Air Force awards Netcentric Products contracts

  • Published
  • By Jason Bishop
  • Enterprise Information Systems Directorate
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE-GUNTER ANNEX, Ala. --  The Air Force awarded a set of contracts April 16 with a potential value up to $6.9 billion to provide innovative information technology products and capabilities to warfighters quicker and easier.

The Netcentric Products contracts provide the Air Force with a full range of innovative, competitively-priced, world-class netcentric IT products to support the full spectrum of net centric operations and missions.

The contracts, which were awarded by the Air Force's Network Centric Solutions-2 (NETCENTS-2) team, have an aggregate ceiling of $6.9 billion with three-year base ordering periods and three 12-month options.

The multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contracts were awarded to seven small businesses and two large businesses. The nine contract awardees are:

Ace Technology Partners, LLC of Arlington Heights, Ill.; Blue Tech, Inc. of San Diego, Calif.; FedStore Corporation of Rockville, Md.; General Dynamics IT of Needham, Mass.; Global Technology Resources, Inc. of Denver, Colo.; GTSI Corporation of Herndon, Va.; Iron Bow Technologies, LLC of Chantilly, Va.; M2 Technology, Inc. of San Antonio, Texas; and Red River Computer Company of Claremont, N.H.

It is anticipated that orders against these contracts will be able to be placed in May 2012.

Commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products offered on the Netcentric Products contracts include: networking equipment, servers/storage peripherals, multimedia hardware, software, identity management/biometric hardware and associated software. The contracts will provide for delivery and warranty as well.

"The Netcentic Products contracts are a mechanism to ensure more efficient, secure and compliant IT solutions by addressing such areas as gray market equipment, supply chain risk management, Energy Star and the use of DoD and USAF Approved Product Lists," said Tim Nixon, director of the Enterprise Information Systems Directorate's Enterprise Services Division. "We also expect to achieve considerable cost savings by leveraging nearly a billion dollars of annual IT purchasing to resellers instead of integrators as we did with the original NETCENTS contracts."

The Netcentric Products contract is mandatory for Air Force use; however, use of the contract may be available to DoD and other federal agencies when it is related to requirements for interoperability with Air Force capabilities, supports Air Force IT infrastructure, applications, or operations, supports host-tenant arrangements involving Air Force units, or is in support of joint operations and solutions.

Although the Netcentric Products contracts will be managed by the NETCENTS-2 team at Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Ala., delivery orders against the contracts will be placed by contracting officers in the requiring agencies. Additional information on the use of the Netcentric contracts will be distributed to Air Force contracting officers and through major command and reporting unit directors of communications and information as the contracts are made available for ordering.

Netcentric Products is one of seven NETCENTS-2 ID/IQ contracts that will provide the Air Force with a wide range of IT network-centric products, services and solutions covering the full spectrum of operations and missions. These contracts replace and add to the Air Force's existing NETCENTS contract.

The other NETCENTS-2 categories are:

1. EISM (awarded November 2010), which provides the Air Force with strategic consulting for enterprise-level information technology management using non-personal Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) contracts;

2. Network Operations and Infrastructure Solutions (includes two separate contracts currently in source selection), which will provide network management and defense, service oriented architecture infrastructure, enterprise level security and management, and implementation and operations;

3. Application Services (includes two separate contracts currently in source selection), which includes systems sustainment and development, migration, integration and netcentric data services; and

4. IT Professional Support and Engineering Services (solicitation not yet released) which includes IT program management support and engineering services.