AWARD
A -- Unmanned Aircraft Systems Satellite Communication Systems Study
- Notice Date
- 6/26/2017
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio, 44135
- ZIP Code
- 44135
- Solicitation Number
- 1182629
- Archive Date
- 6/27/2017
- Point of Contact
- Brian Huth, Phone: 2164336693, Brian Huth, Phone: 2164336693
- E-Mail Address
-
brian.s.huth@nasa.gov, brian.s.huth@nasa.gov
(brian.s.huth@nasa.gov, brian.s.huth@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- NNC17TA56T
- Award Date
- 6/12/2017
- Awardee
- LinQuest Corporation, 5140 Goldleaf Circle, Suite 400, Los Angeles, California, United States
- Award Amount
- 2468162
- Description
- SOURCE SELECTION STATEMENT Unmanned Aircraft Systems Satellite Communication Systems Study RFQ 1182629 Background This procurement is to establish a Task Order (TO) under a GSA contract, which the contractor shall provide all supervision, personnel, material, equipment, and supplies to successfully perform and develop a conceptual system design study of a C2 Satellite Communications System consistent with preliminary performance requirements as specified in RTCA SC-228 documentation (DO 362). The system shall operate within allocated C-Band SatCom frequency spectrum for UAS (5030-5091 MHz) and operate compatibly with terrestrial line-of-sight C2 systems operating within the same band. To accomplish this effort, the Government will award a base TO for four months with three one-year options. A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued April 3, 2017. It was full-and-open competition on GSA E-Buy. Four offerors submitted proposals by the date of April 21, 2017. Proposals were submitted by Apogee Engineering, LinQuest Corporation, MTI Systems, and TriVector Services. Evaluation Results Proposals were evaluated in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.4 - Federal Supply Schedule. The proposals were evaluated considering three factors: Technical Capability, Past Performance, and Price. The summary results are indicated below: Apogee Engineering Technical Capability was rated as Acceptable. Apogee's proposal satisfies all of the Government's requirements with some detail to indicate feasibility of the approach and shows an understanding of the problems, but overall they lacked the ability to demonstrate actual prior experience in developing a satellite communications architecture as requested. They indicated they have engineers that operate military satcom systems, but it didn't appear likely those people would be involved in the design study, nor whether they even had experience in designing a satcom system architecture from scratch to the level of detail required by the project. Their proposal offered a generic systems engineering approach to the design effort and lacked the level of detail offered by the recommended vendor. A rating of Low Risk was assigned to the Performance Risk Factor. As indicated by their past performance, Apogee has provided systems engineering services to support development, integration, test, and fielding of Air Force UAS. However, they failed to indicate whether they had experience in designing a satcom system architecture from scratch to the level of detail required by the project. Apogee Engineering's price was $. Review of their proposal revealed Apogee's proposal came out to be less expensive than LinQuest and MTI based on the fact that their proposal was suggesting the use of less experienced engineers. They also indicated they would need to hire an additional engineer to fill one of the roles which would likely impact the ability to successfully meet our aggressive milestone deliverable schedule during the baseline year. LinQuest Corporation Technical Capability was rated Outstanding. The proposal satisfies all of the Government's requirements with extensive detail to indicate feasibility of the approach and shows a thorough understanding of the problems and offers numerous significant strengths. LinQuest provides a wealth of satellite communications engineering and development experience with both ground stations and satellites dating back to 1974. Their approach included a strong team of experienced satcom engineers with "reach back" beyond them as need to a larger breadth of knowledge within the company so they could access far more than the 1 or 2 engineers the other teams put forth in their proposals. Their proposed technical approach matches our expectations and their technical narrative and terminology indicates a comfortable level of experience with the work we are requesting. A rating of Low Risk was assigned to the Performance Risk Factor. Little doubt exists, based on the LinQuest's past performance record, that the offeror can perform the proposed effort. Their past performance examples indicate they successfully met their deliverables and have a track record of customer satisfaction and engineering excellence. LinQuest's price was $. The Price proposal was considered to be complete. They included fully-burdened pricing for the labor categories typically required for this type of project. Their completeness was considered a significant strength in their pricing. While overall they