The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Acquisition Division – Kansas City office intends to award, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106(b)(1), with AeroLab LLC in Jessup, MD a purchase order for two (2) Wind Tunnel Variable Frequency Drive Motors (VFD) with programming for the National Data Buoy Center at Stennis Space Center, MS.

The Government intends to utilize the authority under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106(b)(1), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will satisfy agency requirements, unless, as a result of this announcement, acceptable responses to this notice are received and a determination is made by the Government to issue a competitive solicitation. The Government intends to award a purchase order to AeroLab LLC.

Sole Source Justification

The NDBC has a recirculating wind tunnel that was purchased from Aerolab in the 1980s. In 2018 Aerolab was contracted to replace all of the instrumentation in the wind tunnel as the parts were obsolete and the motor was over 30 years old. Aerolab replaced the motor, the motor control, the sensor instrumentation to monitor the conditions in the wind tunnel including the conditions reported by our standard propeller anemometers, and provided the automation hardware and firmware that runs the wind tunnel.

On March 21, 2023 while the wind tunnel was operating the motor control had a catastrophic failure. The damage from the failure was limited to the motor controller. The NDBC wind tunnel is a primary piece of test equipment of the operational wind sensors deployed on weather and climate buoys. As such the NDBC needs to replace the variable frequency drive (VFD) motor controller in the most expeditious manner. The VFD drive contains programming that was performed by Aerolab to work with all of the other instrumentation and the automation. No other vendor has the specific programming for the motor controller to be a drop-in replacement to the current wind tunnel instrumentation except Aerolab who created and implemented the instrumentation for the NDBC.

This special notice is not a request for competitive offerors and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can provide this supply may submit substantiating documentation in writing within fifteen business days of this notice. Responses can be sent via e-mail to Abigail.green@noaa.gov. 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 response to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. If no documentation is received, award will be made directly to AeroLab LLC.

DOC, Eastern Region Acquisition Division requires that all contractors doing business with this office be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM). No award can be made to a company not registered in SAM. Contractors active in SAM have a

unique entity identifier (UEI) that is used to do business with the federal government. The Government has moved to a free new, non-proprietary identifier that will have to be requested in, and assigned by, the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). You can register and access the site by going to www.sam.gov.