16--The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Northrop Grumman (NG) Systems Corporation, 600 Hicks Road, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008, in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) for the AN/AAQ-24 Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCMs) to be installed on the production CV-22 aircraft. As background information, under the MV-22/CV-22 contract, Bell-Boeing is responsible for the configuration and design of the CV-22 aircraft and the integration and installation of all avionic and electronic systems on the CV-22 aircraft, including equipment added as result of pre-planned product improvements (P3I). A P3I Trade Study conducted by Bell-Boeing and synopsized on November 28, 1997, under PSA#1981, exhaustively surveyed industry to analyze all existing IRCMs. Subsequently, the NG AN/AAQ-24 DIRCM system was selected as the best technical approach for the CV-22. The Block 10 modification action was synopsized on 29 December 1998 to inform industry of a sole source procurement to Bell-Boeing Joint Venture Team for P3I to the CV-22 model aircraft. The contract was awarded on 2 March 2000 under Contract No: N00019-93-C-0006. Part of the Block 10 modification required Bell-Boeing to reconfigure and redesign the CV-22 aircraft for the integration, installation and testing of the DIRCM system into the avionics and electronic architecture. The implementation of the Block 10 contract modifications results in three (3) major reasons for this sole source action. First, the trade study above determined that the DIRCM is the only system capable of meeting the CV-22 requirements. Second, due to the significant design and integration efforts completed under Block 10, the NG DIRCM is the only IRCM that can currently be installed on the CV-22 without significant changes being required to the aircraft. Third, the costs of approximately $50M dollars for the integration of the DIRCM on the CV-22 are not expected to be recovered through competition if other than the NG DIRCM is selected. It is estimated that reconfiguration and redesign of the CV-22 aircraft, integration and testing of a new IRCM, would take between two and half to three years. IRCM systems are needed in approximately the June 2005 timeframe to support the first two CV-22 production aircraft. In addition to these three reasons justifying the sole source, the Government has always intended to transition the NG MH-53 DIRCMs which were awarded under a limited competition, to the CV-22s when the MH-53s are retired. The Government made this known in the MH-53 synopsis dated 16 December 2002. It is anticipated that USSOCOM will modify the current MH-53 IRCM contract number USZA22-03-D-0005 to incorporate CV-22 DIRCM program content. This action will add a quantity of forty-nine (49) DIRCM ship sets, associated spares of Group-B hardware and sustaining engineering and logistic support. Hardware will be delivered as GFE to the Bell-Boeing CV-22 production team for subsequent integration and installation on CV-22 aircraft. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 334511 and the small business size standard is 750 employees. The point of contact is Ms. Valerie Romanchek, Contracting Officer at [email protected]. See Note 22 for any responses to this announcement.

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