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Accenture's federal arm wins $480M Army task management system contract

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 11:58:26 -0400

Accenture’s U.S. federal subsidiary has won a potential five-and-a-half year, $480.4 million contract to help the Army develop an artificial intelligence-centric system for managing tasks and correspondence across the entire Defense Department.

The Joint Enterprise Task Management System will cover 200,000 users across 68 defense and interagency organizations, including the service branches and “Fourth Estate” administrative agencies. DOD and Army leaders see JETMS as a tool to cut down on manual administrative work and give leaders faster access to information for daily operations and decision-making.

The Army received two bids in total for the firm-fixed-price contract that was competed via a commercial solutions opening, according to the Pentagon’s Thursday awards digest. The service branch chose Accenture Federal Services through a three-phase downselect process.

JETMS is intended as the replacement of two legacy platforms – the Office of the Secretary of War’s Correspondence and Task Management System and the Army’s Enterprise Task Management Software Solution.

Solicitation documents issued in March describe the new system as featuring a desktop and mobile interface that requires minimal training, as well as tools for single sign-on and integration with the Microsoft 365 tool suite.

The system will also need a multitenant cloud architecture that can scale to meet the requirements for user reach.

The contract’s period of performance includes one base year, four individual option years and another six-month option that would extend work to August 2032.

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DHS starts the bidding for $441M biometric tech contract

Ross Wilkers — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 11:54:27 -0400

The Homeland Security Department has opened the window for industry to start working on and turning in bids for a potential five-year, $440.7 million contract covering the supply of biometric capture devices.

DHS is eyeing a quick turnaround with proposals being due Sept. 18 and questions have to be in by Wednesday, the department said in a Thursday notice to release the final solicitation.

Other agencies will be able to place orders through the Biometric Capture Device GWAC vehicle, such as the State and Justice departments.

DHS is standing up this new vehicle as mandatory for use by its components to achieve economies of scale and standardize biometric tech purchases, which the request for proposals describe as having been fragmented over the years

The new contract has five product tracks for companies to pursue: fingerprint, facial, iris, palmprint and multi-modal devices. Bidders must submit separate proposals for each track, but are free to compete for as many as they are interested in.

Ancillary or other related services are not within the scope of this contract and will need to be acquired separately.

DHS is using four factors to evaluate bids, starting with an initial pass-or-fail rating of device availability. Bids must also include supporting documentation for each biometric capture device for later use in contract administration after the awards.

Technical approach is Factor No. 3 and will assign confidence ratings of “High,” “Some” and “Low.” Price is the fourth factor.

The bar to clear for an award is Some or High Confidence for technical approach, in addition to the Pass mark for device availability.

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SBA fast tracks 8(a) applicants in defense-critical industries

Nick Wakeman — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 11:38:24 -0400

The Small Business Administration is creating a new fast track for defense companies that want to join the 8(a) small contracting program.

The initiative supports both President Trump’s efforts to expand the defense industrial base and the goals of the recently established Smaller War Plants Commission.

SBA has identified 10 NAICS codes that are critical to defense and national security. The agency will prioritize the review and processing of 8(a) applications that fall in the following NAICS codes:

NAICS 332992: Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing
NAICS 332993: Ammunition (except Small Arms) Manufacturing
NAICS 336414: Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing
NAICS 336413: Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing
NAICS 334511: Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing
NAICS 334419: Other Electronic Component Manufacturing
NAICS 331110: Iron and Steel Mills and Ferroalloy Manufacturing
NAICS 332710: Machine Shops
NAICS 332999: All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
NAICS 336611: Ship Building and Repairing

“By fast-tracking defense-critical firms and enforcing the rigorous statutory standards of the 8(a) program, the SBA will strengthen domestic supply chains, expand production capacity, and ensure that the world’s strongest military is backed by the world’s most resilient industrial base,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in the agency’s Sept. 10 announcement.

Very few 8(a) businesses currently use these NAICS as their primary code. An analysis of GovTribe data showed that of the nearly 4,000 active 8(a) companies, only 47 (1.2%) use these NAICS codes as their primary registration.

Three of the NAICS codes have no 8(a) companies – guided missile/space vehicle manufacturing (336414), iron and steel mills (331110), and ammunition manufacturing except small arms (332993)

Two other initiatives are underway at SBA that could greatly increase the pipeline of potential new 8(a) companies.

SBA has proposed revamping how it determines what is a small business. The proposal could add more than 100,000 companies that could qualify as a “small business.”

SBA is also reforming the 8(a) program itself to drop the race-based admissions framework, which would open the program to white-owned businesses. To qualify, 8(a) applicants must show they have been socially disadvantaged regardless of race.

Any individual can qualify by showing that during their lifetime, a government agency, university, or corporation discriminated against their racial, ethnic, or cultural group, or favored a group of which they are not a member, and that the action caused them material harm.

White applicants can point to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, affirmative action policies, and other DEI programs as evidence of social disadvantage.

The rule establishing the new 8(a) qualification became effective Sept. 10. Along with the rule going into effect, SBA has given any pending 8(a) applicants 45 days to resubmit their applications under the new social-disadvantage standard.

Any of those applicants that are in the 10 defense NAICS codes will be on a fast-track review process as well as any future defense applicants.

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You own 100% of the growth number but control none of the people who decide it

Nic Coppings — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:54:15 -0400

I recently sat in on a meeting with a chief growth officer and a chief operating officer.

The CGO's ask was three things. Defend the recompetes. Capture the on-contract growth, and share critical intel, especially when a program manager hears about a budget realignment, a new stakeholder, competitor intel, or friction in the program office.

The COO agreed in principle. Then he said, "I'm not sending my PMs into customer meetings to fish for intel. If our PMs start sounding like a sales rep, we lose customer trust."

The CGO wasn't asking PMs to carry a quota or sell anything. She got a nod from the COO as he left the meeting, same as last quarter, but that was all.

Here's the part nobody says out loud. Three-quarters of what your company pursues this year will likely be recompetes or on-contract growth, and these contracts will be decided in program offices where a PM, not business development, owns the customer relationship. The CGO carries the entire revenue number but has direct authority over only the people responsible for about a quarter of it. The rest report to the COO or a general manager, and the CGO's dotted-line relationship gives her the right to ask. Nothing more.

What Your Delivery Team Hears

A contract officer representative mentions that funding will move to a different PEO next year. A government lead complains about a competitor missing another deadline. A new deputy asks why the current architecture was chosen.

