Skyfora Streamsonde Platform Operations and Technical Support

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a civilian agency under the Department of Commerce, has issued a Special Notice regarding the procurement of Skyfora OY's StreamSonde dropsonde platform and associated operational and technical support services. NOAA intends to award a Firm-Fixed-Price sole-source contract to Skyfora, a Finnish company, based on the StreamSonde's unique and superior technological capabilities. The procurement falls under NAICS Code 334511 (Measuring, Analyzing, and Controlling Instruments Manufacturing for Automatic Environmental Control) with a 1,350-employee size standard. The Special Notice was posted on December 19, 2025, and invites interested parties who believe they can meet the requirements to submit capability statements before the December 30, 2025 deadline.

NOAA's Hurricane Research Division has determined that the StreamSonde is essential for improving tropical cyclone analysis and forecasting due to its distinctive features, including a lightweight 80-gram design, slow descent rate, advanced dual-band GNSS wind-sensing technology, and high-density swarm deployment capability of up to 50 simultaneously descending sondes. Interested contractors must submit capability statements by 12:00 PM Eastern Time on December 30, 2025, to amy.l.mcliverty@noaa.gov, and NOAA reserves the right to determine whether to conduct a competitive procurement based on the responses received. There are no specific eligibility restrictions noted in the Special Notice; however, interested parties must demonstrate capability to meet the agency's StreamSonde operational and technical support requirements. The sole-source justification is pursued under FAR 6.302-1, citing Skyfora as the only responsible source capable of meeting NOAA's specialized hurricane research and forecasting needs.