FY19 ends with notable DOD contract awards

A notable tradition of sorts on Sept. 30 is looking at that day’s edition of the Defense Department’s daily contracts digest to see the numerous large awards finalized on the last day of the government’s fiscal year.

This year’s edition of the Sept. 30 contracts listing has the typical annual deluge of purchases of weapons and other equipment. But this year’s digest also includes one significant on-ramp selection and a brand new professional services contract with notable players on it worth highlighting.

The on-ramp is part of a $993 million mobile device and services contract the Navy first awarded two years ago. Sprint and MetTel will join the Spiral 3 Wireless Services contract, which brings the total number of carriers on that effort to five. While managed by the Navy, the contract is available for other defense and federal agencies.

The Navy re-opened the solicitation in March of this year for on-ramping additional carriers onto the contract that already includes AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as primes. Four companies bid on Spiral 3 in the initial round of awards.

Just like Spiral 3’s initial round, the timing of the on-ramp comes at a very interesting juncture for T-Mobile and Sprint given their agreement to merge and the ongoing lawsuit against that deal brought by 15 state attorneys general.

Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department signed off on the merger in July after both carriers agreed to several divestitures, including a large spectrum sale.

A second large contract to close out the fiscal year came from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and is as complex as it is new: brand new in fact with no incumbents.

DSCA made 23 awards in total on a potential five-year, $750 million contract vehicle for broad assessment, monitoring and evaluation services across four different tracks of work with some companies chosen for more than one piece.

Six companies were selected for "AM&E" contract category one, covering direct security cooperation program support. The winners are Booz Allen Hamilton, Emagine IT, LMI, Management Systems International and QED Group.

Another set of six firms received seats on category two for training support: Commonwealth Trading Partners, Lukos, McKellar Corp., Sabel Systems, Skybridge Tactical and Vysnova Partners.

Five businesses saw their bids chosen for category three involving evaluations of programs and activities: Cedar International Services, Commonwealth Trading Partners, Lukos, PBG Consulting and Vysnova Partners.

A last group of six got positions on category four to provide program management services: Advanced Concepts and Technologies International, Booz Allen, Deloitte, Dexis Consulting Group, LMI and Sabel Systems.