Navy eyes more NGEN contract extensions for Perspecta

The Navy plans to make yet more extensions on its main contract for broad network hardware and services to Perspecta as the branch evidently needs more time to make an award for the recompetes.

In a FedBizOpps notice posted Thursday, the Navy said these latest extensions will stretch the current Next Generation Enterprise Network contract but with two different expiration dates depending on the work.

While that might seem confusing, here is the backdrop: the Navy has split the NGEN-Recompete into one new contract for systems integration and other services work, and a second for end-user hardware.

Both extensions on the current NGEN contract are thus being split in two along the lines of the recompete. The services track will go on for another four-to-seven months to September-December 2020 when that work was previously slated to expire in June 2020.

End-user hardware supply will extend for another five months to March 2020 versus the prior expiration date of October of this year.

So when will the much-anticipated awards for NGEN-R come now? The Navy said it expects to award the $3.4 billion services contract sometime between January and March 2020, or the second quarter of the government’s 2020 fiscal year.

Perspecta is facing a pair of challengers to keep the lucrative NGEN services piece in General Dynamics and Leidos. Analysts estimate NGEN as contributing anywhere between one-fourth and one-fifth of annual sales for Perspecta, which posted $4.27 billion in its first fiscal year that ended March 31.

Perspecta can claim nearly two decades of incumbency on the current NGEN contract and previous iterations thanks to a complex history of mergers and acquisitions that led to the company’s launch in June of last year.

An award for the smaller end-user hardware portion should be made in the current fourth fiscal quarter, or before Sept. 30.