The U.S. Army Joint Munitions & Lethality Life Cycle Management Command (JM&L LCMC) awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite quantity contracts with cost-plus-fixed-fee/ firm-fixed-price orders to 5 companies to support the Army’s effort to get high-tech weapon prototypes in the hands of soldiers in the field as soon as possible. The effort, known as the Rapid Prototyping and Technology Initiative (RPTI), is run by the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC).
The maximum value of the 5 contracts is $300 million.
DID has a list of winners, contract numbers, as well as work to be performed under these contracts…
Apptis in Chantilly, VA won a $132.9 million time and material task order to provide management, engineering, integration and acquisition of U.S. Army command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems worldwide. Apptis will provide the systems to the Command Center Upgrades/Special Projects Office, which is part of Team Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (TEAM DCATS). Work is to be determined by mission requirements with an estimated completion date of June 30/11. For the contract, 16 bids were solicited and 3 bids received by Army Contracting Command in Alexandria, VA.
Located at Fort Monmouth, NJ, TEAM DCATS manages more than 100 projects that support soldiers, major commands and combatant commanders worldwide. Projects include strategic satellite communications and wideband control systems, long-haul terrestrial microwave and fiber optic communications systems, tech control facilities, Combat Service Support Communications systems, critical power infrastructure, command center upgrades, base radios and combat vehicle intercom systems.
The Apptis work is being performed under the $20 billion Army Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 Services (ITES-2S) multiple-award contract vehicle. DID has more on ITES-2S, including a list of companies that are eligible to compete and their contract numbers…
The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific awarded 3 indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts with a potential value of $172.4 million to provide Net-Enabled Command Capability (NECC) systems engineering support for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The companies that won the contracts are Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, VA (N66001-09-D-0113); FGM in Reston, VA (N66001-09-D-0114); and Science Applications International Corporation in San Diego, CA (N66001-09-D-0115).
The firms will compete for task orders during the ordering period, which expires June 30/11. The contracts were competitively procured via publication on the FedBizOpps website and posting to the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, with 3 viable offers received. Work will be performed at DISA locations in the Washington, DC area.
DID has more information on NECC and each contract…
Governments like umbrella “multiple award” contracts that let them deal with specific areas on set terms. It cuts administrative overhead costs, creates known pools of familiar competitors, and shortens the gap between requests and service. Hence the US Army’s recent announcement of their $497 million Biometrics Operations and Support Services Unrestricted (BOSS-U) multiple award contract awards, run by the Information Technology, E-commerce and Commercial Contracting Center (ITEC4) on behalf of the Biometrics Task Force.
The opportunity was initially announced on May 23/08, and proposals from 12 offerors were received by the closing date of Aug 18/08. The winners were announced in late December 2008, and include:
In May 2006, “US Chemical Demilitarization: Expansion and Update” explained the underlying structure of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency’s programs to safely store and dispose of chemical weapons. The CMA is responsible for a number of locations, each of which has its own prime contractor. Prime contractors hold the design, build, operation and closure portions of the contract, while subcontractors to the prime contractors vary by site. “Nerve Gas Stockpile Destruction at NECD in Newport, IN” shone a spotlight on one site’s efforts and contracts.
The U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado is another such site, which currently stores 2,611 tons of mustard agent contained in 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, and 4.5″ mortar shells. Decontamination is supervised by the PM Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA), using a biochemical process rather than incineration; the CMA is still responsible for safe storage until the munitions can be decontaminated. This article discusses mustard agent’s effects and place in the history of warfare, and takes a look at the efforts underway to destroy the Pueblo stockpile between 2015-2023. An effort that recently featured a contract worth over half a billion dollars…
Mustard Gas: A Quick Primer
The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP)
The Air Force District of Washington/A7KI in Anacostia Annex, DC recently awarded a trio of contracts to Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., of McLean, VA (FA7014-08-D-0008); Shafer Corp., of Chelmsford, MA (FA7014-08-D-0009); and Systems Research and Application Corporation of Fairfax, VA (FA7014-08-D-0010). These indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts for a maximum of $95 million will find professional defense science, engineering, and technical non-personal advisory and assistance support services.
