DARPA launches competition for $700M 'episodic mission IT' vehicle
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By
Ross Wilkers
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has no cap in the number of awards for this contract that covers application analysis and cybersecurity work, among other areas.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is now ready for small businesses to start working on and submitting proposals for a potential five-year, $700 million contract vehicle focused on technical and ad-hoc IT requirements.
DARPA officials set up the Managed Enterprise Network Support Services program as a mechanism for acquiring non-personal services to include commodity and what the agency calls “episodic mission IT.” In essence, MANNUS will support requirements at the agency's technical and support offices on an as-needed basis.
MANNUS appears to have no cap on the number of awards as very bid that receives an “Acceptable” rating on all evaluation factors will be selected, DARPA said in its Friday notice to release the final solicitation.
The agency cited these work areas as prominent in the contract:
- Application analysis, design, programming and deployment
- Emerging technologies research and evaluation
- Cybersecurity governance, compliance and risk management
- Enterprise risk management and network operations support center help
- IT security operations
DARPA will conduct the evaluation over two phases, with the first phase calling on respondents to lay out how they would work on a pair of sample task orders. Those responses should also include information on technical approach and staffing.
Responses rated “Acceptable” will move onto phase two, which will ask for more detail on the technical approach. DARPA will also look at management approach, supply chain risk management and past performance information in the second phase.
Bids for the MANNUS contract are due no later than 5 p.m. Eastern time on April 18. Questions are due by 5 p.m. on April 5.
MANNUS is a new requirement so there are no incumbents.