Your delivery team hears every word of it but often doesn't recognize its value. Ask them why they didn't follow up, and the answers are always the same.

"Not my job. I've got a program to run."

"I didn't want them to think I was fishing for intel."

"I didn't want the customer to stop trusting me."

Not excuses. Nothing in their annual review mentions sharing growth intel, and their own leadership told them not to risk the customer relationship. So, they don't ask, and worse, they don't share, so what they heard stays in the room.

Three months later, your capture manager builds the gate review from a market research company and a call plan, and Pwin comes in high. The one factor that would have cut it in half was heard by an analyst on site who had nowhere to route it. Capture bids, loses, and owns the miss.

The Structure Is Doing Its Job

This isn't a COO problem. Nobody set out to block growth. Look at how success is defined in each role, and the gap explains itself.

For your COO, success is CPARS, book-to-bill, and margin. For your CGO, success is pipeline, win rate, and backlog.

Recompete retention and on-contract growth coming out of delivery sit on neither scorecard. The two lowest-cost sources of revenue in the company fall outside both sets of incentives, and the only executive accountable for the number doesn't control the teams who sit with the customer every week.

Here's what it costs. Recompete win rates average 57% across the industry, while new bid win rates average 44%, according to Deltek's 2024 Clarity study. Lose a program you already hold because your delivery team missed the early signals, and you're bidding it at 13% worse odds, with B&P money you never planned to spend. The loss shows up on the growth forecast. Operations close out the contract with satisfactory CPARS and moves on.

So, the CGO launches an initiative. PMs attend out of professional courtesy, nod, and go back to delivery. She escalates. She buys training, because training is the only thing a leader is allowed to buy for people who don't report to her. None of it sticks. The PMs are doing exactly what they are held accountable for.

The Method Operations Will Sign Off On

The COO's fear of losing customer trust is well-founded when the engagement method is wrong. Send technical PMs to conventional BD training, and the strong ones refuse, while the compliant ones sound scripted and quickly irritate the customer.

The alternative is recognition. Teach PMs what intel to listen for in the meetings they already attend, then give them one follow-up question that the customer experiences as support rather than extraction.

The COR mentions that his funding is being moved. The untrained PM nods and moves to the next agenda item. The trained PM asks, "What changes for you next year?" and hears about a consolidation reshaping the recompete. Same meeting. Different focus. The PM never sells anything, and pursuit strategy stays with capture.

None of this adds more meetings or headcount, and the payoff is often seen on the COO's scorecard first. CPARS rates Management and Business Relations on how problems are identified, escalated, and communicated, and Exceptional goes to contractors who document proactive risk identification during performance. The PM who asks the question and logs the answer builds the CPARS evidence file and the recompete intel file in the same conversation.

Move the Accountability

The method removes the COO's objection. It does not close the accountability gap, and no CGO closes it alone.

So, stop asking operations to participate in a growth program. Take three things to your CEO instead.

First, put recompete retention and on-contract growth on the operations scorecard, next to CPARS and margin. Delivery owns the number for the customers it sits with every week.

Second, make intel recognition and sharing part of the monthly program review. The COO defines it, in operational language, as part of the job. Growth supplies the method, the filters, and the routing, so a PM who hears something knows where it goes.

Third, hold both executives to the same recompete number. Shared accountability ends the quarterly nod.

Do this, and your delivery team earns better CPARS from meetings they already attend, your capture managers stop bidding blind, and your forecast starts reflecting what your company already knows.

Leave it as it is, and your competitors keep training their PMs to catch what yours are filing as noise.

Nic Coppings is senior partner at Hi-Q Group, where he helps government contractors transform customer engagement into competitive advantage. With more than 20 years of experience in federal contracting, Nic has worked with thousands of contractors to develop the human intelligence capabilities that drive on-contract growth, win recompetes, and identify adjacencies competitors never see.

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Testing plan sinks QinetiQ’s bid for a Polish aerostat surveillance system

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:41:31 -0400

QinetiQ lost a shot at a $625 million contract to support Poland's military because its interpretation of the solicitation was different than what the U.S. Army and the Government Accountability Office said was required.

QinetiQ competed for a task order to provide four airspace and surface radar reconnaissance aerostats to Poland under the foreign military sales program, losing out to TCOM LP.

The dispute centered around when the solicitation said testing was required. QinetiQ planned to wait until the aerostats reached Poland to conduct live target testing.

The solicitation was not explicit about requiring testing in the U.S. first, but the Army and GAO said the requirement was implicit — a concept known as "logically encompassed."

The protest also highlights the urgency the Army felt to get the aerostat surveillance system up and running on NATO’s eastern flank.

Unlike most protests, the QinetiQ challenge did not trigger an automatic stay or pause in the contract. The U.S. Army, which manages the procurement, said “urgent and compelling circumstances required it to override the statutory stay.”

The circumstances included “maintaining stability of NATO’s eastern flank, upholding alliance commitments, and protecting the U.S. military personnel deployed in the region,” according to the GAO decision unsealed Sept. 4.

The Army also cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “direct threat to Poland’s sovereignty.”

QinetiQ's protest challenged the Army’s evaluation of its proposal, including low marks it received for the plan it presented during orals.

Because this solicitation ran on oral presentations rather than a separate written technical volume, QinetiQ's oral presentation was effectively its technical proposal and it drew a rating of "Acceptable." TCOM earned "Good," while both companies received acceptable ratings for their small business participation and subcontracting plans.

During the oral presentations, QinetiQ described its plan to wait until the aerostats were in Poland to conduct live target testing. The Army did not like that plan.

QinetiQ argued that the solicitation did not include a provision for live testing. But the Army countered that the requirement for live testing was “logically encompassed” as part of the performance work statement, which included testing in the U.S. before the system reached Poland.

The Army gave QinetiQ two strengths and eight weaknesses for its technical proposal, while TCOM received five strengths and no weaknesses.

GAO could find nothing in QinetiQ’s protest to overturn the Army’s evaluation.

A key takeaway is GAO’s acceptance of “logically encompassed” concept that the Army leaned on. This concept means the government can rely on inferences in solicitation documents that are not necessarily spelled word for word.

A second issue is that GAO let slide a mistake the Army admitted making that involved export-license risk assessments.

But QinetiQ would have needed to show its proposal was technically superior to TCOM's for the export-license error to matter. Given eight weaknesses to TCOM's zero and a price gap of more than 10%, GAO said that bar was not met.