At this time no funds have been obligated. Contractors will compete for task orders as projects come up.
Back in August 2005, we noted that “ENCORE I.T. Contracts Raise Ceiling to $2.5B Until ENCORE II Arrives.” Services under ENCORE II will include high level enterprise IT policy, integration management, communications engineering, and asset management. According to the Encore II RFP, DISA intends to use the contract to support users in the military services and agencies as they transition from legacy systems to Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES), which embodies the new techno-organizational opportunities described above. Encore II will help them effectively use core NCES product lines, including collaboration and discovery tools, and a planned joint services knowledge portal. That’s the vision, anyway. In January 2006, we followed that up with “Pentagon’s $13 Bn “Encore II” RFP Gets Revised, Extended,” explaining the ENCORE vision, its origins, and its likely obstacles.
That wait ended on Jan 31/07, when 6 companies received indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity multiple-awards contracts. They include provisions for Firm, Fixed-Price, Time-and-Materials or Labor-Hour and Cost-Reimbursement (CPFF, CPAF, etc), and will run from March 12/07 through March 11/17. The maximum not-to-exceed value for the ENCORE II contract over a 5-year period, plus its 5 one-year option periods, is $12.225 billion. This is slightly less than the $13 billion projected. Performance will be at various locations within the Continental United States (CONUS), and also outside the CONUS (OCONUS), and each task order issued will be opened to competition among the ENCORE-II winners.
The solicitation was issued as a full and open competitive action with 16 large firm proposals received – but the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization DITCO) at Scott AFB, IL picked just 6 large firm winners with small business awards to follow. Whereupon, the protests began. Now, the small business roster has been added, and the large business roster has been expanded…
In May of 1998, technical and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, VA received a $199.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to establish and operate the US military’s Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center. This contract had a 3-year base period, plus a 3-year option period and a 4-year option period, for a total performance period of 10 years with completion by April 30, 2008. The Defense Supply Center Columbus solicited 9 bids, and received 2 (SPO700-98-D-4002). A number of awards have been made under this contract, but a set of awards announced on May 16/08 appear to be the final set of contracts under this arrangement…
by Art Fritzson, Lloyd W. Howell Jr., and Dov S. Zakheim
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) took an unprecedented step on May 15, 2007, blocking troop access to MySpace, YouTube, and other popular Web sites. The official reason was to conserve bandwidth and safeguard security. But the DOD’s ban also highlighted a gap in understanding between senior military leaders and what demographers call Generation Y (alternatively known as the millennial generation or the baby-boom echo). Few members of this generation, born after 1978, can recall a time when the Internet was not at their disposal.
Not long ago, one of the authors of this article was asked to lead a U.S. Air Force study on the implications for the military of this new online generation. The request came from senior officers who had been appalled to discover a number of junior officers using the still-permissible Facebook Web site for the purpose of organizing their squadrons. These senior officers were having difficulty with the concept of using a civilian social-networking site for military purposes. What would that mean for military security? How would it affect the control and vulnerability of squadrons in the field? And from the perspective of DOD “middle management,” what was a major supposed to do? Forbid the behavior and risk losing the real benefits of an online community? Or protect it and risk the wrath of more senior officers who just didn’t understand?
This kind of conundrum is relevant not just for the U.S. military. A wide range of organizations, including most global corporations, will soon face a large, new cohort of young employees. Generation Y’s affinity for the interconnected world is just one of its intriguing characteristics…
Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. of Herndon, VA received a modified contract for $28 million, in exchange for “survivability and vulnerability technical research and development analysis for U.S. Coast Guard ship, aviation, and Command and Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems.” At this time $7.7 million has been committed. Offutt AFB, NB issued the contract (SP0700-03-D-1380, Delivery Order: 0250).