are the most expensive quote, I consider them to be providing the best value with the greatest chance of successfully completing the milestones among the respondents given their company's extensive experience in the satellite communications field and their financial stability. MTI Systems Technical Capability was rated as Unacceptable. Their proposal contains a deficiency that indicates a lack of understanding of the approach that cannot be expected to meet requirements or involves a very high risk; and none of these conditions can be corrected without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal. Their technical response was very sparse at only around a page-and-a-half and lacked any real details on the approach they would be taking in the conceptual design study. Their proposed staffing for the project had a superior level of training and experience. A rating of Low Risk was assigned to the Performance Risk Factor. Based on the MTI's past performance record, the Offeror can perform the proposed effort. However, most of their proposal revolved around talking about their current and past performance with other similar NASA projects, but they failed to demonstrate that they had sufficient experience with designing a satcom system from scratch rather than simply interacting with an existing architecture. MTI currently supports a related UAS effort at GRC: the UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS) - Communications sub-project. They have supported this effort throughout its first and second phases with two full-time engineers. The Price proposal was considered complete. MTI's price was $. TriVector Services Technical Capability was rated as Unacceptable. Their proposal contains a deficiency that indicates a lack of understanding of the approach that cannot be expected to meet requirements or involves a very high risk; and none of these conditions can be corrected without a major rewrite or revision of the proposal. TriVector Services submitted a short and rather generic, response to the RFQ. Their proposal leaned heavily toward describing a generic systems engineering approach using modeling tools. A Moderate Risk Level was assigned to the Performance Risk Factor. Some doubt exists, based on the Offeror's past performance record, that the Offeror can perform the proposed effort. They failed to demonstrate that they had sufficient experience with designing a satcom system. Due to the lack of experience overall with satcom system design, this proposal was deemed to be risky and we felt they would not likely be able to deliver the best overall value to the government. Their past experience failed to indicate a sufficient level of previous experience designing satellite communications systems. The Price proposal was considered complete. TriVector Services' price was $. Their price proposal was the lowest of the four responses due to their proposed use of less experienced engineers than the other contractors. Decision After a review of the evaluation findings, I note in the area of Technical Capability, only LinQuest Corporation was rated as Outstanding. LinQuest had a number of strengths, which include a detailed description of their discipline, skills and techniques they will us in the performance of the work. LinQuest's rating in this area indicates a solid technical approach to accomplish the efforts required and provides a sound assurance of successful performance. I note that Apogee had an overall rating in Technical Capability of Acceptable while the other two offerors rated Unacceptable. Both Unacceptable offerors failed to provide descriptions of their discipline, skills and techniques they will use in the performance of the work as was required. I find that LinQuest has a significant advantage in this area. In the area of Past Performance, I note that Apogee, LinQuest, and MTI all received a Low Risk Level. TriVector was considered a Moderate Risk Level due to their failure to demonstrate they had sufficient experience with designing a satcom system. LinQuest's past performance examples indicate they can successfully meet all deliverable requirements and have a track record of customer satisfaction and engineering excellence and is considered to have an advantage in this area. In the area of Price, I note that TriVector's rates were considered complete and lower than the two contractor's rates by 7-25%. However, this is due to their proposed using less experienced engineers than other offerors. Apogee's proposal also came out to be less expensive than LinQuest and MTI based on the fact that their proposal was also suggesting the use of less experienced engineers. MTI, while being higher than TriVector and Apogee, was considered complete. MTI is considered to have a slight advantage in this area. Based on the above, I find LinQuest Corporations' proposal conforms to the solicitation with technical capabilities, past performance, and price (only 4% higher than MTI); is considered to be most advantageous to the Government; provides the best-value solution to the Government; and I hereby select LinQuest Corporation for award.
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