ACQUISITION STRATEGY REVISION TO SOLICITATION RFI-NSS-COVE

The Department of the Navy, Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), Orlando, FL, has a requirement to provide acquisition and life-cycle support for existing and future Navy Navigation, Seamanship, and Shiphandling (NSS) training systems including, but not limited to: NSS Conning Officer Virtual Environment (COVE) trainers fielded at the Surface Warfare Officer School Command (SWOS) in Newport, RI; Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Bridge simulators and Common Mission Package Trainer located at the Shore-Based Training Facility (SBTF), San Diego, CA; and NSS trainers located at various fleet concentration areas (FCAs). Computer Sciences Corporation’s (CSC) Virtual Ship (VSHIP) proprietary software is the core simulation engine that supports the NSS COVE scalable family of trainers. A Class Exception to Fair Opportunity (EFO) under the Training Systems Contract (TSC) III is being pursued to meet the requirements noted above. This acquisition strategy is pursuant to the authority provided in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part FAR 16.505 (b)(2)(i)(B), which states “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized?. A sources sought was posted regarding this effort under solicitation # RFI-NSS-COVE on 8 March 2010. Subsequent to the sources sought, the Government conducted a Business Case Analysis (BCA)/Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) to further investigate available alternatives to meet the Navy NSS training system requirements noted above. The BCA/CBA results identified that only the NSS COVE software baseline is fully capable of satisfying the entirety of the Navy’s current NSS functional training requirements. Additionally, the BCA/CBA documented the unique and highly specialized NSS functional requirements that are exclusively available in the NSS COVE software baseline and concluded that implementation of any alternative NSS software product would be cost prohibitive as a result of the investment required to replicate the unique functionality currently available in NSS COVE. The unique and highly specialized functionality available in the NSS COVE software baseline includes, but is not limited to: Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) bridge trainer functionality, LCS unmanned craft launch and recovery trainer functionality, integration of LCS bridge trainers with Combat Systems and Engineering Systems trainers, bridge trainer functionality enabling 90-degree look-down from ownship, enhanced voice recognition functionality, enhanced Anti-Terrorism Force Protection (ATFP) functionality, enhanced radio and radar functionality, integrated Intelligent Tutor and Intelligent Aggressor functionality, and Department of Defense Information Assurance (IA) compliance. These BCA/CBA results coupled with the original sources sought responses have led the Government to revise its acquisition strategy and pursue the class EFO noted above. A series of TSC III Delivery Orders are anticipated at an estimated total cost of $19M across a period of four years. Proposed actions are anticipated to begin immediately after posting of the EFO. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. No contract or task order will be awarded on the basis of responses to this notice. All inquiries and concerns must be addressed via email to Jason Harvey at contact@example.gov. Telephone requests or inquiries will not be accepted. Responses to this notice must be submitted by 13 November 2012.