DISA starts second try at $1B satellite services solicitation

The Defense Information Systems Agency has reworked the procurement of a nearly $1 billion commercial satellite services contract that it had to cancel quickly in the wake of a protest decision.

Responses to this latest solicitation for the Commercial Satellite Services Contract II program are due to DISA on Aug. 10, the agency said in a July 1 notice. Questions regarding the final request for proposals should be in by July 13.

DISA is managing the contract on behalf of the Navy, which is seeking to acquire commercial telecommunications services as complementary to government-owned and operated telecom assets. The potential $979 million CSSC II contract has a three-year base period followed by up to a trio of two-year option periods and another one-year option.

The agency’s first attempt at an award of the contract ended after portions of incumbent Inmarsat’s pricing data was accidentally disclosed in the draft solicitation.

Inmarsat filed a protest and the Government Accountability Office sustained part of that challenge in a May ruling that was unsealed one month later.

GAO ruled the release of Inmarsat’s pricing of its non-commercial solution was harmful to the company’s bid but not that of commercial bandwidth.

But even with that partial sustainment, GAO told DISA it needed to write a new solicitation that mitigates the release of Inmarsat’s data.