N66001-22-C-0063 / Notice of Intent to Exercise Option Year 3

The Department of the Navy, Naval Information Warfare Center, Pacific (NIWC Pacific) hereby publicizes its intention to exercise Option Year 3 on a sole-source, firm fixed priced contract awarded to B23 LLC (now named Torch Research LLC). This contract provides support for UNACORN Data Engineering pipeline. The contractor uses best practices and methods from commercial industry to perform the extraction, processing, analysis, transformation and feature enhancement of the data sets for use by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models and algorithms. The contractor develops real-time data pipeline monitoring and operations dashboards in order to determine Data Quality and Data Drift and take corrective actions on the data sets. Torch Research LLC leadership team was involved in the first DoD cloud computing data engineering workload back in 2010 by architecting a logistics system for the US Marine Corps System Command (MARCORSYSCOM). Torch Research LLC team was responsible for the deployment and received its Authority to Operate (“ATO”) for the first C2S workload to analyze mission data for the sponsoring agency.

Authority for other than full and open competition under 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1: Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. According to FAR 6.302-1(a), full and open competition need not be provided for when the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. 10 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)(B) authorize sole source awards where services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements.

This notice is not a request for competitive proposals; however, any firm believing that they can fulfill the requirement of providing this service may be considered by the agency. Interested parties shall identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis, and must clearly show the firm's ability to be responsive. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement prior to exercising Option Year 3 on this existing sole source contract. Any capabilities, comments, questions, or concerns regarding this notice may be submitted IN WRITING via e-mail to dan.a.nardi.civ@us.navy.mil. A determination by the Government to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541330, and the size standard is 500 employees. The anticipated period of performance will be five (5) years (to include one (1) year base period and four (4) one (1) year option periods. Questions and/or responses are due by 10 FEBRUARY 2025 at 1200 PT.