Teledyne Benthos LF Acoustic Modems & Circuit Board Sets

41 U.S.C. 1901, using SAP up to $7.5M as authorized by FAR 13.500(a) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a). NOAA has the national responsibility for tsunami hazard mitigation and warnings. In support of this responsibility, NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) has developed tsunami forecasting technology over the past 20 years, such as the DART II buoys system. The DART II buoys system detects the passage of a deep-ocean tsunami by the variation of the pressure exerted by the water column above a pressure sensor mounted on the bottom of the ocean. This deep-water data is transmitted back to the DART II buoy via the Teledyne acoustic modems, whereby the data is then transmitted shore-side to the Tsunami Warning Centers via satellite telemetry. This data is used to create accurate forecasts that are used to issue watches, warning or evacuations to save lives. Further, this data reduces false alarms which can result in high economic cost resulting from unnecessary evacuations, physical risk to the population during evacuations, as well as loss of public confidence in the warning systems. This is a well-tested and established approach used in tsunami detection and reporting. The NDBC deploys these DART II systems operationally for NOAA. As such, the NDBC must maintain the DART II equipment in optimal conditions. NOAA's PMEL conducted extensive research on commercially available underwater acoustic modems before selecting the Teledyne modems. One primary requirement has been and still is that the acoustic modem could function at 6,000-meter water depths. Only one source - Teledyne is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and are uniquely qualified to provide these products to the NDBC based upon the following: Teledyne is the OEM and only known source capable of meeting all of the power, OEM board set flexibility, depth rating and range, electrical connections, acoustic beam patterns and command structures required by the tsunami detection and reporting system. Years ago, the Teledyne acoustic modems were selected for the data throughput and reliability for integration into the DART systems for field testing. PMEL conducted extensive and thorough testing of Teledyne's acoustic modems to ensure they met the NOAA requirements for data transmissions in this ocean environment. Further, PMEL developed the DART II firmware around the message and polling command formats of the Teledyne acoustic modems. These messages and controlling commands are proprietary to Teledyne, for which the NDBC does not have control of the DART II firmware to make modifications for new or different command or message formats. Moreover, the Teledyne acoustic modems are now standardized throughout the tsunami detection array. A new acoustic modem would have different form, fit, and power requirement, and not be a drop-in replacement. Based on the above information, it is not in the Government's best interest to purchase new instrumentation other than Teledyne acoustic modems for use in the NOAA tsunami detection array. NOAA's mission of environmental stewardship, assessment, and prediction for oceanographic and environmental data is too vital to risk procuring acoustic modems other than from Teledyne. Standardization of the sensors and equipment integrated within the data collection platforms is critical to the data outcomes, in order to maintain data quality, paramount to NOAA's forecast mission. The depth of testing requirements and resources needed for integration and standardization of any new hardware components for remote observing systems would be extremely cost ineffective. NOAA would be required to test new equipment and if selecting another platform, would be required to replace millions of dollars of existing equipment that is currently deployed and operational. This is not a viable option for NOAA. Selection of the Teledyne acoustic modems as the only platform available for NOAA at this point is based on criteria specifically designed with NOAA's unique tsunami detection and reporting operations and applications in mind. The NDBC requires forty (40) ATM-800-L2 board sets that do not have transducers, and twelve (12) ATM-803-LR2 board sets with low frequency (LF) directional transducers.