Navy: Final NGEN services solicitation coming soon

The Navy is ready to proceed on formally kicking off the competition for the services piece of its main IT network contract and has set a date for when the final RFP will drop.

A final solicitation is scheduled for release on or around July 31 and all bids will be due on or around Oct. 31, the Navy said in a FedBizOpps notice Tuesday.

This is for the so-called "SMIT" successor to the current $3.5 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network contract currently held by Perspecta, which inherited the contract from predecessors HP Enterprise, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and more recently DXC Technology.

Perspecta launched in June through the three-way merger of DXC's U.S. public sector business, Vencore and KeyPoint Government Solutions. An extension on the current NGEN contract took effect on June 27 with a current expiration date of Sept. 30 this year, according to Federal Procurement Data System information. But more extensions are likely given the time needed to evaluate proposals and possible post-award protests.

SMIT stands for Service, Management, Integration and Transport and is one of two recompetes stemming from the current NGEN contract. The Navy is also holding a competition for end-user hardware, which includes workstations for the "ONE-NET" environment in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Middle East.

NGEN stands as one of the largest IT modernization opportunities for contractors this year amid the government-wide push and prioritization of bringing agencies' technology environments into the modern era. The size and specs of the SMIT piece show the winner will have a major foothold as the job calls for upgrades to a global network that supports 700,000 Navy and Marine Corps users at 2,500 sites. 

Perspecta and the prospective takeaway bidders for the services piece have been busy lining up their partner networks in the meantime. AT&T is currently one of Perspecta's main partners for NGEN and they will offer a continued collaboration in their proposal.

Leidos has brought IBM, Unisys and Verizon into its fold for the pursuit of NGEN-SMIT. Leidos has eyed NGEN-SMIT as a newer, larger opportunity that emerged out of its 2016 merger with the former Lockheed Martin IT business.

General Dynamics is also looking to chase NGEN and got a boost in that effort with its April acquisition of CSRA, which has told us they would form their team "as the acquisition matures."