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CISA tees up cyber hygiene recompete

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:25:11 -0400

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has provided industry a timeline for its plan to conduct the recompete of a contract for integrated assessment and hygiene support services.

CISA plans to award the work as a task order via the Alliant 2 IT solutions and services vehicle and release a final solicitation on or around Jan. 30. The order’s ceiling value is poised exceed $100 million as its scope will expand from the current contract, CISA said in a Wednesday notice to the Acquisition Planning Forecast System.

NTT Data’s federal services subsidiary is the incumbent after having first won the work in 2020, then securing an extension earlier this year with a March 2027 expiration date. CISA has obligated $41.6 million in order volume to-date, according to GovTribe data.

The agency describes the new Integrated Cybersecurity Assessments and Hygiene Support Services requirement as a “unified, scalable, and modernized mission support vehicle” to aid CISA’s vulnerability management subdivision.

CISA is seeking to acquire industry support for technical assessments, cyber hygiene services, operational assessments and other enablement activities.

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Army starts market research for training product support contract

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:24:22 -0400

The Army has embarked on initial market research efforts to aid its work in setting up the recompete of a contract covering the support of products for live training domain requirements.

Known by the LT2 acronym, the Live Training Transformation product line includes systems used for combat center training and to prepare soldiers for military operations on urban terrains. Army leaders created LT2 to maximize commonality and interoperability across the service branch, as well as follow a systematic knowledge management approach.

The new contract will focus on the continued management of LT2’s evolution and provide total lifecycle support to programs utilizing that approach, the Army said in a sources sought notice released Wednesday.

The new contract is being called Consolidated Product-Line Management, Sustainment, and Modernization – or CPMSM.

General Dynamics’ mission systems unit is the incumbent on the current Consolidated Product Line Management Plus program, which was awarded in 2020 for an eight-year duration. GDMS has received $359 million in order volume to-date ahead of the contract’s scheduled January 2028 sunset, according to GovTribe data.

A total of 23 LT2 products are in use at approximately 200 sites around the world, while the Army wants to maintain visibility and control over the configurations of those systems.

The request for information indicates Army officials are exploring a range of options and acquisition strategies for CPMSM.

Responses to the RFI should be in the form of 3-page white papers, not including cover page, cover letter, table of contents and any other past performance documentation. The deadline to respond is 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 24.

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Riverside Research has a new CEO and a new plan to get noticed after 60 years under the radar

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:59:00 -0400

Riverside Research has built a reputation as a go-to provider of physics-based research and development for national security customers over the past 60 years, all while staying virtually unknown to everyone else.

Their new CEO wants to change all that.

“Historically it's been very under the radar, but doing just some incredible missions," said Tom Lash, who was announced as the nonprofit firm's leader on Thursday morning. "I think we're going to do a better job of explaining Riverside to the market.”

Riverside Research spun out of Columbia University in 1967 and will mark its 60th anniversary next year. It operates from four locations: Fairfax, Virginia, Dayton, Ohio, New York City and Lexington, Massachusetts.

The firm focuses on high-end technical engineering and advisory work for national security customers, including hypersonics, autonomy, cybersecurity and terahertz imaging technology.

Riverside Research has pulled in $53 million in non-classified prime contract obligations over the past 12 months, according to USASpending.gov.

Lash said Riverside Research has 750 employees. Major customers include the Air Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Innovation Unit, Army and Navy.

"It really is defense-oriented, physics-based research and development and advisory services for national security customers and sponsors," Lash said.

While the company is a nonprofit, Lash is quick to point out it is not a federally-funded research-and-development center.

"The advantage of a nonprofit company is that we don't have shareholders, and therefore we don't have a fiduciary duty to a profit motive," he said. "We really can focus on customers."

It was one featured lured Lash away from his last company, Vibrint.

“The idea of being able to work for our customer's benefit solely as opposed to having split allegiances to shareholders and to our customers resonated with me,” Lash said.

Profits are reinvested into new technologies and reduced risks for customers, he added.

Riverside Research is governed by a board of trustees who gave Lash two priorities – raise its profile and grow.

"I think we have just tremendous opportunity to address other customers and sponsors that we're not currently supporting," he said. "Where we are, we're very deep, very bonded to those customers, but I think the national security space is a large space, and I think we have a lot more impact to be made."

The growth strategy includes both organic and potential acquisitions. Lash does not have a target list as he was only six days on the job when he spoke with Washington Technology.

But Riverside Research is looking to grow both technical capabilities and customer relationships it doesn't currently have.

Lash succeeds Steve Omick, who retired after a decade in the role. Omick was only the fourth CEO in Riverside Research's history. Lash is the fifth.

Lash will also lead efforts to expand Riverside Research's partnerships with the growing number of venture-backed defense technology startups.

“What is best for our customers is to work with the defense disruptors to bring our trusted, unbiased expertise and guidance," he said.

Riverside Research’s nonprofit status makes it a neutral broker for the customer and the disruptors.

Lash is also weighing whether Riverside Research should open-source more of the internally-funded R&D work.

But do not expect Riverside Research to expand into traditional IT work.

"I don't think so," Lash said when asked if that was a growth area. "I think we'll stay in our technical lane."

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CMMC's Phase 2 suspension locked in with binding regulation

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:03:50 -0400

The Defense Department has moved beyond a simple suspension of third-party assessment requirements of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and onto a binding regulation that essentially codifies the suspension.

A Sept. 3 memo from John Tenaglia -- DOD’s principal director for defense pricing, contracting and acquisition policy -- has directed contracting officers to comply with requirements in the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul instead of the final CMMC rule that has been in place since November 2025 for contract clauses.

The class deviation orders contracting officers to strip out from contracts any and all of CMMC’s requirements for third-party assessments.

DOD was following a phased approach to implementing CMMC with the third-party assessments set to begin this coming November, but the department has since suspended that plan for a 60-day review.

Because this is a class deviation and no longer a suspension, reversing this move is a more involved process.

What comes next is unclear. The 60-day review by the CMMC Reform Task Force force began July 13, which puts the deadline at Sept. 11 (Friday). How quickly the results of that review become public is also an open question.

The task force report will go to DOD Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies first and it is up to her to make their recommendations public.

The July suspension went into place because of DOD’s concerns with CMMC becoming a bureaucratic burden and increasing costs, particularly for small businesses. CMMC also operational technologies and industrial controls.

