Description
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisitions Division-Kansas City office intends to award, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Honeywell Aerospace, 121 Whittendale Drive, Moorestown, NJ, for Automated Flight Following (AFF) Tracker Service for nine NOAA aircraft and Iridium Satellite Phone Service for six NOAA aircraft for the Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill AFB, FL. A Sources Sought notice was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on May 18, 2016 and closed on May 30, 2016. No responses were received. Sole Source Justification NOAA's aircraft fleet includes the world's premier research aircraft. The aircraft participate in a wide variety of national and international meteorological, oceanographic, and environmental research programs. These aircraft are equipped with a variety of scientific instrumentation, radars and recording systems for both in-situ and remote sensing measurements of the atmosphere, the earth, and its environment. AFF tracker services are installed in one JetProp Commander, four DeHavilland Twin Otters, one King Air, two P-3 Orions, and oneGulfstream GIV aircraft. Installed models are Skyconnect FLIGHDECK with Tracker AFF model 1616-450-01A, Skyconnect TRACKER AFF model 1616-050-05, and Skyconnect TRACKER AFF model 1616-050-05A. AN AFF report is required to be sent every two minutes of flight and accessible via a secure website such as www.aff.gov. Twenty-four/seven world-wide satellite phone service is installed in six of the nine aircraft via the Iridium network with Honeywell Skyconnect FLIGHTDECK satellite phone equipment already installed on aircraft. NOAA requires the same equipment in all aircraft to maintain consistency in the fleet. The aircraft equipment on board are Skyconnect devices. Skyconnect was bought by EMS Aviation which in turn was bought by Honeywell. The Skyconnect devices are configured to operate only with the Honeywell proprietary internet display utilities. Skyconnect devices are configured to operate only with the Honeywell proprietary internet display utilities and a change out of devices would be time consuming, add expense, and add unacceptable risk of nonperforming service