Notice of Intent to Award a Sole-Source Contract

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) intends to negotiate on a sole-source basis to award contract with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), 3295 College Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709-3705. The contract scope will be for operational and maintenance and research and development support of the United States lnfrasound (IS) and Primary Seismic (PS) and Auxiliary Seismic (AS) monitoring stations associated with the International Monitoring System (IMS). The period of performance will commence upon contract award and continue for up to four years thereafter (12-month base, and three 12-month options). The statutory authority for this non-competitive action is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements, 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(1).

UAF is the only responsible source that can accomplish the specified waveform support requirements at this time without unacceptable program risk. The Government currently does not have land use agreements in place for five of the US IMS stations, including the IS53 station installed on UAF property. Until all site licenses are in place, only UAF has authorizations in place to access all of the necessary sites. The change to a new performer introduces the risk that a non-incumbent performer may be unable to access the land, which would necessitate a costly move of the stations. Without current site licenses in place between DTRA and station site land owner (s), a requirement to relocate three (3) infrasound stations (at $200k per station) and two (2) auxiliary seismic stations (at $400k per station) is a significant risk. Award to any other source could result in unacceptable duplication of cost (> $1.4M) and incur significant station downtime. The US Government commitment to support the US IMS and CTBT verification regime could be harmed by an interruption to waveform monitoring station operations.

This notice of contract action is not a request for competitive proposals; no formal solicitation will be issued as a result of this announcement. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement which shall be considered by the Government. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this notice. A determination to proceed with this effort on a sole source basis based upon capability statements received and evaluated in response to this announcement is solely within the discretion of the Government.