The Department of Interior (DOI), United States Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS), Center, Sioux Falls, SD, has a requirement to purchase five (5) fiber optic transmit and receive pairs (10 total items). The fiber optic links between the antennas and the control room are mission critical items. These pairs connect the control room with the antenna and transmit the data received from the satellite to the control room for transmission to the respective Mission Operation Center (MOC) and receive commands from the MOC for transmission to the respective spacecraft. Due to a failure of a custom production unit, the Landsat Ground Station (LGS) has reduced sparing. Having the shelf spare reduces the time to repair the link and minimizes the risk of data loss. Moving away from the currently installed custom units to a standard product allows for reduced cost for each fiber link, and allows for reduce sparing as all links use the same fiber components. The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an award to Narda Miteq, unless it is contacted by any vendor who believes they can provide the same service. Vendors are invited to contact the Contract Specialist, Nicole Demby (
[email protected]) no later than 2:00PM EST, Wednesday, November 15, 2017 with an affirmative answer. SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION STATES THE FOLLOWING PART: The following information is provided to demonstrate the proposed contractor's unique qualifications: The units are component fiber optic transmitters and receivers that fit into a multi-unit chassis that provides power, monitoring, and interfaces. In spring 2017, a unit failed, which required use of the offline spare unit (shelf spare) to be placed into operations. When the failed unit was evaluated, it was determined that repair was not possible and a procurement was initiated for replacement units. Additional spares and replacement units are being sought to address a concern about multiple-unit failures impacting the ability of the ground station at USGS/EROS to receive Landsat satellite data, as the receivers and transmitters are the key component use to transfer signals between the remotely-located antennas and the rest of the ground station equipment in computer room 2. Replacement units are sought from the same vendor for compatibility with existing chassis, cabling, and infrastructure to maximize the current investment of approximately $XXXX. While there are functional replacement units available from other vendors, using another vendor would require procurement of not just the transmitters and receivers, but instead would necessitate the procurement of supporting chassis, potential modifications to existing cabling and monitoring systems, as well as the procurement of spare units, which could increase the size of the proposed procurement by at least double. A multi-vendor solution is not possible as the units would not be inter-compatible and multiple parallel systems would be needed, one from each vendor, and there would also be additional costs required to provide multiple sparing for each vendor's equipment in order meet the required station availability requirement. All required hardware will be additions to equipment currently installed and operational. These modules must be compatible with existing installed equipment and infrastructure. No other resellers are known to exist for this requirement. Availability of this requirement has been investigated with the result that only this product can meet the EROS functional and technical requirements noted above. Competition does not currently exist in the reseller market based on an informal market survey using the internet and industry trade journals (a formal RFI was not conducted as this is a procurement for spares and replacements to fit into an existing system, not a new requirement for a complete system). Additionally, the vendor was contacted to see if the products were available from any authorized resellers, but they only have third-party manufacturers (sales) representatives. This procurement is expected to be a one-time requirement. When the infrastructure reaches end of life, the replacement will be competed to the maximum extent practical.