Only 59 shopping days (including Sundays) until Christmas! And it looks like the upcoming holiday season’s going to be particularly festive this year for defense contractors. A hefty slice of the approximately $200 B worth of the 30 $1B+ RFPs expected to hit in the next 90 days is either military- or security-related.

Slim Pickins

That’s a switch. The past several Christmases have been indeed blue for the aerospace/defense sector. According to a General Accounting Office (GAO) study issued last May, Pentagon contracting declined precipitously the previous five or so years, off 31%, from $399B (2011) to $274B (2015), while civilian agency contracting outlays remained more or less the same.

Return to Reality

But the current administration is changing spending, and thus contracting priorities. Big time…. The Office of Management and Budget’s “Budget Blueprint” issued last March called for a 10 percent increase in Pentagon spending, largely at the expense of civilian agencies.

And Congress has gone along with opening the spigot for defense, while tightening it elsewhere.

Last July, the House added $30B on top of what the administration was requesting. And then in September, the Senate passed (89 – 9) a $700B Defense Spending bill that was far more than the Blueprint called for.

Just in time for the holiday season….

And now contracting officers are starting to push RFPs out the door, finally….

Mark Your Calendars

Noteworthy upcoming contracts include the following:

Solutions for Intelligence Analysis III (SIA III) – This all-source analytics contract to be administered by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Directorate for Analysis calls for staff augmentation to the Department of Defense Intelligence Community (consisting of the DIA, Service Centers (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force) and the Combatant Commands). Its goal is to provide their leaders with the capability to efficiently manage the use of analytic services across the Defense Intelligence Analysis Program, (DIAP). This effort is also intended to streamline the procurement process for contract intelligence analysis services. Repeat: intended to streamline the procurement process for contract intelligence analysis services.

Currently, eleven different firms are on this: BAE, Booz-Allen, CACI, Concurrent Technologies, Buffalo Group, Cyberspace Solutions, L-3, Lockheed Martin, Mission Essential Personnel, SAIC, and Veritiss.

This $5.6B Professional Services IDIQ is Full and Open and Unrestricted; 5-year term; FFP, Cost Plus; Anticipated Drop: December.

Software Development and Integration Next Generation 2 (SDI-NG2) – The US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) contract for software development and integration services calls for the following typical-for-this-sort-of-effort IT capabilities: System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Program Management, System and Software Development, Architecture and Design, Coding, Unit, Integration and Regression Testing, Configuration and Release Management, Bug Triage; Production Support and User Integration and Design.

But more importantly: US PTO is looking for contractors who share the USPTO IT’s vision to transform the agency with next generation technology and services.

Currently, there are 10 firms providing the aforementioned services on 19 SDI -NG 1 contracts: Maximus (2 contracts), Criterion, Salient (2), Niksoft Systems Corp., Phacil (2), CGI (3), HP (2), Pragmatics (2), SAIC (2) and Unisys (2).

This $1.16B Agency-Specific IDIQ has F&O and SB/S-A Components; a 10-year Base: FFP, T&M, LH pricing; No. of Expected Awards: TBD; Anticipated Drop: December.

Global Tactical Advanced Communications Systems (GTACS II) and Services – The Army’s GTACS II, in brief, is intended to equip soldiers with systems that are as sophisticated and advanced as those they can easily buy in any of their neighborhood T-Mobile, Sprint, Apple, etc. stores. In other words, to boost commo systems’ “iPad-friendliness”. Contractors will be called upon to provide R&D, sustainment and logistical support throughout acquisition lifecycles, serve as one-stop purveyors of broad ranges of hard- and software systems, and enhance the range and flexibility of the Army’s communications systems – all that, in a compressed timeframe.

Currently, there are 20 incumbent firms working on 26 contracts in support of GTACS I: CACI, D&S (2), DRS, EVISTACOM (2), GD, Globecomm (2), Harris (2), L-3, Lockheed Martin, Morgan Franklin (2), Nexagen (2), Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rockwell, SAIC, SRC, Comtech, Trace Systems (2) and VIASAT.

This $5.1B IT IDIQ has F&O and SB/S-A Components; a 5-year base plus 1 x 5-year options; FFP, Cost Plus; No. of Expected Awards: 16; Anticipated Release Date: January 2018.

 

Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V (LOGCAP V) – The Army Materiel Command (AMC), Army Sustainment Command’s (ASC), Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V (LOGCAP V) is a continuation of prior, high profile contingency support programs (LOGCAP I – IV). These contracts involve provision of housing, materiel, operations and maintenance services, etc. — food…. and, of course, beverages.

The requirements of the LOGCAP V Contract are especially stringent and demanding: personnel must be ready to go outside the wire and head for the front lines, pronto. With version V, the watchwords are: Sprint and RAPID RESPONSE. In prior versions of the program, contractors tapped for LOGCAP duty had a leisurely 30 – 180 days to respond to TORPs. Now, that’s been shortened, big time, to…48 – 96 HOURS! And, similarly, their people have to be ready spring into action IMMEDIATELY.

Currently, there are three companies involved in LOGCAP’s present iteration: Remington, Fluor and Honeywell.

This $28B – repeat: $28B – Agency-Specific IDIQ is F&O, Unrestricted; 5-year base plus 5 x 1-year options; FFP, CPFF; no. of expected awards: 6; Anticipated Award Date: July, 2018.

Just a Sampling

The contracts profiled above are just four of the 30 $1B+ RFPs expected to drop over the next 90 days. And this doesn’t count RFPs under $1B. There will be enough to keep contractors busy writing proposals over the holidays and well into calendar year 2018.

How to Boost the Chances of Winning

Serious bidders will have been at work on BD/Capture activities already on target contracts. The Trump administration may be more defense contractor friendly than its predecessors. But it still helps to perform a PTW study to help derive the winning price.   If needed, engage consultants early rather than at last minute.

Doubling the number of LOGCAP contractors is likely to make three primes and numerous subs very happy.

Bidders on IT contracts should be careful to have, and show they have Agile and DevOps capabilities. Evaluators will particularly be looking for these approaches.

Information concerning these “disruptive”, non-traditional, iterative approaches to managing projects and programs can be found on the following two websites: https://18f.gsa.gov and www.agilegovleaders.org/handbook.