SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Key Management Infrastructure (KMI) Capability Increment (CI)-2 Spiral 2 Integrated Test Support
- Notice Date
- 1/25/2018
- Notice Type
- Fair Opportunity / Limited Sources Justification
- NAICS
- 541330
— Engineering Services
- Contracting Office
- Defense Information Systems Agency, Procurement Directorate, DITCO-Scott JITC, P.O. BOX 12798, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, 85670-2798, United States
- ZIP Code
- 85670-2798
- Solicitation Number
- HC1028-12-D-0023-18F0242
- Archive Date
- 2/24/2018
- Point of Contact
- Maria R Wells, Phone: 5205384237
- E-Mail Address
-
maria.r.wells.civ@mail.mil
(maria.r.wells.civ@mail.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- HC1028-12-D-0023
- Award Date
- 1/25/2018
- Description
- JUSTIFICATION & APPROVAL (J&A) FOR FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 16.5 ACQUISITIONS EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)/Multiple Award Contract (MAC) Orders under MAC/Fair Opportunity - FAR 16.505, Department of Defense FAR Supplement (DFARS) 216.505-70, Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 216.505-70 Purchase Request Number: 38007-23 Contract Number: HC1028-12-D-0023 Task/Delivery Order Number: HC102818F0242 Procurement Title: Key Management Infrastructure (KMI) Capability Increment (CI)-2 Spiral 2 Integrated Test Support Contracting Office: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)/Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO)/Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) Mission Support Section (PL83l5) Estimated Value: REDACTED Statutory Authority: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate, hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). •1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE: •(a) Requiring Agency: DISA/JITC 2001Brainard Road, Building 57305 Fort Huachuca, Arizona 85670 •(b) Contracting Office: DISA/DITCO/PL8315 2300 East Drive, Building 3600 Scott Air Force Base, Illinois 62225 •2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S): The nature of this action is to ensure critical, uninterrupted JITC support to the National Security Agency's (NSA's) Key Management Infrastructure (KMI) program by awarding a follow-on task order to Alion Science & Technology on the current Testing and Evaluation (T&E) Mission Support Services (MSS) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract. The action will ensure that four years of testing knowledge is not lost and required to be replicated with another contractor prior to fielding this vital communications security (COMSEC) technology for the NSA. NSA's revised fielding and T&E schedule include the same activities that were provided to the contractors prior to award; however, the new congressionally approved schedule slipped events to the right, causing test efforts to overlap. To meet the revised timeline, the Government requires a follow-on JITC task order to support simultaneous test planning, execution, and reporting efforts. The PoP on the current task order ends February 1, 2018. The KMI program actively supports secure ordering, generation, production, distribution, management, and auditing of cryptographic products to the COMSEC community. The follow- on task order will include an approximate level of effort of REDACTED labor hours and 213 days of travel to an off-site location. The required PoP is February 1, 2018 to July 1, 2018. This effort is funded with 2018 research, development, test & evaluation funding. •3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: •(a) KMI is designated as a Department of Defense (DoD) mission critical capability. It is a NSA software and hardware modernization effort designed to replace the legacy Electronic Key Management System (EKMS) before the EKMS sunsets. The current EKMS sunset date is December 2017. However, the KMI recent schedule slips require an extension and the package to extend the sunset date to September 2018 is in final coordination at NSA. KMI provides secure ordering, generation, production, distribution, management, and auditing of cryptographic products to the COMSEC community. HC1028-12-D-0023-0012 currently supports KMI by providing independent developmental test and evaluation (DT&E), operational test and evaluation (OT&E), interoperability testing, and cybersecurity. It was awarded based on a test schedule developed in 2013. KMI Capability Increment (CI)-2 Spiral 2 is being procured by NSA using an agile software methodology with quarterly release testing and yearly spin deliveries. Before new KMI CI-2 Spiral 2 Spin capabilities can be fielded, they must undergo T&E to ensure the operational user receives an effective, suitable, interoperable, and secure system. The KMI Program Management Office (PMO) recently delayed the T&E schedule due to critical technologies not being ready for operational testing and fielding. As a result of this delay, the timeline provided to the contractors as part of the previous solicitation has slipped the KMI Full Deployment