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NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. Office of Marine and Aviation Operations Dropsonde Acquisition Process. Jeffrey Smith. NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. NOAA/AOC Acquisition Process. AVAPS I HISTORY
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NOAA Aircraft Operations Center Office of Marine and Aviation OperationsDropsonde Acquisition Process Jeffrey Smith
NOAA Aircraft Operations Center NOAA/AOC Acquisition Process AVAPS I HISTORY 1994 - NCAR, German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) and NOAA entered into a joint agreement to develop the Advanced GPS Dropsonde 1996 – NOAA received first few NCAR built sondes 1996 – NCAR selected Vaisala to produce initial low rate production AVAPS sondes for delivery to NOAA 1997 – NOAA contracted with Vaisala sole-source for limited build of AVAPS dropsondes 1998 – NOAA Open-Competition for AVAPS dropsonde production awarded to Vaisala. 5-year contract.
NOAA Aircraft Operations Center AVAPS I HISTORY (continued) 2003 – AVAPS dropsonde production contract acquisition process started. Open competition, but related experience required from bidders. 2004 – New 5-year production contract awarded to Vaisala 2009 – 6-month extension granted to Vaisala for production of AVAPS I dropsondes
NOAA Aircraft Operations Center NOAA/AOC AVAPS II Acquisition AVAPS II HISTORY 2005 – Vaisala notifies NOAA of PTU sensor end-of-life scheduled. Parts obsolescence likely to impact production soon. 2006 – Air Force Reserve, NCAR, and NOAA team together to develop AVAPS II dropsonde. 1/2008 – NOAA begins acquisition process for AVAPS II dropsonde. Strong emphasis on a Fair and Open Competition; some related experience required from bidders. 2/2008 – First drops of early prototype AVAPS II sondes 4/2009 – Award of AVAPS II production contract expected any day now
NOAA Aircraft Operations Center • US Government acquisition rules are skewed strongly for the small businesses. • If the acquisition process can be changed to offer equal opportunity to other competent suppliers, it will happen. Sometimes the results are not everything hoped for. • NCAR is the world leader in designing dropsondes and moving this technology forward. Current acquisition rules allow NOAA to continue to target NCAR for these efforts. • As the dropsonde design continues to improve and require less expertise to manufacture, past dropsonde manufacturing experience will be harder to justify as a acquisition requirement. The Next Acquisition….