Speaking at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit on Wednesday, Davies said cybersecurity is still a top priority for DOD.

“This isn't about whether cybersecurity is important or not. It is. It's critical. It's vital,” she said. “We wanted to hear more from the defense industrial base on what was important for meaningful, dynamic cybersecurity."

DOD has received more than 1,100 comments on the request for information it issued in July, Davies said. The comment period ended Aug. 14.

The department asked for feedback on cost drivers, administrative burdens tied to CMMC compliance and which NIST 800-171 security controls deliver meaningful risk reduction. DOD also wanted to know how it could incorporate commercial cybersecurity tools and managed services into a cybersecurity framework.

For government contractors, what has not changed is that self-attestation of compliance with the NIST standards is still required. There are consequences of those self-assessments that fall short or are not taken seriously.

In June, the Justice Department reached a settlement with Logzone to resolve allegations that the company submitted a nearly perfect score on its self-assessment. A DOD audit found that score to be wildly inaccurate and Logzone had to pay roughly $500,000.

One thing to watch for is whether Davies makes the task force's recommendations public and when. Those recommendations could dictate next steps for CMMC beyond self-attestation.

Edward Graham, managing editor for Nextgov/FCW, contributed to this report.

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NASA starts to craft engineering, tech services recompete

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:51:37 -0400

NASA has started market research efforts to inform its work in creating a new small business set-aside contract supporting the agency’s Johnson Space Center, which houses spaceflight training and flight control operations.

The Operations, Research, and Broad Innovative Technology Services contract is being envisioned as a single vehicle that brings together mission engineering, specialized IT, mission support and other technology services.

Via this request for information posted Sept. 4, NASA is collecting capability statements to determine the level of competition and small business subcontracting goals for ORBIT.

ORBIT will be a multiple-award effort and succeed the current Mission Enabling Support Contract, which NASA awarded four spots on in 2020.

The agency has obligated $85 million in task order volume to-date against MESC ahead of its planned sunset in September 2027, according to Deltek data. Rothe Development has been the largest recipient at 43%, followed by Science Applications International Corp. at 29% and Mathematical Research at 21%. ASRC Federal represents the remaining 5%.

NASA has broken out ORBIT’s scope of work into four functional areas:

Mission and systems engineering support
Technical evaluation, analysis, and independent assessments
Specialized IT and operations
Advanced mission research-and-development

Work will support the Johnson Space Center’s Flight Operations Directorate and its affiliate organizations comprising approximately 2,500 individuals that include flight controllers, mission planners, trainers, astronauts flight directors, engineering support, and administrative staff supporting commercial, external, and international partners.

Responses to the RFI are due by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 6.

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Serco hires Supplee to lead North American arm

Ross Wilkers — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:04:55 -0400

Serco Group has hired a new chief executive for its North American subsidiary in Barbara Supplee, a three-decade industry veteran and former executive vice president at Science Applications International Corp.

Supplee will start her new position on Sept. 28 and succeed Michael LaRouche, who is leaving to take up the CEO position at KBR’s government spinoff now being called Trinzic.

In joining Serco North America, Supplee will lead a business that employs roughly 10,000 people and generated close to $2 billion in revenue for 2025. That translates to around 20% of Serco Group’s global workforce and 30% of the overall sales mix.

Serco North America ranked at No. 27 in the 2026 Washington Technology Top 100 rankings with $1.5 billion in unclassified prime obligations.

The subsidiary’s current strategy emphasizes autonomy, command and control, systems engineering and integration, and modernization as key priorities. Over recent years, Serco North America has pushed to expand its technical portfolio and move further into higher-end services.

Supplee most recently led SAIC’s portfolio of Army, Navy and Marine Corps programs in her EVP role there. Her career also includes senior leadership roles at CACI International and BAE Systems’ U.S. subsidiary.

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Musk should testify about overstated savings from DHS contract cancellations, Democrats argue

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:07:50 -0400

Two House Democrats last week requested that Elon Musk and other Department of Government Efficiency officials testify under oath after a new watchdog report found that the cost-cutting initiative overstated its savings from Homeland Security Department contract cancellations.

“Elon Musk and DOGE tried to sell the American people a lie: that firing federal workers and gutting public services would make government more efficient and save taxpayers billions,” said Reps. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and James Walkinshaw, D-Va., in a statement. “Instead, they inflicted lasting damage, indiscriminately cancelled contracts and fired essential personnel.”

The Government Accountability Office reported that DHS fully or partially terminated 438 contracts between Jan. 20 and Sept. 30, 2025, as a result of DOGE’s mandate to reduce agency spending, including on contracts. Auditors found that, as a result, the department deobligated more than $249 million but also obligated $157 million in new costs to settle the canceled agreements with contractors and for continued work under partially terminated contracts.

While that results in a net of about $92 million in savings, DHS reported that the 2025 contract terminations could generate more than $10.5 billion in reduced spending. Unlike GAO’s analysis, which looked at how much money was deobligated, the department’s methodology relied on the maximum amount that could’ve been spent under the canceled contracts.

In addition to criticizing DHS’ analysis, the auditors found that 95% of the $10.5 billion in potential cost savings is attributable to 30 terminated IT contracts. But the department, in some cases, is using other contracts to obtain those services.

“According to the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer, in fiscal year 2025, DHS obligated over $1.7 billion through existing government-wide contracts to meet these [IT] requirements,” they wrote. “Thus, $1.7 billion of potential costs under these contracts were not avoided but incurred through other contracts.”

Thompson and Walkinshaw argued that Musk and other DOGE officials should testify in a hearing about the contract terminations, including who approved the DHS estimates and how the cancellations may have impacted department functions.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that officials have "reviewed thousands of contracts, ended hundreds that were no longer mission-critical and redirected resources to higher-priority operational needs. That is responsible stewardship: identifying wasteful or lower-priority spending, ending unnecessary contracts and ensuring taxpayer dollars support DHS’s most critical operations."

Last month, GAO issued a report that found multiple errors with how DOGE calculated its savings. For example, about $34.6 billion of the $61 billion estimated to have been generated from terminated contracts either came from contracts that were never canceled or there wasn’t evidence that the contracts were terminated.

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SSA launches IT services contract recompete

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:56:49 -0400

The Social Security Administration has formally launched the recompete of its main IT services contract for acquiring hardware and software in support of customer service functions.

