The General Services Administration (GSA), acting in support of U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), is awarding Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] a one-year $65 million contract to continue support of the command’s cyberspace operations while it prepares a competition for a new contract.

The sole-source award was made by the GSA’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM).

To help meet its mission needs, ARCYBER has been using the Global Threat Mitigation Program (GTMP), a potential five-year $937 million task order that Booz Allen won in 2015 to provide U.S. military forces and the Defense Department support analyzing evolving and emerging threats and to provide capabilities to counter threats.

However, the success of the GTMP task order has created funding challenges.

The justification for the new contract to Booz Allen was included in an Aug. 16 notice in the government’s procurement website, www.fedbizopps.gov, and says that the GTMP task order has been so successful in terms of supplying expertise and resources to military organizations that demand has exceeded expectations. Already, it says, support has grown from “seven to 45 military and partner organizations worldwide.”

The award announcement also says that ARCYBER has successfully leveraged the task order but that the overall higher than expected use of the GTMP “has created ceiling challenges for organizations requiring more mission critical threat mitigation support, including ARCYBER.”  Therefore, GSA says it is awarding Booz Allen the new contract outside of the GTMP task order.

GSA says the new award will allow it to complete the competitive source selection for an upcoming contract for support of ARCYBER and while also “preserving the ceiling under GTMP to provide support for current and emerging operations.” The $65 million contract with Booz Allen could be extended another six months if necessary, GSA says.

The agency also says the upcoming competitive contract will provide ARCYBER with a “long-term solutions for its cyberspace operations and threat mitigation support.”