System Engineering & Integration Task Order Award

Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Field Services Acquisition Branch (NA-PAS-313) has awarded the Master IDIQ Contract and two (2) sole sourced task orders under the authority of FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii) and 41 USC 3304(a)(3)(B), to The Aerospace Corporation providing System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Support and Independent Technical and Programmatic Analysis for the Offices of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation and Defense Programs FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii) authorizes other than full and open competition 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 a federally funded research and development center.” The Aerospace Corporation is the only company with the capability to provide mission assurance and systems engineering, independent technical analysis and review, and advisory services in support of the NNSA’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation SNDD portfolio and Defense Programs SE&I.

Market Research was conducted during the current contract to determine if additional sources could be utilized to perform tasks to be procured under the Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite- Quantity (IDIQ) contract. No additional sources were identified. A Request for Information (RFI) was posted on February 29, 2024, through Sam.Gov and Fed Connect for a range of System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Support and Independent Technical and Programmatic Analysis.

The RFI requirement requested statements of capability from small and other than small businesses having interest and capability to provide the services outlined in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). Nine statements of capability were received in response to the announcement, by the RFI closing date of April 2, 2024. A Technical Evaluation of the submitted Capability Statements from the nine responses to the RFI from both small and large business concerns was completed by the DNN subject matter experts (SMEs).

The government posted a Limited Source Justification, made available to the public through Sam.gov in accordance with FAR 6.302-1 & FAR 5.203(a) on September 26, 2024. The Contracting Officer received an additional Capability Statement from a small business concern on October 3, 2024. A technical review of that Statement of Capability was conducted by the Program Manager and a CO determination was made that because the vendor had no relevant experience with System Engineering and Integration, had not performed government contracts within the United States, and had no documented past performance they could not be considered for the SE&I follow-on effort.

The resulting evaluations, along with past performance evaluations of the nine respondents to the RFI and the technical evaluation of the respondent to the posted Limited Source Justification in Sam.Gov and FAPIIS/PPIRS to identify historical work in the required field(s) of expertise, concluded that The Aerospace Corporation remained the sole capable contractor with the relevant past performance and successful work history to provide the requested SE&I services.

The ensuing Master IDIQ Contract has a maximum ceiling/value of $250,000,000.00. This DP Task Order award is being issued for $146,756,020.00. Additionally, the availability of an FFRDC advocates for The Aerospace Corporation as the only capable vendor identified to meet the required type of requested services of the Programs and continue at the level of execution required for the next contract iteration of existing and future work to be performed. This Limited Source Justification is being made available to the public in accordance with FAR 6.305(a).