Operation Warp Speed
Research Tools: GovTribe
I am an autodidact. In this day and age, I think we should all be autodidacts. The next time some midwit chastises you for doing your own research, please redirect them to this video.
Our need to be self sufficient in the information acquisition arena became glaringly obvious after years of obvious lies. Overeducated people in white coats and under-introspective bureaucrats in exceedingly expensive suits non-commensurate with the limited financial means generally available to a civil servant taught us this lesson… all too well.
After having their business destroyed by the white coats and bureaucrats, many Americans have a lot more time on their hands to dive into some self-generated research products. So, I say sally forth!
I intend to use Liberty Lad LLC (L4C) to help you become familiar with tools that can be used for research projects and home schooling, and I would also be delighted to see the winning streak of the oft maligned, but seldom incorrect dark web dwelling conspiracy theorists continue uninterrupted.
Maybe my affection for hugger-mugger validation is just the man child in me speaking aloud… but, the winning streak is impressive.
I like hands on learning and still believe Operation Warp Speed (OWS) and Advanced Technology International (ATI) is an excellent exemplar to help educate my readers. I am still familiarizing myself with the research tool I am using today, and I am sure I am missing out on some of its features. Admittedly, I am relatively new to researching government contracting, so as I gather additional data and familiarity with the administrative and legal processes, I will update the readership.
BLUF: GovTribe is an outstanding tool providing detailed contract information, spreadsheet data, and visualizations. It even has a dedicated COVID-19 federal government contract funding map. It is however, a paid resource.
Advanced technology International is a subsidiary of Ansel, a highly profitable not-for-profit, and has contracts spanning the better part of two decades.
Call to action: As a paid account, GovTribe is not cheap. One license is $595, a standard account with five users is $3500. Given the scope of this research, I am asking for 30 readers to sign up as a founding member, so that I can provide four more licenses to the other people working on the OWS project.
If you have experience using SAM.gov in a professional setting and can help me understand how best to leverage the contractual data, please send me an email at Jameserdman@libertylad.com.
Getting started on GovTribe
You can sign up for a 14 day free trial to see how it all works. Frankly, unless you are planning on starting or are currently running a government contract company, it may not be worth your time. In my case, this research and investigation into how the government spends tax payer dollars is a worthy endeavor. You can set up an account here: GovTribe account set up.
Below is a link to the first article in our OWS series.
ATI is a central player in OWS and we can begin by searching the term “Advanced Technology International” in GovTribe’s search bar. Everything included in below search results will have some connection to ATI and you can see the Unique Entity ID “LDMMF472BB93” we discussed in the last Substack is immediately apparent.
After we select the first choice in the drop down list, we are redirected to the vendor page and immediately have access to well-organized information all in one place. If we were simply using this as a government contracting tool, it is exactly what we need to determine whether or not there are business opportunities. The page is broken down into multiple tabs that further define ATI’s federal government business agreements.
We’ll get into the various tabs and what it all means, but let’s start with the vendor hierarchy to see the parent/child corporate relationships.
After clicking on parent/child we can see that Analytic Services Inc (Ansel), with unique entity ID MEHNDWCSBKD5 is the parent company. ATI has a child company with the same name but different Unique Entity ID HHNWZGJBAWY7 listed. It is common for large companies to have a number of subsidiary companies for a variety of reasons. Sometimes if reduces financial exposure for riskier entrepreneurial ventures, or it could be used to handle different aspects of the business. In future Substacks we can take a look at these related companies.
Ansel worked closely with John Hopkins University on the Dark Winter Tabletop exercise in 2001. Dark Winter depicted a hypothetical series of smallpox attacks on the United States.
The company overview provides a general description of the company.
A few things jump right out. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) primary category is R&D in engineering and life sciences. As we look through the number and variety of contracts awarded to ATI, we find a huge number of contracts involve industry categories pretty far removed from life sciences. I suspect GovTribe makes NIACS distinctions based on the monetary values involved in each NIACS category… And the OTA for OWS is in the billions.
You know what is really confusing when thinking about a 20 billion dollar OTA? ATI is listed as a not-for-profit company. The US Chamber of Commerce clarified the tax implications associated with nonprofit, not-for-profit, and for profit companies, but I think Gabe Lowe provided a more thorough explanation of differences and implications in his article, “Stop Calling Nonprofits Nonprofit - John Horak - The TANGO Alliance.”
According to Lowe and the US Chamber of Commerce, nonprofits make money. I would wager a 20 billion dollar OTA that ATI is making money. (Well, Feds for Freedom isn’t making any … so you should donate.)
