Contracting

Army’s MAPS contract hit with new obstacles

Two companies argue that the reopened RFP limits small businesses to competing as teams only for awards that have been reserved for small businesses.

Anastasia Obis

November 6, 2026 5:47 pm

2 min read

The Army’s $50 billion Marketplace for the Acquisition of Professional Services contract is facing another round of bid protests as the service works to finalize the massive contracting vehicle.

In April, the Army released the much-anticipated final solicitation for MAPS, a 10-year contract vehicle with a $50 billion ceiling. Industry complaints followed almost immediately, with contractors arguing that the solicitation “suffered from ambiguities and failed to provide sufficient information to compete intelligently.” Companies also complained about a lack of transparency and that the Army failed to provide substantive responses to pre-proposal questions.

Industry also challenged the solicitation’s prohibition on small businesses forming teaming arrangements, arguing it violated the Small Business Act. The solicitation included a “One Contract Per Offeror” provision that prohibited teaming on MAPS and barred offerors from proposing subcontractors or teaming agreements.

While the Government Accountability Office dismissed most of the challenges, it recommended that the Army allow small businesses to submit offers as teams, in addition to small business joint ventures, and reopen the competition to give companies time to submit new or revised bids.

The Army subsequently reopened the competition to let small businesses bid on the contract.

Now, two companies argue that the revised solicitation still restricts their ability to compete.

AHS Business Services filed a bid protest with GAO on Nov. 2, arguing that the terms of the reopened request for proposals are too narrow since it allows small businesses to compete as teams only for awards reserved for small businesses.

The contractor says small businesses should also be allowed to compete as teams for the “commercial-sector-vendor” category awards.

Mindboard filed a similar complaint on Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions is challenging the terms of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements stemming from the Defense Department’s pause of the program rollout.

The Pentagon paused its plans to implement phase two of the CMMC requirements and conduct a “top-to-bottom” review of the program. The next phase would have required third-party cybersecurity assessments across all contracts involving sensitive but unclassified information.

The Army is expected to make as many as 350 awards across five domains, including engineering, logistics and operational services, management and advisory services and emerging and foundational IT services.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email anastasia.obis@federalnewsnetwork.com or reach out on Signal at (301) 830-2747.