CGI, Leidos and Peraton are the current primes for SSA’s Information Technology Support Services Contract awarded in 2017. Peraton inherited Northrop Grumman’s spot on the program in 2021 after acquiring the blue chip defense hardware company’s IT services unit.

SSA is planning to select up to seven companies for the ITSSC Recompete and they will go through a cybersecurity supply chain risk assessment before their awards are finalized, the agency said in a Tuesday notice to release the final solicitation.

Those assessments represent the final round of a three-phase evaluation process, where SSA will first look at non-price factors and then analyze the proposed prices.

The non-price factors include relevant experience from three example projects, subcontracting plans, technical approaches and management approaches.

The ITSSC Recompete contract covers a potential 10-year period of performance, including one initial base year and up to nine individual option years. SSA did not disclose a ceiling value in the request for proposals.

For this new iteration, SSA is pushing to expand its use of self-service and artificial intelligence technologies to give customer service agents more resources and time to handle complex claims.

SSA is also looking to ramp up its migration toward cloud-based solutions, modular system architectures, and more streamlined user experiences for customer and employees alike.

Bids for the ITSSC Recompete are due by 10 a.m. Eastern time on Sept. 28.

GovTribe data indicates SSA has obligated roughly $3 billion in order volume to-date against the current ITSSC contract with Leidos the top recipient at 60%, or $2 billion. Peraton is next at 29%, or $875 million. CGI Federal represents the remaining 11%, or $327 million.

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Pentagon unveils first of two solicitations for its next big cloud contract

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:54:13 -0400

The Defense Department has released the first of two final solicitations for the next iteration of the military’s main cloud computing contract, which is poised to have a much wider scope this time around.

Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft Azure and Oracle are the prime contractors for the current Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability effort awarded in 2022. They are responsible for providing core infrastructure and platform services to DOD organizations, including the military services and administrative agencies collectively referred to as the “Fourth Estate.”

In the final request for proposals released Thursday, the Defense Information Systems Agency is calling the new hyperscaler-focused contract by the name of JWCC Unified Cloud Marketplace Core. It will have a ceiling of $21.6 billion over up to 10 years, inclusive of a five-year base period and a single option for five additional years.

JWCC UCM Core will cover a broad range of requirements spanning infrastructure-as-a service, platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service. The RFP also uses the term “anything-as-a-service” to describe the military’s SaaS needs.

Bids for the Core contract are due by 12 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 6.

DISA is separately working on a companion contract called JWCC Unified Cloud Marketplace Premier, which the agency is setting up to expand what the department can buy for fulfilling cloud needs.

JWCC UCM Premier will have two tiers of services. Tier 2 will include SaaS and PaaS offerings, as well as what DISA calls “non-hyperscale infrastructure-as-a-service.”

Tier 3 is reserved for “Commercial innovators and small businesses,” suggesting this portion will be populated by emerging companies.

“This approach will create a comprehensive marketplace that promotes competition, accelerates access to cutting-edge capabilities, and ensures qualified industry partners can participate equitably,” DISA said in an August sources sought notice on the Premier contract.

DISA’s current acquisition opportunity forecast pegs a final solicitation for JWCC UCM Premier as anticipated for release in the first quarter of calendar year 2027 with awards to follow in the third quarter.

GovTribe data indicates DOD has obligated $1 billion in order volume to-date against the current JWCC contract with Amazon Web Services the top recipient of that spend at 55%, or $564 million. Microsoft is next at 28%, or $291 million. Oracle and Google make up the remaining 17% of the spend.

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DHS gives Anduril a second shot at counter-drone contract track

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:53:57 -0400

Anduril is getting a second shot at winning an additional spot on the Homeland Security Department’s $1.5 billion counter-unmanned aircraft systems contract vehicle.

The company won a position in August on track two of the multiple-award contract as a comprehensive services provider. DHS did not award Anduril a position on track one for hardware and software products, as well as ancillary services.

In its protest, Anduril questioned DHS’ evaluation of its proposal for track one.

Following the protest, DHS has decided to re-evaluate the company’s proposal and make a new selection decision. That means Audril still has a chance to join track one awardees BAE Systems, CACI International, Dedreone Defense, D-Fend Solutions, EMS Defense Technologies, Fortem Technologies and Leidos.

With DHS’ decision to reevaluate the proposal, the Government Accountability Office dismissed the protest on Sept. 4.

If the re-evaluation lands Anduril on track one, it would become the second company alongside Leidos with spots on both tracks of the five-year contract.

The contract goes by the acronym C-UAS and is part of the department’s efforts to stay current with new solutions to support its counter-unmanned aircraft systems.

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How Steampunk's design intelligence focus stood out to MetroStar

Ross Wilkers — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 15:05:50 -0400

Before MetroStar Systems entered the portfolio of its private equity owner, the enterprise IT and digital transformation specialist worked to solidify its strategy for diversifying into defense and intelligence programs.

MetroStar received a minority investment from Blue Delta Capital Partners in 2021 and also established a board of directors at that time, 12 years after the company decided to stretch itself beyond the traditional civilian core.

“We put a strategy together of how we wanted our mission identity to change as a business,” Ali Manouchehri, MetroStar CEO and a co-founder, told us. “The ideas were always around data.”

Veritas Capital acquired MetroStar in the fall of 2025 through the PE firm’s Vantage fund for the market’s middle tier, after which owner and company both laid out a strategy for what 2030 would look like.

As with any private equity-owned contractor, MetroStar also looked at what would work for it on the acquisition front. Manouchehri said they looked at a dozen options over the past seven months, but Steampunk emerged as the standout to join forces with.

MetroStar and Steampunk announced their combination on Aug. 4 with the intent of bringing artificial intelligence, digital transformation and user-centered delivery work under one roof. The combined company now employs around 1,600 people with estimated annual revenue of roughly $500 million.

Why link up with Steampunk for this new iteration of the strategy? Manouchehri described Steampunk’s unique attribute as design intelligence, a framework the company uses to build digital and technical offerings for federal agencies.

The idea behind design intelligence is to merge agile management, user experience design and the DevSecOps software development practice with the goal of keeping people at the center of tech transformation efforts. Steampunk stood up its first design intelligence studio in 2020 to aid this work.

“It’s a Venn diagram where you’ve got elements of the delivery approaches, the design approaches and the people approaches,” Manouchehri said. “At the edges are the unique pieces of the techniques Steampunk has mastered over the years.

