Radar-Related Research, Development, and Systems Engineering Support

Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT FAR PART 6 JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION Program/Equipment: Radar-Related Research, Development, and Systems Engineering Support Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(3)and FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii) Amount: $24,361,395 Prepared by: Contracting Officer: Technical Representative: Requirements Representative: 8 Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition. Chief, Radar Systems and Identification (ID) Division: Legal Counsel: Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only FAR Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition 1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) ATTN: CCAP-CCA Division A 6565 Surveillance Loop Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005 2. Description of Action: The Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD), Product Manager (PdM) Multi-Mission Surveillance Systems (M2S2) requests this new award of a five-year, Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for up to $24,361,395 for radar-related research, development, and systems engineering support. This effort will be initially funded with Fiscal Year 2020 Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) and Other Procurement, Army (OPA) funds. The projected award date for this effort is 30 September 2020. The contractor receiving this award will be Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI) 3. Description of Supplies/Services: I2WD PdM Radars and other Government activities require extensive research, development, and systems engineering support in the area of radar sensors, including test and evaluation, and technical assessments of systems, technology, and programs. These services are required to ensure timely and cost efficient development and acquisition of emerging capabilities to support Army Transformation efforts and to realize the Army's vision of maintaining strategic dominance across the entire spectrum of operations. Specifically, the Army requires services in the following areas: (a) conducting independent quantitative performance evaluations of hardware and documentation in the areas of radar systems and radar technologies for Department of Defense (DoD) systems, formulating recommendations for corrective action and system improvements; specifying requisite data collection and instrumentation requirements; and assessing or providing test-beds as appropriate to perform these evaluations; (b) evaluating the effectiveness of methods for coordinating warfare sensor systems at single and multi-platform levels by exploring systems concepts, developing demonstration models, and conducting experiments; and assisting in the planning and evaluation of radar systems and technology for the achievement of regional and global system capabilities; (c) providing engineering-level interpretations of technical intelligence information and employing relevant data in systems engineering and evaluation of radar systems; and (d) developing and applying simulations, models and operations analysis techniques for the engineering, evaluation and performance assessments of current, planned and proposed radars. Additionally, the Government requires access to and the use of an extensive array of highly specialized technical equipment, laboratories and unique test/evaluation facilities. The most significant of these is a radar cross-section (RCS) measurement chamber and equipment, which is used to provide radar systems with relevant RCS data. The total estimated cost of the proposed action is $24,361,395. The total ordering period will be five (5) years from Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only date of award, which individual Task Orders will be awarded under the Base IDIQ. It is expected that the cost should be evenly spread across all five (5) years, with an anticipated cost of $4,872,279 each year). This estimated cost was derived from the previous contracts relating to this work, the average amounts spent on those previous contracts, and average amount spent per year, while considering additional requirements and costs that I2WD may require under this iteration over the next 5 years. I2WD also developed an Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) for this contract, which led to the below cost breakdown. Period of Performance Estimated Cost Year 1 (October 2020 - October 2021) $4,872,279.00 Year 2 (October 2021 - October 2022) $4,872,279.00 Year 3 (October 2022 - October 2023 $4,872,279.00 Year 4 (October 2023 - October 2024 $4,872,279.00 Year 5 (October 2024 - October 2025) $4,872,279.00 4. Authority Cited: FAR 6.302-3 (a)(2)(ii), Industrial Mobilization; or Engineering, Development, or Research Capability; or Expert Services. 5. Reason for Authority Cited: In accordance with FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii) full and open competition need not be provided for when it is necessary to award the contract to a particular source or sources in order to establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or federally funded research and development center. The proposed source is Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI); 505 Tenth Street; Atlanta, GA 30332. DoD designated GTRI as a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) in May 1996. In accordance with the DoD UARC Management Plan, GTRI conducts scientific and technological investigations in a broad range of disciplines to advance and refine knowledge and expertise in radar sensors. GTRI possesses expertise in systems development; signal processing, modeling and analysis, phenomenology, test and evaluation of sensors, and engineering investigations/assessments. GTRI possesses diverse technical and programmatic staff skills, and extensive experience with DoD radar systems. GTRI has previously provided essential engineering, research and development capabilities to DoD in the field of radars and in these previous efforts has obtained irreplaceable knowledge and expertise about many sensors, including the AN/TPQ-53 and the AN/TPQ-50 Lightweight Counter Mortar Radar System. It is essential that an independent and objective source with extensive experience in radar-related research, development and systems engineering be used to provide critically required technical capabilities to support programs within I2WD, PM Radars, and other Government agencies. The Government requires an unbiased approach in analyzing techniques, technologies, and test results. Through the use of an UARC, the Government can obtain the required independent and objective assessments because UARCs do not compete with private sector sources to support DoD programs. Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only Additionally, without GTRI's unbiased analysis, the Government is unable to independently verify contractor data regarding radar system designs. The Government has obtained some of the aforementioned radar-related research, development, and systems engineering support through private sector contractors. However, the product received by the Government through these contracts has lacked sufficient Government data rights, preventing independent analysis of contractor data. There have been several instances in which the prime contractor's competition sensitive information could not be provided to GTRI. Only by contracting directly with GTRI will the issue of access to proprietary and competition sensitive information be resolved because the Government can issue Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) to GTRI and/or disseminate government owned information directly to GTRI. Additionally, by contracting directly with GTRI the Government will eliminate the costs of a prime contractor subcontracting with GTRI. Only GTRI, through its extensive expertise and unique facilities and capabilities, can meet the Government's requirements. The core competencies provided by GTRI include, but are not limited to, technical radar expertise, advanced radar and Electronic Warfare (EW) signal processing, sensor prototype development, knowledge of novel radar techniques, and systems engineering. GTRI has previous experience with Army radar technologies and techniques. GTRI also offers multiple radar-based trainings that directly relate to current and future radar work. Furthermore, GTRI is widely regarded as the radar, EW, and sensor Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. To replace the capabilities lost if not protected by this restriction it is estimated that the program would incur delays of up to two (2) years as the other potential sources are not well versed in the area of Electronic Warfare and would have a large learning curve. Based upon our history, a new contract with similar radar contractors takes 12 to 24 months to award. Multiple new contracts would have to be established and monitored because single contractors are not capable of being proficient in a wide-variety of radar topics which the Army's C5ISR Center requires. While multiple separate contractors may have experience with the general radar topics of interest (e.g. Electronic Warfare, M&S, prototype development and testing), it is almost non-existent to find contractors with the specific experience of applying their radar expertise to the exact radar systems, software and hardware operating environment, and mission areas which C5ISR Center operates within. It will take at least 6 to 12 months for contractors to understand the complexity of applying their general radar expertise to C5ISR's specific requirements. A five year Period of Performance (POP) is advantageous to I2WD because it will provide the program office with sufficient time to issue the necessary Task Orders under this anticipated IDIQ while also allowing the flexibility of viewing other research institutions that could perform this work in the future should new competition arise. A shorter POP would lead to focusing on the next follow-on effort too quickly. A longer POP is unnecessary for the scope and nature of this work and would lock I2WD into a partnership with GTRI longer than necessary. Additionally the funding already obligated under the previous contracts (listed in paragraph 10 below) would not be recovered. Failure to provide the aforementioned radar-related research, development, and Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only systems engineering support will result in delays in providing enhanced radar capabilities to the Warfighters. The delays would be caused by the lack of support in initializing/continuing development of S&T efforts, the lack of successfully completing Stage Gate deliverables/milestones/Decision Points associated with the S&T efforts, and the transition of the S&T efforts to the Warfighter community (i.e. PdM, PM, PEO, TCM, soldier group, etc). The impact of the delays will result in the failure to deliver timely radar innovations which successfully address Warfighters capability gaps. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, in May 2020, the details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional potential sources that can meet the Government's requirements. In accordance with FAR 5.202(a)(10), this action will not be synopsized. a. Effective Competition: Because this is a sole source action, effective competition is not applicable. b. Subcontracting Competition: On the current contract (W56KGU-14-D-0015) GTRI submitted a Master Subcontracting Plan that showed total awarded dollars to various small business concerns. Given that no material facts have changed between the current IDIQ and the effort that will be awarded by this action, the Contracting Officer (KO) intends to have GTRI submit a subcontracting plan that will outline their goals. GTRI's subcontracting efforts will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer Representative and reported to the KO through monthly and annual reports. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: There are no plans to increase competition at this time, as it is in the best interest of the Government to continue to maintain the established essential engineering, research, and development capabilities provided by GTRI as an UARC. However, if the result of the studies or analysis performed by GTRI results in the creation of new systems or programs, follow-on efforts for those systems and programs will transition from GTRI. I2WD has not identified any timeframe for these actions yet; however, as these follow-on efforts are identified, market research will be performed to determine the availability and capabilities of private sector sources to perform these follow-on efforts. It is anticipated that many, if not all of the follow-on efforts performed by private sector sources will be performed under contracts awarded using full and open competition. For each study or analysis performed by GTRI, the Government will receive either limited or unlimited data rights which will enable full and open competition in the future should requirements arise out of the unbiased research and validation GTRI provides. 