Decision (FDD) and supporting T&E schedule to the right. This slip impacts the contractor provided solution as the FDD is now anticipated for the June 2018 timeframe. The FDD delay pushed the Government provided timeline to the right by approximately 5 months. The CI-2 Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) has not been fulfilled. A follow-on task order with a PoP ending in July 2018 is required to support FOT&E test planning, execution, and reporting efforts. •4. SUPPORTING RATIONALE, INCLUDING A DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR'S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY: •(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity. In accordance with FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C),the order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency, because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. •(b) Description of the Justification. This action requires the authority cited as the PoP of the task order will expire prior to completion of testing activities. The current contractor for this task, Alion Science & Technology, is uniquely qualified to complete the testing activities as they have been responsible for the program for the last four years. As a result, they provide highly specialized capabilities and resources that are not available from any other contractor. •(c) Justification •(1) Minimum Government Requirements. The Government requires immediate and highly specialized knowledge of COMSEC requirements, the legacy EKMS system, and KMI capabilities. In addition, the Government requires access to information classified at the Top Secret (TS)/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) level (including establishing accounts on NSA Network (NSANet) and the Top Secret Common Development Environment (CDE); and submitting to a Counterintelligence Polygraph). Due to the aggressive nature of the T&E schedule, there is no gap or time between Spin 3 test planning, execution, and reporting efforts to compete a new task. In addition, the classification restrictions prevent a new contractor from being able to immediately begin work and meet the scheduled timelines due to the stringent security/clearance levels needed by contractor personnel. •(2) Proposed Sole Source Contractor. A follow-on task order with the current contractor, Alion, provides the Government substantial benefits as the work is an extension of what they are currently performing. Substituting contractors for the additional work at this phase of KMI development will be detrimental by adding unnecessary delays and increasing costs to field the equipment. This is due to the amount of time already invested in the ongoing test efforts, resulting in their unique and highly specialized knowledge of legacy EKMS requirements that KMI must meet, new KMI CI-2 Spiral 2 Spin capabilities, and NSA and Service COMSEC policies; as well as their working knowledge of testing requirements for programs on Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD), DT&E, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), and NSA oversight. Additional costs will include duplicative familiarization and training of a new contractor, as well as the unavoidable coordination amongst stakeholders engaged in preparing for and conducting multiple, complex, and, in some cases, concurrent detailed T&E events. These costs would be in addition to the costs incurred for direct T&E labor and travel, which includes required labor and travel for developers, PMO personnel, Service and Agency users, and oversight representatives to prepare another contractor to sufficiently support this effort. This cost is estimated at REDACTED (in addition to the estimate to complete the test efforts). •(3) Discussion Regarding Cause of the Sole Source Situation. The reason for this sole source situation is that Alion has completed the majority of their OT&E and DT&E deliverables on the task order. As such, they can provide the Government highly specialized knowledge of the KMI CI-2 Spiral 2 system, and they are best suited to adapt quickly to the changes without incurring excessive additional cost as a result of the re-baseline. Given that the testing is nearly complete, it is impractical to compete a new task order, engage another contractor, and still obtain NSA's anticipated fielding date of June 2018. •(4) Demonstration of Unique Source. Alion brings over four years of outstanding KMI-specific system knowledge and test experience to the KMI task. They are uniquely qualified with experts in Communications Security (to include NSA policies), KMI (at the Storefront and Client level), the legacy EKMS, key management for asymmetric and symmetric keys (ordering, production, auditing, inventory/accountability, and dissemination), and cryptographic capabilities such as Secure Software Provisioning and Over-the-Network-Keying. Alion has been indispensable in making test support for this critical task effective and successful. Alion is the only qualified contractor capable of providing these unique services