“If the customer wants to give birth to a product, its everything around that and the design intelligence to make sure the product is kicked off right,” he added.

A new world order of government tech acquisition, where fixed-price and outcome-based contracting is at the center of attention, means all of those elements have to be in sync from the start. Contractor and customer alike have to be on the same page as to what the risks and requirements are.

Manouchehri recalled the first time a mentor described the differences between time-and-materials contracts, which have been a traditional means of acquiring tech services, and firm-fixed-price pacts.

“They’ll give you T&M because they don’t understand, they don’t have all the requirements identified, so they’re going to reduce the risk by giving you T&M. FFP, they have a pretty good idea of what they want to build,” Manouchehri recounted.

Under the fixed-price construct, the risks shift to the contractor to make sure there is common alignment between them and the client.

“Design intelligence comes in to help bridge those gaps of understanding of delivery,” Manouchehri said. “If you start with people and have an understanding where the product can go, then you have the potential and the potential will give you that predictability.”

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Xpect Solutions buys Amivero to bulk up AI, automation capabilities

Nick Wakeman — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 15:02:50 -0400

Xpect Solutions is adding artificial intelligence, automation, software development and other mission-focused capabilities through the acquisition of Amivero.

The company didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal. The addition of Amivero is another step for NewSpring Holdings backed Xpect to build a technology company focused on the national security market.

“Xpect’s strategy has always been about building the capabilities our customers need to solve their most important mission challenges,” said Yusuf Abdul-Salaam, CEO of Xpect Solutions.

Xpect’s strategy has focused on four technical disciplines: enterprise IT, cybersecurity, digital modernization, and data and AI. Amivero adds complementary capabilities and customer relationships.

Its expertise includes AI and automation, fraud operations, digital identity and software development will be added to Xpect’s strengths in network modernization, zero trust, cyber operations, physical security, cloud, DevSecOps and mission-focused data solutions.

Together, the company will accelerate research and development and investment in repeatable solutions to help federal customers modernize and scale mission-critical systems, Xpect said in its announcement.

Over the last year, Xpect has pulled in $40 million in unclassified prime contracts. Its biggest customer is the FBI, according to USASpending.gov.

Amivero had about $32 million in unclassified prime contracts. Much of its work goes through the General Services Administration. The Homeland Security Department is its next biggest customer.

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Former CISA employee pleads guilty to defrauding government with secret contractor jobs

David DiMolfetta — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:46:00 -0400

A former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employee pleaded guilty Wednesday to defrauding the government of nearly $250,000 by secretly holding multiple federal contracting jobs and submitting timesheets that sometimes claimed she worked 33 hours in a single day.

Richeline Anisso Fung pleaded guilty to a federal false claims charge, the Justice Department announced.

She worked full time at CISA from September 2016 until October 2025. Between January 2021 and August 2024, she simultaneously held contracting positions supporting the Drug Enforcement Administration and the departments of Energy, Justice, Transportation and Agriculture, as well as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Some of that work was performed through RAF Pro-Consulting, a Florida company Fung established in 2020. She concealed the overlapping jobs from CISA and the contractors, according to prosecutors.

The arrangement resulted in extraordinary claims on her timesheets. In February 2022, Fung was working for CISA and three contractors supporting the DOJ, Agriculture Department and Federal Highway Administration. Her reported working time exceeded 24 hours a day on 15 occasions that month.

She claimed to have worked 33 hours on four consecutive days and 32 hours on a fifth, prosecutors said.

Fung admitted that she was able to conceal the overlapping employment because the positions were carried out remotely. Justice did not disclose her role at CISA or describe the work she performed for the other agencies.

Nextgov/FCW could not immediately reach Fung for comment. As part of a plea agreement, she must repay nearly $250,000 to the government, with sentencing scheduled for Jan. 20.

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House panel subpoenas Oracle heads over VA health record overhaul’s ballooning costs

Edward Graham — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:00 -0400

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee unanimously voted on Wednesday to subpoena two top Oracle officials amid the Department of Veterans Affairs’ move to modify its contract with the tech giant for the ongoing deployment of its new electronic health record system.

VA announced last month that it was extending its current 10-year, $10 billion modernization deal with Oracle to include an additional $17 billion ceiling and three option-year periods. The extension comes after VA and Oracle faced extensive issues implementing the system across the agency’s nationwide network of 164 medical facilities, which have resulted in numerous tech glitches, usability concerns and patient safety questions.

VA first contracted with Cerner in 2018 to upgrade its health record system. Oracle subsequently acquired Cerner in 2022.

The massive contract extension, which members of the committee said caught them off guard, dominated the discussion during Wednesday’s hearing that was ostensibly focused on VA’s renewed efforts to right the troubled modernization initiative.

Following the contentious hearing, members voted 19-0 in favor of a motion from Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., to subpoena both Oracle Chairman and Co-founder Larry Ellison and Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia to appear before the panel to further discuss the project’s cost and status. Dexter said her motion came only after the tech giant refused an invitation from committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., to have a representative testify before the panel.

“When the vendor responsible for a taxpayer-funded contract going from $10 billion to roughly $27 billion will not sit at this table and answer our questions, all of us are being prevented from doing our oversight duties,” she said.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle also pushed back against VA officials who appeared before the committee to tout the recent resumption of software rollouts at medical facilities.

VA restarted full-scale deployments of the Oracle software earlier this year after it paused most rollouts in April 2023 to address a host of issues. The agency has deployed the system at 11 VA medical facilities thus far in 2026, with plans for an additional two rollouts before the end of the year and another 26 go-lives next year. VA is hoping to accelerate go-lives on an annual basis, with plans to finalize all deployments in 2031.

VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, who has been overseeing the agency’s push to speed up the modernization project, told lawmakers “the program is back on track” and cited promising results following rollouts earlier this year at medical facilities located in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

But lawmakers said they were alarmed by the project’s ballooning cost, with Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., calling the revised deal “just a blank check for Oracle” and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., saying the $17 billion contract extension “is corruption.”

Lawrence defended the modified agreement, telling lawmakers that the extension was needed because VA is about to exhaust the initial agreement’s cost ceiling.

“What I can tell you, since I showed up at the end of March [2025], we have spent exactly the money you have allowed us. We have deployed in the schedule exactly as we said we would,” he said. “We have had serious conversations with our contractors that this is the money available to do the things we need to do.”

