Navy preps recompete for American Systems software engineering contract
Gettyimages.com/ Anton Petrus
By
Nick Wakeman
The service branch wants to use a cost-plus structure and sees fixed-price as potentially being too expensive.
The Navy has begun laying down groundwork for a recompete of the Mission Systems Software Engineering Department contract, which is currently held by American Systems Corp.
A notice of intent posted Thursday shows that the Naval Air Warfare Center's aircraft division plans to keep the contract as a single-award task-order contract. But the service branch going to ask for permission to not make the contract firm-fixed price structure.
“The level of variability across the requirement is too broad to result in firm-fixed price models that do not include a ‘risk premium,’” the Navy writes in the notice.
The Navy will instead use cost-plus task orders, both performance-based and non-performance-based.
The new contract will also have a five-year term with no options. Commenters of the Navy’s request for information pushed for a five-year base with a two-year option, but the Navy said the R425 Professional Services code it is using does not meet the requirements for a longer term.
The Navy has used the contract for a number of activities including mission analysis, requirements definition, integration support and training.
The contract American Systems won in 2021 has a $165.4 million ceiling. The company has received about $75 million in task order volume, according to Deltek data. The contract expires in August.