Description
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Acquisition and Grants Office Eastern Acquisition Division located in Norfolk Virginia, proposes to negotiate a contract modification on a basis of other than full and open competition in support of the National Weather Service (NWS) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) Ocean Observing System with PAE Applied Technologies LLC (PAE). The contract modification will extend the contract for one-year from May 1, 2018 through April 30, 2019. The modification will include a one-year option and two four-month options, which if exercised, will extended the contract through December 31, 2020. NDBC's mission is to provide comprehensive, reliable systems and marine observations to support the missions of the NWS. The technical services support virtually every aspect of NDBC's operation to include operation, maintenance, assembly, integration and repair of environmental data collection platforms and networks; operation of the NDBC facilities; testing of existing and new buoy systems and fixed systems and equipment; complex logistics support, data processing; data quality assurance and archival; system supply support; system quality assurance and reliability; safety and environmental compliance; configuration management; and engineering and scientific support for NDBC's test and evaluation projects; and at-sea servicing of NDBC's 250 buoys and coastal stations across the Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes and along the United States (U.S.) Atlantic seaboard out to the mid-Atlantic Ridge on charter vessels. These technical support services are critical to NDBC's operation and ability to deliver the marine atmospheric and oceanographic observational data to the NWS that is used by its Weather Forecast Offices, the National Center for Environmental Prediction, and Tsunami Warning Center for issuing timely and accurate marine weather forecasts and warnings, tsunami warnings and climate forecasts to its partners such the U.S. Coast Guard, State and local emergency managers, ocean platform operators and the public in making sound decisions to safely operate in the marine environment. About 40% of NWS Marine warnings and advisories are based, at least in part, on NDBC's meteorological data. The contracted technical support services are so vital to the NWS's mission and must be continued without interruption. PAE is the only known company that has the requisite technical expertise, qualifications, supplies and personnel in place to deliver these critical technical services, without interruption to the NDBC's operation by the contract expiration date of April 30, 2018. Extending the contract mitigates disruptions to NDBC's ongoing maintenance and repair of buoys and other collection platforms and subsequently to the dissemination of marine observations necessary for marine forecasts and warnings. Having another company perform these critical services while a new contract is awarded substantially impacts availability of marine observations. During contract transition the contractor's ability to support long term logistics planning is severely degraded due to unfamiliarity with NDBC's organization, systems, procedures and processes for preparing all the necessary equipment, materials, tools and staging at various ports necessary for a short-term and long-term vessel charters to make repairs to buoys. This results in deferring maintenance of the buoys and moorings which results in longer outages resulting in no observations or degraded capabilities. Additionally, as maintenance continues to be deferred, it increases the probability of end-of-life failure of the buoys that could ultimately cause buoys to detach from their moorings becoming a hazard to navigation, damage to natural resources in National or International waters or ultimately losing the buoy asset altogether. If the extension period is not supported by PAE, NDBC's mission would be severely impacted as would be the delivery of the marine observations to the NWS for use in making accurate and timely marine forecasts, warnings and tsunami warnings. For these reasons, an extension is needed as the current contract expires on April 30, 2018 and allows the necessary acquisition lead time to continue processing the follow-on award. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements." This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, any firm that believes that it can provide the services as described that fully meets the Government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.