VA previously told Congress it estimated that it would cost roughly $37 billion to complete the project, with more than $19 billion for sustainment and operations costs over a ten-year period that would raise the project’s total lifecycle figure to over $56 billion. But Bost said that estimate does not fully include “the program's historical cost, its full operating and sustained cost and an assessment of future risk.”

Bost, Budzinski and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., also noted that Oracle officials previously told lawmakers they would “eat the cost” of any overruns.

Oracle’s Sicilia made similar comments in July 2022 testimony before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, saying at the time the tech giant “is committed to delivering the VA an EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost,” and that “if there are issues with performance or workflow we commit to fixing those issues at our expense.”

Lawrence said he was unaware of that prior commitment and that “I've got to figure out what was promised and see how our acquisition folks dealt with that.”

Questions about the modernization project’s total cost have been an ongoing issue, with lawmakers and a congressional watchdog repeatedly voicing concerns about a lack of financial clarity.

Carol Harris, the Government Accountability Office’s Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity, once again raised those concerns on Wednesday, saying that VA needs to come up with a complete cost estimate and a fully integrated master schedule for future deployments.

But beyond fleshing out its cost and deployment plans, Harris said VA still needs to come up with a viable strategy for ultimately mothballing its legacy health record system — the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or VistA.

Harris called the cost of maintaining the system “a little bit of a black box,” noting that “with decommissioning VistA, we don’t yet have a cost estimate associated with even just operating VistA annually.”

She said that the best estimate GAO has been able to come up with for maintaining the legacy system “over like a two-fiscal-year period was like $2 billion dollars, and we were only able to verify $1 billion of that number, as just an example.”

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Three tribally owned firms land $400M Air Force Pacific advisory deal

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:43:51 -0400

Three small businesses will share in a $400 million Air Force contract vehicle to provide advisory and assistance services throughout the Pacific theater.

Cherokee Nation Government Solutions, SSE BB&E JV, and KIRA Services will compete for task orders to provide engineering, logistics, program management, and project management services to the Air Force.

Work will take place at multiple locations including Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Kadena Air Base, Japan; Yokota Air Base, Japan; Misawa Air Base, Japan; Eielson AFB, Alaska; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and Wake Island.

The contract was competitively awarded with five companies submitting bids.

The three winners are tribally owned businesses. Cherokee Nation Government Solutions’ ownership is in its name.

SSE BB&E JV was formed by SpecPro Sustainment and Environmental, a subsidiary of Bristol Bay Native Corp., an Alaska Native Corporation.

Kera is part of the Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation based in Juneau, Alaska.

The Air Force contract is for five years and ends on Sept. 1, 2031.

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When the government blackballs your sub, CICA is no help

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:57:59 -0400

Subcontractors have little recourse when an agency orders the prime to kick them off their team.

That was the situation FCN Inc. found itself in. It was bidding to be a teammate to Invictus on a task order bid under the SITE III vehicle.

While Invictus was evaluating FCN’s quote, the Defense Intelligence Agency was separately reviewing whether FCN had an organizational conflict of interest.

DIA told Invictus to drop the company and that is what Invictus did.

FCN went to the Government Accountability Office to challenge that decision. But in a short, four-page decision GAO said FCN did not have standing to challenge the decision. In legal terms, FCN was not an “interested party.”

It doesn’t matter that FCN would suffer financially because of a lost business opportunity, GAO said.

DIA asked GAO to dismiss the protest because it doesn’t meet the requirements for an interested party under the Competition in Contracting Act.

The procurement law defines an interested party as a “prospective bidder or offeror whose direct economic interest would be affected by the award of the contract or by failure to award the contract,” GAO said, quoting CICA.

“Under these rules, a prospective subcontractor does not qualify as an interested party,” GAO said.

FCN argued that because DIA told Invictus to remove FCN from its team, the removal was a government action, and FCN should be able to protest.

But GAO said no. Invictus held its own evaluations for its subcontractors and retained “substantial responsibility” for the subs, and DIA did not, GAO wrote.

That was actually GAO's second, independent reason for dismissal: even setting aside the interested-party problem, GAO said it has no jurisdiction over a subcontract award unless the agency handled substantially all of the substantive procurement work itself. Here, Invictus — not DIA — wrote the RFQ soliciting its subcontractors, ran the evaluation, and made the call on its teammates, so GAO stayed out.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims made a similar ruling when FCN went to the court to get a stay to stop work under the task order while GAO weighed the protest.

But the court denied the request. Like GAO, the court said that FCN was not an interested party and couldn’t request a stay.

So, what is the lesson beyond this decision?

Subcontractors cannot rely on CICA to protect them. Instead, they need to lean into teaming agreements and other contractual mechanisms between them and their prime.

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Industry offers government a playbook for handling OneGov expirations

Christian Robles — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 -0400

The Trump administration should publish a consolidated inventory of discounted software offerings that highlights expiration dates, expected price hikes and agency participation, a Tuesday industry whitepaper recommends, and contractors should provide agencies with “timely renewal estimates and anticipated consumption costs” before discounted software prices end.

The recommendation is among the four the Center for Procurement Advocacy — a group whose membership includes Amazon, CGI, Cisco, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Oracle — is issuing before several popular OneGov deals are due to expire at the end of the month.

The OneGov program offers federal agencies discounted access to software, such as ChatGPT, thanks to the buying power of the government as a whole. A General Services Administration official said in August that some companies have already agreed to extend OneGov offerings while others are in the process of forging new deals. GSA has yet to publicly announce which companies are extending OneGov deals but the agency has signaled it wants the initiative to expand to products beyond software.

GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Should OneGov discounts end or be phased out, “agencies that adopted AI at nominal or deeply discounted prices will then face recurring costs for enterprise licenses, cloud capacity, cybersecurity, data engineering, training, and model usage,” the Center for Procurement Advocacy warns in the paper.

“The result could be a contraction in federal AI use. Some agencies were cautious from the outset because they were uncertain how pilots would be funded after introductory offers ended. Without a planned transition, agencies may keep deployments small, postpone expansion, or discontinue tools that have demonstrated value simply because the budget did not anticipate the post-discount costs,” it adds.

Amid uncertainty over the future of the OneGov, the Center for Procurement Advocacy is urging agencies to identify successful AI deployments, estimate how much they would cost after discounts expire and incorporate them in fiscal year 2027 operating plans and future budget submissions to Congress. Lawmakers, in turn, should consider those deployments in full-year appropriations.

