DOD releases $1B in tech development work for bids

Almost $1 billion in technology development and integration work with the U.S. military was been put out this week for to industry to bid on and multiple companies will call themselves winners.

Contract number one to highlight here is the largest -- a potential $950 million contract vehicle for technology prototyping, production, sustaining engineering and studies and analysis services to support the Air Force’s training ranges.

Proposals for the multiple-award Range IDIQ Support Effort are due to the Air Force at 2 p.m. Eastern time on March 15, the Air Force said in a contracting notice posted Wednesday.

The Air Force expects it will choose between 11 and 20 companies that will then compete for work over the contract’s five-year duration.

Opportunity number two comes out of the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, which is seeking multiple industry partners to help test and evaluate AI capabilities.

Proposals are due to JAIC by 1 p.m. Eastern time on March 5. The center said in a notice it anticipates awarding between 15 and 25 blanket purchase agreements against the potential five-year, $249.5 million vehicle.

Awardees will focus on data set development and curation, test harness development, model output analysis, test planning, documentation and reporting.

JAIC is undertaking this effort alongside Tradewind, a separate initiative by the center to build a new acquisition ecosystem that can speed up deliveries of AI capabilities.