NAWCAD Lakehurst intends a sole-source procurement with VEP Manufacturing Inc. (CAGE 5C905) for the Universal Lifting Sling P/N 4106AS0150-2 and upgrade of P/N 4106AS0150-1 to -2 in support of the U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton UAS Program. The item is an Aviation Critical Safety Item, VEP is the only currently approved source, and the technical authority is NAWCAD Lakehurst. No solicitation will be posted unless alternate offerors are identified, and this notice is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested alternate sources must submit a Source Approval Request (SAR) package to the point of contact for technical evaluation, and SAM registration is mandatory for consideration. If another source were pursued, an engineering and quality assurance audit would generally take 12 months, which is considered an unacceptable delay to contract award and delivery.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only, not a solicitation, issued for information and planning purposes. NAWCAD Lakehurst intends to make a sole-source award to VEP Manufacturing Inc. for procurement of the Universal Lifting Sling (P/N 4106AS0150-2, NSN 1730-01-665-8764) and upgrade of P/N 4106AS0150-1 to the current configuration in support of the MQ-4C Triton UAS Program. The Universal Lifting Sling is an Aviation Critical Safety Item, and VEP Manufacturing is currently the only approved source; other companies would require a Source Approval Request package and an engineering/quality assurance audit. Interested parties should submit company information and descriptive literature on currently available products meeting the Navy’s requirements, including point of contact, phone, email, website, CAGE code, and business size status for the applicable NAICS code. The Government will not pay for information received, and responses will be treated as information only, not proposals.