Notice of Intent to Sole Source Teledyne FLIR Cameras

NOTICE OF INTENT TO NEGOTIATE A SOLE-SOURCE CONTRACT TELEDYNE BRAND FLIR CAMERAS The US Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Acquisition Division (WAD), NOAA Fisheries hereby gives public notice of the intent to negotiate a sole-source contract pursuant to the authority of Federal Acquisition Requirements (FAR): FAR 6.302-1(a)(2) and 41 USC 3304(a)(1) establishes authority for the government to seek services from the Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington. The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) for this acquisition is 334310, with a business size standard of 750 employees SCOPE OF WORK: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries is responsible for monitoring populations of protected species throughout their range in U.S. waters. Broadly distributed pinnipeds and cetaceans require large-scale aerial surveys over vast areas of the ocean to estimate abundance, distribution, and population trends. Increasingly, these efforts have shifted from low altitude, observer based, surveys to instrument-based approaches that allow aircraft to fly at higher altitude and speed, increasing safety and efficiency of the aircraft. The Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Polar Ecosystems Program is responsible for monitoring the abundance and distribution of ice-associated seals (ringed, ribbon, spotted and bearded seals) in Alaska and has developed a multispectral imaging system (Kamera) to conduct population assessment surveys of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Kamera consists of sets of high resolution color cameras, long wavelength infrared (LWIR) cameras, and ultraviolet (UV) cameras, networked with edge computing GPUs that provide instrument control and real time image processing. Because ice-associated seals have discrete and wide-spread distributions, thermal cameras are used for detection of seals while paired, visible spectrum images collected by a machine vision camera array are referenced for species identification. The use of this system has expanded to include glacial harbor seal surveys, experimental NASA drone surveys in the Aleutian Islands, and is in demand by researchers at other NOAA Fisheries science centers for seal, turtle, and cetacean surveys in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The complete system is being duplicated to meet the needs of NOAA Fisheries offices across the country. NOAA Fisheries requires identical aerial mapping cameras for the duplicate aerial imaging system which can be interchangeable with our existing Kamera system. The FLIR A6751 SLS is a cooled long wavelength infrared (LWIR) camera capable of providing clean thermal imaging with adequate integration time and frame rate to maximize aircraft speed and duration of our long range aerial surveys, eliminating pixel blur at a ground sampling distance of 20 cm/pixel. Responses to this notice must be provided within fifteen (15) calendar days from the date of this notice. Vendors who believe they can meet this requirement are required to submit in writing an affirmative response demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the requirements. All written responses must include a written narrative submission of capability, including detailed technical information demonstrating their ability to meet the requirement. The response must be sufficient to permit agency analysis to establish a bona fide capability to meet the requirement. Failure to submit such documentation will result in the Government proceeding as previously stated. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement to competition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Affirmative written responses must be received no later than 2:30 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, June 20, 2024. The responses must be submitted via e-mail to Rachel Karkane, Contract Specialist, at Rachel.karkane@noaa.gov. The intent of this synopsis is for informational purposes only. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement for future requirements. A determination by the government not to compete this action is based on this notice and solely within the discretion of the government.