“If there are certain deals where [agencies] have seen increased productivity, service delivery or cost savings, those should be prioritized,” Tim Brennan, president of the Center for Procurement Advocacy, told Nextgov/FCW.

Agencies should assess the benefits of AI capabilities before deciding to renew technology, the paper adds. Those assessments should identify “mission owner, problem being solved, number of users or transactions, security and governance status, expected full-price cost and measurable benefit.”

The Trump administration should give agencies an off-ramp for discounted technology by allowing them to procure from a set of integrated AI platform providers rather than a large number of specific models, the paper recommends. The proposal could address concerns that agencies that have used OneGov discounts for enterprise-wide adoption will be locked into using a specific technology once deals lapse.

The Center for Procurement Advocacy’s approach "would allow agencies to apply common compliance, governance, security, and operational practices across many models under unified service levels and predictable, transparent billing, enabling constrained budgets to deliver substantially greater capability," the paper says. "Because the underlying workloads, containers, models, data, and frameworks remain portable, agencies gain these manageability benefits while reducing the risk of model or vendor lock-in and retaining the freedom to change models or infrastructure providers as mission needs and acquisition strategies evolve."

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A subset of the tech talent supply crunch to watch out for

Ross Wilkers — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 16:44:26 -0400

Amid the rush across all industries to fill out their technology staff, the lack of forward-deployed engineers is emerging as a talent crunch-within-the-crunch that companies are grappling with.

FDEs are customer-facing software engineers that embed directly inside a client’s environment to develop and deploy software within that enterprise, often times working alongside the client’s employees for a set duration. This is in essence a hybrid position with technical and business responsibilities that is crucial for taking artificial intelligence from the lab to workflows and producing measurable results.

Only 2,000 out of a total 17,000 FDEs currently working in the U.S. have turned enterprise AI into meaningful return-on-investment, according to a new study from the tech-focused executive search firm Christian & Timbers.

The study labels that group of 2,000 as “Elite,” meaning they have consistently translated AI deployments into documented results.

JC Christian, a co-founder of the firm, told Washington Technology that the main frontier AI labs are aware of situation thanks to their networks of companies acting as service providers to aid deployment efforts.

The health and wealth of frontier AI labs depends on how many enterprise organizations adopt their technology, but Christian the latter group needs to see value to continue spending at the quantities that they are.

A group of 2,000 people caps out quickly for any decently-sized services company, as Christian pointed out.

With that backdrop in mind, how does that small group become larger in order to meet the global demand for these AI tools and see meaningful ROI?

One main answer lies in recruiting junior forward-deployed engineers to work under those at the elite-level, according to Christian.

“You need to turn them into elite FDEs by working with them on problems at scale, that they have conviction that they can win on,” Christian said. “Once you have that, then you’re getting into a proliferation of knowledge, know-how, technology and business processes that will lead to positive results.”

As the study strongly suggests, defense and government contractors are facing the exact same quandary of having a limited pool of elite-level FDEs.

Aerospace-and-defense companies are looking for leaders on their teams to sitting in roles that are customer-facing but not strictly sales-focused, Christian said.

“Within A&D, I think it’s even more of an elite category, where these people might not be implementing a lot of these services, but it’s going to be very much relationship-driving to drive consumption of whatever service they’re ultimately offering, and to drive stronger relationships into the government bodies that they’re trying to ultimately have as buyers,” Christian said.

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DISA sends mixed signals on combatant command network migration

Nick Wakeman — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 16:40:31 -0400

DISA appears to be sending mixed signals about how it wants to transition the IT infrastructure for the combatant commands to the DODNet.

The agency has issued two requests for information in the wake of a protest of the first plan that would DISA add the combatant commands to the $11 billion Enclave contract held by Leidos.

Under Enclave, Leidos is moving the Pentagon’s 22 administrative and support agencies to DODNet.

When Defense CIO Kirsten Davies ordered that the combatant commands also move to DODNet, DISA added the work to Enclave. General Dynamics IT objected by challenging the justification document that DISA issued.

The company argued that DISA failed to conduct new market research, conduct a pricing determination, and didn’t describe how it planned to remove barriers to future competitions.

After the protest, DISA agreed in late July to pull the combatant command work off Enclave and began taking steps to address GDIT’s complaints.

On July 27, it issued a sources sought notice that addressed the market research shortcomings GDIT tagged.

Comments on that notice were due Aug. 4, giving respondents about eight days to comment.

A second RFI was issued Aug. 27, with a due date of Aug. 28.

That quick turnaround raised some eyebrows, a source told us. The one-day comment period conveys a sense of urgency that wasn’t well communicated when DISA first tried to add the combatant commands to Enclave.

Aspects of the sources sought notice underscore that DISA is beginning to grasp the complexity and the need to “get it right,” the source said.”

For example, in the Aug. 27 sources sought notice, DISA wants respondents to provide three things:

Examples of migrations that involved at least 20 locations and 12,000 users.
Examples of automated migrations from legacy endpoint tools to modern device management with a Defense Department environment.
Explain how to handle training and adoption for an accelerated rollout across geographically dispersed locations.

Taken together the three asks indicate that DISA realizes the complexity of migrating the combatant commands. The second notice also sets a high bar for entry. There are only a few companies with the enterprise IT experience and DOD expertise to provide the examples DISA asked for.

The question remains of whether DISA will go forward with a new competition.

When DISA tried to add the combatant commands to Enclave, the agency was dinged for its poor market research work.

On one hand, you can look at the two notices and argue that DISA is laying the groundwork for a new justification document to add the combatant commands to Enclave.

But when you set that history aside, you see an agency developing a new contract with a full and open competition.

Right now, both scenarios are possible.

DISA does have some deadlines approaching. The CIO’s May memo asked for a plan by the end of August, so news of that could trickle out in the next few weeks.

The sources sought notices also say they want the migration work completed by the end of fiscal 2028.

DISA can still reach that deadline with a full-and-open competition if it uses streamlined acquisition processes.

What could tip the answer one way or the other is how the CIO responds to DISA’s plan and whether the combatant commands are fully on board with that plan. Some questions have been raised about that.

The top thing to watch for in the short term is DISA’s plan and briefing with the CIO. If it hasn’t happened yet, it is about to.

The deadline for DISA’s plan and a briefing with the CIO has passed, according to the CIO memo. If the briefing hasn’t happened yet, it is about to. From there we’ll watch for signs of whether this will be a new competition or its back to justification document and an expansion of Enclave.

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