***NOAA's Acquisition & Grants Office, Western Acquisition Division-Boulder, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Raytheon Corporation in support of NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation (OMAO) and NOAA Office of Atmospheric Research for Coyote UAS Tropical Cyclone Research to Operations Testing.

***The sole source determination is based on the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA), Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) requirement for follow-on Phase III Coyote UAS Enhancements and Operation testing support in hurricanes. This will allow NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation (OMAO) and the Hurricane Research Division of OAR to accomplish its mission of Hurricane Forecast improvement program studies, which includes engineering for Smart Sonde technology and UAS re-design.
Raytheon is the sole manufacturer of the Coyote Unmanned Aerial System and has proprietary ownership of the development and the unique technology for NOAA for Hurricane meteorological data sampling. This technology is proprietary and not available to the public or other agencies.

***This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can fully meet the Government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such 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 responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.