12 win chance to chase $3B in defense R&D work

Twelve companies will compete for work under a $3 billion Air Force contract for a variety of research and development efforts.

The contract, known as the Defense Systems Technical Area Tasks (DS TATs), is a recompete of an existing contract that the Air Force uses for R&D, research and evaluation of new technologies focused on weapons systems, survivability, advanced materials and other areas.

The winners of the recompete are:

• Alion Science and Technology
• Battelle Memorial Institute
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• EOIR Technologies
• Georgia Tech Research Institute
• MacAulay-Brown Inc.
• ManTech TSG-2 Joint Venture
• Prescient Edge Corp.
• Strategic Analysis Inc.
• TASC Inc.
• URS Federal Services
• Wyle Laboratories

The new contract runs through June 2019. Twelve companies bid on the contract and all 12 won. They'll compete for task orders under the new contract.

Booz Allen, Wyle, Alion and Georgia Tech are holdovers from the earlier contract. Booz Allen captured the largest amount of work with $3.9 billion in task orders since first winning the contract in 1999. Wyle pulled in another $2 billion. The contract has been worth $951.5 million to Alion and $685.7 million to Georgia Tech.

A fifth contractor, John Hopkins University, apparently did not bid and only pulled in $17 million in task orders.

In total, $7.5 billion in task orders have gone through the contract, according to Deltek.

A similar, $900 million contract for Homeland Defense and Security TATs was awarded to a number of companies in April.