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C4ISR Visualization Center
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The Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH has issued a $90 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity time-and-materials, firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, cost-plus fixed-fee contract to three firms. It will fund task orders, simulation analysis facility (XR-SIMAF) capabilities, integration services, and performance based acquisition with a three years base period (CY 2006-2008) to provide enterprise modeling, simulation, and analysis and infrastructure built to support AF-ICE (Integrated Collaborative Environment) and Accelerated Acquisition.

What is AF-ICE/AA, and who won the contracts?

As Pentagon budget justification documents note [PDF format]:

“Modeling & Simulation Foundations (MSF) provides realistic representations of friendly and threat warfighting capabilities, realistic representations of the natural environment where the warfighting capabilities exists, and an architecture framework to support developing representations that allow the easy and rapid integration of those representations into synthetic battlespaces. Accelerated Acquisitions (AA) connects combat system engineering sites within the Air Force-Integrated Collaborative Environment (AF-ICE), formally known as Joint Distributed Engineering Plant (JDEP), which replicates the Joint Force Combat system to create a network test-bed to assess Joint Battle Management, Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence. AA’s objective is to improve interoperability of weapons systems and platforms through more rigorous interoperability evaluation in a replicated battlefield environment.”

This USAF article about their C4ISR Visualization Center helps to clarify that sort of idea in more concrete terms. The program involved may or may not be part of AF-ICE, but the thrust and concept appears to be similar.

The US Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling to the maximum amount indicated above, although actual requirements may be less than the amount above. Solicitations began in December 2005, negotiations were complete in April 2006, and work will be complete by December 2008. Winners (FA8626-06-D-2096 through FA8626-06-D-2098) include, in order:

• General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems’ Advanced Information Engineering Services division in Buffalo, NY
• L-3 Communications Corp.’s Link Simulation and Training division, Arlington, TX
• Science Applications International Corp’s Technology Services Co., San Diego, CA