Air Force starts recompete process for Global Decision Support System

The Air Force is developing the follow on procurement for the Global Decision Support System and is gathering information on how to do that.

The Air Mobility Command uses the GDSS system as a command and control system that supports the Defense Transportation System and other systems for all of the military branches. It is used for planning and operations of military flights and transportation needs.

The system was launched in 2011 when multiple legacy systems were integrated into a single system. The current contract is held by Tapestry Solutions, a part of Boeing. Deltek estimates that the new contract will be worth about $50 million.

Two requests for information have been issued. One is for command and control systems services and the other is for application support.

The RFIs layout specific requirements. For the command and control systems services, the Air Mobility Command is looking for support for functions such as mission planning and air refueling, aircraft management and logistics, flight planning, crew management, and diplomatic clearance management.

The application support RFI is looking for information on service such as enterprise IT policy and planning, integrated solutions management, custom application development, asset management and operations support.

While the Air Force says it is still developing a procurement strategy, the two RFIs and the different descriptions of what they are looking for are a strong indication that they are developing two different contracts. A small business strategy also is being developed.

Comments are due Jan. 19, and they are not looking for anything verbose; they want capability statements of no more than five pages for both RFIs.

The Air Force’s 763^rd Specialized Contracting Squadron  or 763 SCONS is managing the process.