Army's massive RS3 contract gearing up for more action

The Army’s massive Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services contract is starting to pick up some momentum with over 40 task orders in the pipeline and moving toward awards.

Phase 2 awards of prime spots on the contract also are on track for October, according to Thomas Stocks, program branch chief on the RS3 contract. Stocks also is a retired Army colonel. He was the featured presenter at a Washington Technology webcast, Inside the Army’s RS3 Contract. An archived version of the webcast is available.

RS3 has a $37.4 billion ceiling over 10 years and so far there are 56 primes – 41 small companies and 15 large.

The phase two awards are going through the source selection process now, Stocks said.

RS3 consolidated five large IDIQ contracts: Rapid Response – Third Generation, Warrior Enabling Broad Sensor, Technical Information Engineering Services, Technical, Administrative, Operations Support Services, and Strategic Services Sourcing.

Several incumbents from these contracts failed to make the phase one awards but are in the running for phase two, including large businesses such as Leidos, Raytheon, CACI International, Northrop Grumman and SAIC.

RS3 is used for a broad range of professional services including engineering, logistics, acquisition and strategic planning, education and training services, and research and development.

Since the phase one awards were made last May, there are been five task orders have been awarded. Booz Allen Hamilton won a $13.4 million task order with the Army. IAP Worldwide Services won a pair of Navy task orders worth $15.1 million and $7.7 million. AASKI Technology won a $8.1 million task order with Army National Guard. The fifth task order worth $4.9 million went to FCI Enterprises LLC to support the Defense IT Contracting Organization.

There are 43 task orders in the pipeline, Stocks said. Of those 13 are being awarded by the RS3 office, 27 from other Army Contracting Command offices at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, Fort Belvoir, Virginia or Fort Huachuca in Arizona. The other three are being used outside of the Army Contracting Command umbrella.

The RS3 contracting office also is working to expand the customer base for the vehicle. It certified 111 contracting officers outside of the RS3 office to use the contract. They want to extend the reach of the contract will beyond its base at Aberdeen, including training contracting officers outside of the United States to use the contract, he said.

During the webcast, Stocks and his fellow branch Chief Katherine Thompson field a variety of questions about the contract. The full webcast including the Q&A is available for view at this link.