The Navy has once again delayed its next-generation intranet, pushing back by one month the upcoming contract award date for selecting the industry team to operate the network intended to replace the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.
The Navy said in a statement yesterday that a plan to award the two contracts for the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) by the end of this week has now been postponed until the end of June. The delay was needed to allow the service to re-enter discussions with qualified bidders for the lucrative program.
 |
| NGEN logo by U.S. Navy |
“The government has re-entered into discussions with those offerors determined to be within the competitive range,” the Navy said. “This posting should not be interpreted as a reopening of the solicitation.”
NMCI incumbent Hewlett-Packard [HP] is leading a team consisting of Northrop Grumman [NOC], IBM [IBM], AT&T [T] and Lockheed Martin [LMT]. A second team has been formed by Harris Corp. [HRS] and Computer Sciences Corp. [CSC] and includes General Dynamics [GD] and Verizon Communications [VZ].
The Navy had earlier this year pushed back the award date by three months, raising questions about whether it could meet its April 2014 timeframe for transitioning from NMCI to NGEN. The Navy in February announced it was modifying its contract with Hewlett Packard to cover the cost of running NMCI beyond this September, and included options that allow for extending the services through September 2014 in case the transition falls behind schedule.
The modification under the October 2010 continuity of services contract for NMCI also lifted the spending ceiling by $1.2 billion to a new amount of $6.1 billion. The Navy did not rule out the possibility of issuing the contract awards before June 30, and did not specify the nature of the latest discussions with the industry teams.
NGEN is intended to provide secure, net-centric data and services to 800,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel and connect 400,000 workstations. NMCI already represents the largest intranet in the U.S. government and began in 2000 under a contract with Electronic Data Systems, which HP acquired in 2008.
The Navy plans to award two NGEN contracts, one for enterprises services and a second for transport services, although both could be awarded to one group and combined could reach a total value of $5.3 billion over the next five years.
The Navy issued the final request for proposals for NGEN in May 2012, two years behind the original schedule and months later than revised plans to do so by the end of 2011.