FAA Tower Simulation System (TSS) Software and Software Support Services

This contract will provide Tower Simulation System (TSS) software and software support services for FAA TSSs used for operational/technical training of air traffic controllers at selected FAA air traffic control towers (ATCTs), the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center and the William J. Hughes Technical Center.

Rationale Supporting Use of a Single Source

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seeks to award a single source contract to Adacel Systems Inc. (ASI) to update the FAA's Adacel MaxSim Tower Simulation System (TSS) software at 111 deployed TSSs.

ASI has exclusive rights to the MaxSim software and MaxSim TSS contains site specific 3D visual airfield databases that are currently only compatible with the proprietary MaxSim software. The contract will include updating existing software and providing ongoing yearly software maintenance.

The TSS Program is at risk of collapse because the FAA's current version of MaxSim is no longer supported by Adacel. This single source is for the immediate procurement of updated MaxSim software. This award will stabilize FAA TSS systems and ensure they can operate into the future. It is only a matter of time before the obsolete TSS software stops functioning completely due to incompatibilities between the FAA's version of MaxSim and the latest version of Windows.

Specialized Expertise

Adacel is the sole proprietor of MaxSim and as such is the only available vendor to provide the required updated software and new licenses for their product. There is no other vendor licensed to install, maintain, and update their proprietary software.

Market Analysis

A formal Market Survey was not conducted because there is only one company that can perform the work. Adacel is the owner and sole proprietor of MaxSim software and as such is the only available vendor to provide the required updated software and new licenses for their product. The FAA currently uses MaxSim on 111 systems.

Reasons Why No Other Vendor was Considered

If the FAA were to transition its 111 TSSs to another vendor's software, it will have to do far more than purchase software licenses and annual maintenance from this new contractor. The FAA would also have to fund significant transition costs in order to fully implement the system software in all of our TSSs. These costs would include:

Converting all of the FAA's 235 Visual Databases (VDBs) to the format the new system software demands.

Retrain the 42 Field Service Representatives (FSRs) that create and maintain the simulator scenarios in use nationwide.

Re-create all existing 10,000+ scenarios nationwide in the new simulator software.

The FAA calculates that, if it were to transition to another vendor's software, the total transition costs would increase the cost of acquiring the software licenses and yearly maintenance support by 31%.

In addition to the higher costs, transitioning to another vendor will create significant training delays, which are also unacceptable given the safety risks associated with any such delays. Every TSS, including those at the FAA's air traffic controller training Academy, will have to shut down for a minimum of ten weeks while the conversion/retraining/re-creating listed above are accomplished. Time would also be needed for each TSS site to install the new software, convert and install the visual databases, train the local FSRs and personnel on the software, and recreate and validate all training scenarios (200+ at large sites). Lastly, if a competitive acquisition were to be conducted, this could have taken two years to accomplish and resulted in increased flight delays, flight cancellations, and safety-of-flight incidents.

Further, the FAA did not consider transitioning to a foreign country provider because this company would have to do extensive testing and modifications to meet U.S. standards. The costs and time that would be required to adapt to a foreign system prevent the FAA from considering this alternative. The immediate needs of the FAA's TSS program are too acute.