JA 22268 T-ARC (X) Requirements Feasibility Studies Redacted

J&A No. 22,628

the agency are only available from one source, and no other type of supplies or services will -ARC(X) Top Level Requirements (TLR) require a

Market research conducted in 2025 identified current cable ship designs by Each of the designs provided by

the G
requirements for legacy cable systems into an existing commercial design.

Competing these requirements
requirements. A source other than Vard Marine would incur schedule impacts associated with existing technical products and
, recreating or validating technical work already performed, and establishing a comparable level of design maturity
requirements. Additionally, identifying and evaluating alternative cable ship designs would further delay the effort and likely duplicate the market research already conducted. Accordingly, retaining Vard Marine as the lead design agent would reduce technical and schedule risk, enabling the Navy to proceed efficiently towards fielding a solution that meets the cable ships.
6. Description of Efforts Made to Solicit Offers from as Many Offerors as Practicable The Navy conducted extensive market research to identify potential commercial cable ship designs and design agents since 2018. In April 2020, the Navy held an industry day to inform potential offerors of the opportunity to participate in a full and open competition for industry studies for the T-ARC(X) program. That competition resulted in 2021 industry study awards to and to
The latter entity was dissolved prior to
its completion of industry study.
In addition to the awards for industry studies, the Navy continued its market research while the technical and funding requirements evolved, including additional requests for information and seeking industry feedback on specifications, from 2023-2025. Of the submissions, only five companies were identified with
:
Of the information provided for
-developmental design showed the potential of meeting

J&A No. 22,628

In August 2026, the Navy issued a synopsis announcing the intent of the Government to award a sole source contract to Vard Marine for the requirements identified in paragraph 3 and encouraged interested parties to submit a response. No responses were received by the closing date of the synopsis.
7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost
The Contracting Officer has determined the anticipated cost to the Government of the supplies/services covered by this J&A will be fair and reasonable. 8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Future Competition