SAM.gov is the US Government system where companies register and get a Unique Entity ID. Use of the SAM.gov tools will be the subject of a separate Substack; however, much of the data one can acquire from SAM.gov is drawn from the FDPS. My goal is to keep repetitive information to a minimum, and if anyone uses SAM.gov in a professional setting please reach out to me at Jim@fedsforfreedom.org or jameserdman@libertylad.com.
The company description is pretty comprehensive…
Advanced Technology International (ATI) is a not-for-profit research organization that provides specialized support services to various defense and national security agencies. Through prime and subcontract awards, ATI delivers engineering, prototyping, testing, and advisory services leveraging expertise in areas like systems integration, directed energy technology, manufacturing processes, medical countermeasures, and modeling and simulation.
As a prime contractor, ATI has received over $1.7 billion in federal contracts, including $175 million from the Department of the Navy Naval Sea Systems Command for high energy laser research, $99 million from the Naval Sea Systems Command for precision navigation and timing prototypes, $96 million from the Missile Defense Agency for threat representative target propulsion configurations, and $51 million from the Office of the Secretary of Defense for a munitions campus prototype facility. Additional prime contract awards provide systems engineering, business process redesign, wargaming, network prototyping, threat simulation services, and naval weapons testing support. ATI also holds a Seaport-e multiple award contract and has served as a subcontractor to firms like American Systems Corporation on various defense contracts.
Through prime and subaward grants, ATI has received over $13 million in funding from the Department of the Air Force Research Laboratory under the Defense Research Sciences Program, including $2.7 million for cleanliness assessment of metallic powders and $2.2 million to mature computed tomography techniques for metals defect evaluation. Additional awards from the Air Force and partner academic institutions fund development of specialized alloys, metal powders, welding methods, and additive manufacturing techniques for defense aerospace applications.
ATI currently holds three indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract vehicles. A $20 billion IDIQ with the Department of Health and Human Services provides medical countermeasure production through the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium, under which ATI has received delivery orders worth over $500 million. ATI also holds a $10 billion IDIQ for preparedness and response services from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. Additionally, ATI manages the Training and Readiness Accelerator II Consortium IDIQ from the Army's PEO Simulation, Training and Instrumentation used to rapidly prototype training systems.
Funding is neatly packaged with graphical representation since 2001, when the company began government contracting.
Awards since 2001.
Funding analysis displaying compete v. non-competition bids.
Funding analysis by agency.
Funding analysis by NIACS.
Funding analysis by Product and Service Code (PSC).
Funding analysis of place of performance.
The data can also be displayed in a number of different formats.
The landing page can support a number of different queries and graphical depictions for the data. We can draw a number of interesting conclusions.
ATI is a very profitable nonprofit.
Most contracts are fully competed.
The range of work is not confined to biopharmaceutical or life sciences.
Most of the 20 and 10 billion dollar OTA contracts, while authorized and appropriated, have not yet been obligated.
Let’s look at the details tab on the landing page.It provides metrics for the company, NIACS categories, contact info and location for the company.
The categories section also includes a SIC code. This is the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) used by OSHA and one can search various codes here. NIACS replaced SIC codes in 1997, but given the age of ATI, it is not surprising they still have it listed as 87. SIC codes are generally four digit codes; however, 87 is the first two numbers in the four digit sequence generally denoting engineering services.
After looking through the details tab, we can look at the “Buyer Personas” tab to see which federal government employees were responsible for brokering contracts with ATI. I have submitted relevant FOIAs to gather additional information related to their communication and coordination with ATI. as soon as DOD responds, I will post the material on F4F’s website, as well as draft a summary detailing DOD’s response.
The Industry Personas tab provides contact information for ATI employees involved in the contracting process. There were 48 contacts; all had emails addresses and some had work phone numbers.
The other tabs allow for a more detailed look at the contracts and grants. The results are displayed with unique contract numbers for each agreement, and they can be filtered to display information by potential value, award date, and last date to order. The data can also be downloaded and sent in an excel spreadsheet.
I downloaded excel spreadsheets for IDV Awards, Contract Awards, Contract Subawards, Grant Awards, Grant Subawards, Primes, and Subs. Please feel free to download them and examine the data. The F4F team is in the process of establishing an OWS timeline, and unfortunately the date-time included in these spreadsheets have to be reformatted to make them more usable, but it is a minor issue.
This is a very broad overview of GovTribe, and it will certainly continue to be a key weapon in our arsenal of research tools. As I explore the features, which include AI driven insights and tips, and as I become more familiar with the administrative, legal, and regulatory issues relevant to government contracts, I am sure you will see more from GovTribe.
We are far from done with our explorations into OWS and ATI.