Team Awareness Kit (TAK) Server Support

This is a Notice of Proposed Contract Action under the FAR Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. This notice is for information only; a solicitation will not be issued. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 511210 (Software Publishers) with a small business size standard of $41.520M. The Government requires the procurement of Standard tier Team Awareness Kit (TAK) Server value added services set up and monthly support. Standard tier TAK Server services required includes: Cloud services (procurement and configuration of a c5xlarge Amazon Web Services (AWS) instance; Operating System (OS) installation and configuration; OS-level security hardening; Application of DISA Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) Category I, II, and III controls; Application of TAK-specific firewall policies); TAK services and support (to include TAK server installation and basic secure configuration, Enabling Transport Layer Security (TLS) with x509 digital certificates, and Disabling all non-TLS services, Certificate generation and management up to 500 certificates and configuration of data retention policy, with default of nightly deletion older than 7 days) and Technical Support consisting of periodic OS patching and security updates, troubleshooting of server or network outages and telephone and email support 8am - 8pm eastern time Monday - Friday. The Government intends to negotiate a sole source contract with: Raytheon BBN Technologies Cambridge, ME 02138 USA The Government has determined that other companies products and services do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet the Government's needs. Raytheon BBN Technologies is the only known company in the United States that have TAK Server value added commercial services and have a direct engineering link to the most current software and configuration that is managed and endorsed by the TAK Product Center. This level of support is required to ensure that evolving mission requirements and a fast moving threat and cyber security landscape can be met with equally rapid software updates. Raytheon BBN Technologies is the only known contractor that maintains a staff of experienced software developers who actively support the rapid implementation of new features, bug fixes, patches, and updates for TAK Server. AFRL Rome security requires a sole source contract with Raytheon BBN to leverage this direct access. Based on their unique relationship with the TAK Product Center, Raytheon BBN Technologies is the only responsible source who can satisfy the requirements of the AFLR Rome Security Forces. The TAK Server system has multiple active authorities to operate (ATO's) whereas other competitor software does not. Additionally, TAK Server can be configured to integrate with Microsoft LDAP Servers, which other competing services lack. Raytheon BBN has been a core developer and innovator of the underlying TAK Server technology since its inception. They are uniquely qualified to ensure scalability, federation, health monitoring, and the data forensics capabilities of the system. Market research found that other Contractors may provide similar services, but no other Contractor maintains the official TAK Server Software baseline under direct contract with AFRL. Given this information, it is determined that Raytheon BBN Technologies is the only contractor capable of fulfilling the Government's requirement without experiencing a duplication of cost not anticipated to be recovered through competition This is a notice of proposed contract action and not a request for competitive proposals; however, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement or proposal, which shall be considered by the agency. All inquiries should be sent by email to jennifer.calandra-willson@us.af.mil. Responses must be submitted by the date/time listed on the notice. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government in future procurements. Responses received will be evaluated; however a determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government anticipates an award date on or before 01 July 2022. A Sole Source Justification will be attached to the subsequent Notice of Award in accordance with applicable regulation.