The Defense Department on Tuesday announced a multiple-award contract worth up to $28 billion to 15 companies and organizations for research and development work on the Defense Technical Information Center’s (DTIC) Information Analysis Center multiple award contract (IAC-MAC).

The companies include: Adams Communications & Engineering TechnologyAlion Science & Technology Corp.; BAE Systems; Battelle Memorial Institute; Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. [BAH]; CSRA LLC Washington, which is now part of General Dynamics [GD]; Engility Corp. [EGL]; Georgia Tech Applied Research Institute; Leidos [LDOS]; MacAulay-Brown Inc.; ManTech International Corp. [MANT]; Raytheon Co [RTN]; Southwest Research Institute; URS Federal Services, which is part of AECOM [ACM]; and KBR Inc.‘s [KBR] KBRwyle unit.iStock Cyber Lock

Under the indefinitely-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract, the companies can now compete for task orders valued over $15 million, according to a department announcement. Work is expected to be completed in 2027.

Headquartered at Ft. Belvoir, Va., DTIC operates three distinct information analysis centers focus on cyber security, homeland defense and defense systems technologies, said Thomas Gillespie, IAC director. The new contract is a result of DTIC merging three existing multi-award contracts – one for each center focus – into a single new vehicle, he told Defense Daily.

“We’ve been using these three multiple award contracts for several years now. And we realized, ‘Look, we need to put these into a single contract” to save the government money and help industry partners reduce bidding costs, he said. “It will be a lot more efficient for everyone if we put them into a single, multiple-award contract.”

Battelle, MRIGLobal and Southwest Research Institute were awarded ID/IQ contracts in July to provide chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense laboratories under pool 3 of the IAC-MAC.

The contractors will focus on research and development related to 22 key technology focus areas, to include reliability, advanced materials, manufacturing, military sensing, energetics, software analysis, weapons of mass destruction, biometrics, cybersecurity, modeling and simulation, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense, among others, Gillespie said.

Fiscal 2018 and 2019 research and development funds in the amount of $54,000 will be obligated at the time of award for the minimum-order guarantee.  The Air Force Installation Contracting Agency at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity, but the effort is funded by DTIC, Gillespie noted.