Special Ops Command planning $600M global analytics platform buy

U.S. Special Operations Command wants to field a new global analytics platform that will combine several capabilities onto a single architecture.

U.S. Special Operations Command is looking to field a new global analytics platform with several capabilities combined into a single architecture and plans to award a contract worth up to $600 million for that to happen.

A new request for information gives respondents until July 31 to offer their thoughts on the ambitious project.

The RFI describes the need to analyze large volumes of data within a suite of secure-web-based applications. Socom wants an architecture that includes several interoperable services including analytics, collaboration and visualization; entity resolution services; information acquisition, processing and access services; and persistent query and alerting services.

Socom also wants the program to be continually evolving so that new capabilities can be incorporated and components and tools can be enhanced.

The current capabilities are hosted on the intelligence community's Commercial Cloud Services environment provided by Amazon Web Services.

The contract will likely be broken into two lots:

  • Lot 1: Development and system upgrades and improvement.
  • Lot 2: Operational systems maintenance and sustainment support.

For Lot 1, Socom is looking for data science and artificial intelligence solutions that would improve analyst workflow and free technical capacity. They also want agile development models to development applications that can aggregate and analyze intelligence data for real-time support of Socom's mission.

The goal for Lot 2 is to maintain the current analytics platform as well as provide enhancements to existing systems.

Socom is still deciding whether the contract will be single-award or multiple award, but projects it will be between five and 10 years with a value in the $300 million-to-$600 million range.

In one scenario, Socom would award a single contract to cover Lots 1 and 2. Scenario two would see a single award for Lot 2, and either single or multiple awards for Lot 1.

Responses are due July 31. The RFI number is H92442-20-RFI-GAP.