8. Market Research: Market research was conducted between 19 May 2020 and 29 May 2020. ACC APG and by technical expert and Physicist from I2WD. An RFI was posted to FedBizOps on 19 May 2020, requesting responses on a Full and Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only Open competition basis requesting responses from any capable Industry partners who could perform the services described by this contractual effort and subject PWS. In doing so, a total of four (4) responses were received from industry. Of the four (4) responses received, two (2) were found to be completely technically capable (can provide M&S, and SME support) and two (2) were found to be partially technically capable (can provide either M&S or SME support). Of the four (4) responding submissions, one (1) was found to possess adequate anechoic chamber facilities for radar cross-section analysis. The following list of industry corporations submitted response whitepapers to the Radar- Related Research, Development, and Systems Engineering Support RFI: All Businesses who expressed an interest as a Prime Contractor # Prime Interested Vendor Tech Eval of Company: Technical Capability? Tech Eval of Company: Facility (RCS/Security)? 1 Colorado Engineering, Inc. No No 2 deciBel Research, Inc. No No 3 Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation (GTARC)** Yes Yes 4 Riverside Research Institute Yes No ** GTARC is the official corporate entity name, but GTRI is the department within the corporation that performs this work. It is the same entity. Security: The ability to work with and store classified materials and equipment is a necessity when working with radar and other Electronic Warfare-related technologies. The information provided by the four (4) corporations shows that two (2) (Colorado Engineering and GTARC) have suitably secured environments for working with similar technologies up to TS/SCI. Two (2) (deciBel Research and Riverside Research Institute) only have the capability to handle up to SECRET classification. Conclusion: Based upon the results of the Market Research Georgia Tech Applied Research Corporation (GTARC) is the only respondent who was technically capable of performing the work required while also doing so within the necessary type of secured facility. Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only 9. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express interest in the acquisition, beyond what was described in the Market Research section above. 10. Other Facts: a. Procurement History: Contract Number Contractor Award Date Extent of Competition/Authority W56KGU-14-D-0015 GTRI 9/23/2014 Sole Source / 6.302- 3(a)(2) W15P7T-09-D-S028 GTRI 06/09/2009 Sole Source / 6.302- 3(a)(2) W56KGU-14-D-0015 is a UARC contract awarded to GTRI. The period of performance (PoP) is five years from September 2014 to September 2019. Under the current contract, eight (8) Task Orders have been awarded to date. This contract was also awarded on a non-competitive basis under FAR 6-302-3, and the results of the Market Research at the time of the predecessor contract presented the same results as this current time. W15P7T-09-D-S028 was also awarded to GTRI in June of 2009, using the same authority, (FAR 6-302-3). In both cases of these predecessor contracts, GTRI was awarded the effort because they are able to provide an unbiased approach in analyzing techniques, technologies, and test results. Through the use of an UARC, the Government can obtain the required independent and objective assessments because as stated above, UARCs do not compete with private sector sources to support DoD programs. Although additional Market Research studies to increase competition has taken place at each pre-award stage prior to the award of these efforts, no entity presented themselves as a viable option over GTRI. There are no unusual patterns that are revealed by the history of these efforts. As noted, a Justification document (14-162 dated 30 May 2014) was completed for the current effort prior to this proposed contract action. In that case, the circumstances of the Justification, scope of the work, and Authority were identical to the facts being presented in this document. Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only 11. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. 12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. 13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based upon the following: cost analysis price analysis should cost IGCE audit: other: As a part of this basis, certified cost or pricing data: will be required. will not be required and the following exception applies (FAR 15.403): Prices that will be agreed upon are based on adequate price competition. Prices that will be agreed upon are based on prices set by law or regulation. A commercial item is being acquired. A waiver has been granted by the head of the contracting activity (HCA) in accordance with DFARS PGI 215.403-1. The contract action is a modification to a contract or subcontract for commercial item(s). The estimated cost of the contract action is less than the threshold for certified cost or pricing data. Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only 14. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Control Number: JA-20-A-277 Contractor: Georgia Technical Research Institute (GTRI): Program/Equipment: I2WD R&D For Official Use Only Approval Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of a five-year, Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract estimated at $24,361,395 of radar-related research, development, and systems engineering support, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(3), subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.