieval tests. Phoenix successfully completed Phase I and solely possesses the knowledge, data and experience to perform and complete Phase II. As a result, Phoenix is uniquely qualified to successfully understand, perform and complete the current requirements of Phase II.
It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded before 9/1/2019 with a 18-month period of performance. The applicable NAICS Code is 541990. This is NOT a request for competitive proposals. This notice of intent to sole source is for informational purposes only. However, all responsible sources/interested parties may submit a response/proposal which shall be considered by the agency if received by the Point of Contact (POC) listed below by 6/25/2019 (reference Solicitation 140E0119Q0063). A determination by the Government not to compete this action based on this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The POC is Mario Gray. Any response MUST be emailed to mario.gray@bsee.gov..