By Jared Serbu
Reporter
Federal News Radio

The Defense Information Systems Agency has issued its final request for proposals for operational support of the Defense Department’s Global Information Grid (GIG).

The contract, valued at up to $4.6 billion, will be for “the day-to-day delivery support for telecommunications capabilities, including operating and sustaining the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), defending the DISN, providing access to new customers, monitoring network health, and restoring service as necessary, plus completing minor adjustments and improvements to existing capabilities,” according to the solicitation posted on FedBizOps on Friday. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract includes a base period of three years, with two additional two-year options.

DISA intends to award the entire contract to a single vendor. Agency representatives wrote in response to a vendor question during the pre-RFP phase that the managed services contract is for a body of work that is “integrally related and it is not in the best interest of the government further divide the tasks.” Tony Montemarano, the agency’s component acquisition executive said at an industry luncheon last month that managed services contracts for the GIG would be broken into three chunks.

Friday’s RFP for operations is the first. He said a second solicitation for engineering, technology and infrastructure functions would follow about a month later, and that program support work would be awarded as follow-on task orders using existing contract vehicles.

The Global Information Grid is DoD’s effort to establish “information superiority” by creating a worldwide network of information technology systems that are flexible and seamlessly interoperable with one another.

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