Air Force sticks with precedent for $1B cyber competition

The Air Force's next iteration of a nearly $1 billion cyber research-and-development contract will seek the same pool of companies as the current version.

The Air Force has opted to stick with going to the small business community only for the next iteration of an almost $1 billion cybersecurity research-and-development contract.

Like the current Agile Cyber Technology 2 contract, the coming round of ACT 3 awards will have a $950 million shared ceiling and seeks companies who can help deliver a wide range of tools to achieve cyber superiority.

Market research for ACT’s prior iterations and the recompete have provided “adequate information” for continuing with the total small business set-aside approach, the Air Force said Wednesday in a Beta.Sam.Gov notice.

Technology areas of interest include threat avoidance, full-spectrum cyber operations, network exploitation, situational and mission awareness technologies, command and control, modeling and simulation, wargaming, network infrastructure and mission assurance.

Deliverables can take the form of hardware, software, technical documentation and technical reports.

The current ACT 2 contract was awarded in 2018 to five companies and is slated to expire in April 2023.