A -- Commander''s Analysis and Planning Simulation

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intends to award a sole source contract to SPARTA, Inc. for the maintenance, upgrading, and updating of the Commander?s Analysis and Planning Simulator (CAPS), a simulation model used to assess missile defense architectures and to demonstrate to potential users how a ballistic missile defense might work. The required support consists of configuration control; verification, validation, and assessment of CAPS and Ballistic Missile Defense System development Block Representations; software problem corrections; help desk operation; and updates of Specific System Representation parameter files. As the original designer and developer of CAPS, SPARTA possesses the current requisite technical expertise and demonstrated capabilities to fulfill this requirement. No other source currently has this expertise. In addition, awarding to another contractor would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the Agency?s requirement to develop and integrate a Ballistic Missile Defense System by the year 2004. MDA?s aggressive schedule requires specific system representation updates and ballistic missile defense system block upgrades at a minimal rate of once every six months. Unacceptable delays to these scheduled updates and upgrades would result due to procurement lead time and a significant period of time for a new contractor to become fully proficient at contract performance. To avoid these delays by awarding the contract to another contractor for concurrent contract performance with SPARTA, Inc. while the new contractor gained full proficiency would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government. The Government has invested approximately $10 million dollars in the development, maintenance, upgrades, and for another source to obtain the expertise required to execute contract performance would necessitate a significant duplication of these costs. The estimated cost and period of performance for this cost-plus-fixed-fee effort is $8 million during the sixty (60) month, base year with four option years, period of November 2002 to November 2007. See Note 22.