Contractors gather for insight into multibillion-dollar NGEN contract

Billion dollar contracts don’t come around every day, so contractors are chomping at the bit for a piece of the Navy’s upcoming Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) ontract. Valued at 1.9 billion dollars for the 2010 fiscal year and an estimated 1.8 billion for fiscal 2011, NGEN is the successor to the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).

NGEN will build on the NMCI and expand the Navy’s battlefield networking capability to forces on land, at sea, in the air and in space.

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Members of the Capital’s contracting community gathered today in Tysons Corner, Va., to prepare for the program’s request for proposals, scheduled to be released later this year.

Chuck Viator, principal analyst for Input, which hosted the event, told the participants to expect stringent performance rules from the Navy.

Viator broke down the various components of the NGEN program. He explained that the first two major RFPs will focus on the enterprise and transport services. He added that the Navy plans to heavily favor DISA and DISN architectures for the transport segment.

Among the contract’s other segments, he explained that the independent security operations oversight and assurance component will mostly focus on small business awards.

Prime contractors subcontractors most likely will see organizational conflict of interest rules applied to the bidding, he said, adding that software and hardware components for NGEN most likely will be purchased through existing contracting vehicles.

The event also featured a "speed dating" segment, during which potential subcontractors could pitch their qualifications to several potential NGEN contractors. Viator said for the moment that was the only speed dating event scheduled for the NGEN contract.

Major firms present at the event included Accenture, Computer Sciences Copr., General Dynamics Information Technology, Harris Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co. and SERCO.

Executives from the prime contractors said they liked the speed dating concept because it exposed them to a range of potential subcontractors. For potential subcontractors, the event provided them with eight-minute periods to pitch their services.