without incurring significant additional time and duplicative costs, which is currently estimated to be REDACTED. Alion is currently in place, with the proper security clearances, and has the capability to support this task without interruption. No phase-in or ramp-up will be required to expand this support. Therefore, it is not in the best interest of the Government to compete a new task order to address the imposed changes to the requirement. •(5) Procurement Discussion. The nature of this action is to issue a follow-on cost- plus-fixed-fee task order with a PoP ending on July 1, 2018. This sole source task is required to ensure timely completion of testing activities to ensure NSA is able to meet its T&E and fielding schedule. •(6) Impact. Failure to issue a follow-on sole source task order with an extended PoP will result in JITC not being able to execute the KMI T&E schedule which would result in KMI mission failure. Soliciting for a new contractor will result in a significant amount of time, duplicative effort, and associated cost. This is due to the substantial amount of activities by multiple stakeholders it would take for a new contractor to establish the appropriate NSA Network (NSANet) and Common Development Environment (CDE) classified accounts; sufficiently understand the capabilities that require testing; develop test cases, operational scenarios, and white cards; develop test plans; conduct the required coordination; and validate assessment methodologies. Therefore, the logical action is to issue a sole source task order to the existing contractor, Alion Science & Technology. If the requirement were to be re-competed, it would delay the start of the task up to three-months based on the timelines to issue a competitive task order and up to nine-months, with maximum stakeholder support, to transition to a tester(s) with full knowledge and understanding of NSA and Service COMSEC policies, the legacy EKMS system, and new KMI CI-2 Spiral 2 capabilities. Selecting another prime contractor would increase costs, due to the time required to obtain required security clearances and familiarize the contractor with KMI capabilities to adequately support multiple, simultaneous planning and test events. •5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION: During source selection of solicitation number HC1028-12-D-0023-0012, a cost/price evaluation was conducted in accordance with FAR 15.404. The contract prices were determined to be reasonable. The proposed cost/prices for the follow-on task order will be compared to the current contract prices as well as the Independent Government Cost Estimate in order to determine fair and reasonableness in accordance with FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(5). •6. MARKET RESEARCH: In accordance with FAR Part 10.002, market research has been conducted to identify all qualified sources and results thereof. The initial market research was completed from 2012 to 2013 at the basic Test and Evaluation Mission Support Services (T&E MSS) contract level, and annually thereafter at the task order level in accordance with FAR 10.002(b)(1). The formal market analysis included reviews of contractors found on General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule 70, and analysis of historical contract costs. As a result of the review, it was determined that the only way to avoid the loss of invested resources and additional costs to the Government is to issue a follow-on sole source task order to accomplish this expanded effort that is within scope of the original. Market research has always identified that all prime T&E MSS contractors can complete the scope of work; however, Alion Science & Technology competitively won this task order award and is the only contractor that can complete the work within the required timelines mentioned above. •7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: None •8. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY: •(a) Procurement History. Contract Number: HC1028-12-D-0023-0012 Contractor: Alion Contract Period: December 13, 2013 - 1 February 2018 Total Contract Value: REDACTED (Base + all options, if this action is approved) Contract Type: CPFF •(b) This TO was awarded following a fair opportunity competition using the JITC T&E MSS IDIQ. All T&E MSS contractors were afforded the opportunity to be considered. •(c) The action proposed to remove barriers to full and open competition is that KMI testing and support will be awarded utilizing the new TEC contract after this sole source award period of performance is complete.
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FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/b3d308b63f0b6526554e415541d0fd3f)
- Place of Performance
- Address: DISA/JITC, 2001 Brainard Road, Building 57305, Fort Huachuca, Arizona, 85670, United States
- Zip Code: 85670
- Zip Code: 85670
- Record
- SN04799299-W 20180127/180125231013-b3d308b63f0b6526554e415541d0fd3f (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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