DISA mulls small businesses for National Gateway Center support

The Pentagon is in the market for small businesses capable of supporting a major component of its cross-domain messaging system.

The Defense Information System Agency has issued a sources sought notice to determine the availability of small businesses to provide hardware and software support for its National Gateway Center (NGC).

NCG, located at Fort Detrick, Md., and the Pentagon Telecommunications System Center make up the National Gateway System, which allows the Defense Department’s multimedia Defense Message System to communicate with the systems of allies, the State Department and other U.S. agencies. The gateway translates messages between systems, ensures a message gets to the right person and checks the clearance level of the recipient to make sure they are authorized to read it.

The agency is looking for feedback to see if there is enough of a potential market to justify a small-business set-aside, saying that two or more qualified businesses must submit responses that demonstrate the required qualifications. Specific areas of focus include life cycle software maintenance support, hardware maintenance support, systems engineering, logistical support, and the operational and security technical support necessary to maintain the NGC backbone command-and-control messaging systems.

Responses are due Nov. 4.