DISA prepares for $5B in contract decisions

The Defense Information Systems Agency is set to release requests for proposals this summer for at least three major contracts that would total $5 billion to help support its defense information technology programs.

A $4.6 billion contract RFP is expected in September for DISA’s Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) Global Information Grid (GIG) Services Management-Operations (GSM-O), said Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of research and analysis services at Input.

According to the contract listing on FedBizOpps.gov, “the requirement for this GSM-O effort is to obtain performance-based services to include provisioning, net operations, net assurance and network maintenance on a worldwide basis.”

DISA provides support services, including delivery and operations, for the military’s global information network, which facilitates secure global communication and information-sharing via the Web.

Plexico said another DISN GSM contract RFP is expected in August. It would be for engineering, transition and implementation of GIG services; no value has yet been released, Plexico said.

“The requirement for this GSM-ETI effort is to obtain performance-based services to provide the support necessary to carry out required engineering, transition/implementation, integration, connection approval and IT service management activities, in support of existing DISN networking capabilities,” according to the second contract’s FedBizOpps listing.

A third contract, to provide support services for the Defense Department’s Defense Research and Engineering Network, is also expected sometime this summer and is valued at $450 million.

Plexico also offered a breakdown of DISA’s spending on top governmentwide acquisition contract vehicles. Last year, DISA spent more than $1 billion on its top five GWAC vehicles, including:

• $543 million on the Encore II contract, for general IT solutions for GIG and related command and control efforts, representing 12 percent of its total reported spending.
• $165 million on the NexGen contract, which supports engineering and interoperability for DISA’s core missions, for about 4 percent of total reported spending.
• $143 million on SEWP-IV — which Plexico said is “the fastest-growing contract out there” — accounting for 3 percent of total reported spending.
• $97 million, or 2 percent, on the Encore contract.
• $88 million, or about 2 percent of total spending, on the ITES-2S CHESS contract, designed to provide enterprisewide solutions under the Army’s Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions agency.

Plexico also offered a breakdown of DISA’s top prime contractors for 2009, with Science Applications International Corp. leading at $383 million, for 9 percent of total reported spending; Northrop Grumman second at $317 million or 7 percent; Apptis Inc. at $266 million or 6 percent; Artel Inc. at $261 million or 6 percent; and CSC at $199 million or 4 percent.

All other prime contractors together totaled just over $3 billion in DISA spending, said Plexico, who spoke at a Small Business Breakfast sponsored by AFCEA International's Northern Virginia chapter June 22.