Description

The Government hereby announces a notice of intent to sole source the purchase of five (5) pre-cast concrete antenna foundations for installation at McMurdo Station, Antarctica to Pre-Con Products. A firm-fixed priced contract is contemplated for award. The delivery date for this contract is no later than 1 December 2026. As set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.3021(a)(2)(ii)(B), only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized and involve the continuing sustainment of a major system and award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. The LEO Ground Services Project, in close coordination with the National Science Foundation (NSF), will develop and deploy additional data acquisition service capabilities at McMurdo Station, Antarctica to support new mission requirements for NEON Series-1 and NEON Partnership missions. LEO plans to construct up to five commercial-class receive-only satellite ground station antennas and related infrastructure (e.g. power, communication network). Observations from LEO satellites, such as the Joint Polar Satellite System, are the backbone of global long-range weather forecasting models, supplying more than 80 percent of the numerical weather prediction model data used for 3–7-day forecasts. In addition, numerical weather prediction outputs are critical to detecting and monitoring hazards such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes and extreme weather events. At 77.8°S latitude, McMurdo provides a strategic location for polar orbiting satellites, enabling Stored Mission Data (SMD) downlink of up to fourteen orbits per day for each NOAA and NOAA partner mission satellite. Expansion of the ground stations at McMurdo will enable NOAA to support future NOAA LEO and partner missions. Without data from these future missions, our forecast ability will diminish and reduce our forecast timelines and accuracy, thereby impacting our nation's ability to pre-emptively respond to extreme weather events. The required antenna foundations are a proprietary design of Pre-Con Products, which holds the exclusive Technical Data Package (TDP) for the internal reinforcement, specialized low-temperature concrete mix, and precision-machined interface components. Because this design is proprietary, no other source can provide a functional equivalent that ensures commonality with existing Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) antenna components. Acquisition from an alternative vendor would necessitate a complete system redesign and a multi-year validation cycle to ensure compatibility with LEO (Low Earth Orbit) tracking requirements, resulting in a substantial duplication of cost that would not be recovered through competition. At this time, there are no other contractors who are capable of providing these services without incurring an unacceptable delay to …

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