Air Force chooses 5 for $4.8B intelligence support contract
Gettyimages.com / Andriy Onufriyenko
By
Ross Wilkers
The vehicle known as NOVASTAR focuses on analyzing foreign weapon systems both current and future.
Five companies have won positions on a potential 11-year, $4.8 billion contract to help the Air Force develop and use technologies for intelligence production.
The Air Force received 10 bids for the contract going by the NOVASTAR acronym that has a five-year base period followed by a six-year option period, the Pentagon said in its Friday awards digest.
Altamira Technologies, Epsilon Systems Solutions, Modern Technology Solutions Inc., Radiance Technologies and Xandar will compete for task orders to work with the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center on generating scientific and technical intelligence.
NASIC supports Air Force, Defense Department and other national-level intelligence initiatives through analysis of data regarding current and future foreign weapon systems, subsystems and technologies.
Other U.S. DOD and intelligence agencies can acquire services through the NOVASTAR vehicle.
In the solicitation released in Summer 2021, the Air Force said it anticipated the vehicle to be set aside for small businesses.
But the contracting officer has the authority to determine if a small business set-aside is appropriate for each task order if a NOVASTAR awardee did not meet the threshold of 1,500 employees or fewer, according to a GovTribe description of the contract.
NOVASTAR consolidates the services provided through at least 10 other contract vehicles that include the potential five-year, $997 million blanket purchase agreement known as MEGASTAR.