By Ann Roosevelt
Lockheed Martin [LMT], SAIC [SAI], General Dynamics [GD] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] will support U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (JFCOM) joint concept development and experimentation directorate under two contracts, each with multiple awards.
Navy Capt. John Polowczyk, business manager for U.S. Joint Forces Command, told Defense Daily yesterday that after 18 months of reworking the acquisition strategy, the command is replacing one large contract with two.
“There’s a lot of hard work that went into this,” Polowczyk said. “This is about Joint Forces Command trying to be open and transparent to industry to allow for greater competition.”
Five years ago, the incumbent, General Dynamics, was the only company competing for the work, he said. Multiple companies–10 or 12–competed for these new contracts.
The two contracts, core/business sustainment and projects, are indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity multiple award contracts (MAC), which will run for five years if all options are exercised.
Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems, Inc., and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems received the two core/business sustainment MAC contracts, valued at approximately $24.5 million with a total value of each effort over five years of approximately $130 million.
The three projects MACs were awarded to SAIC, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, and Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. These contracts are valued at approximately $49 million each or approximately $260 million each over five years.
The single contract expires July 31.Work under the new contracts begins Aug. 1.
Polowczyk said on any given day under the single contract, General Dynamics may have 50-some subcontractors working, so JFCOM looked for a logical way to break up the work so different companies could compete for it. There’s the core business work, the day-to-day effort, and short-term project work where a subject matter expert might be required, or an experimentation plan must be drawn up.
While this acquisition strategy was worked up before the acquisition reform effort in Congress, the command used the tools available to work up the new contracts.
“It is absolutely in line with Congress’ executive guidance and what the [Defense] Secretary wants,” Polowczyk said. “We are creating two multiple awards, not just a single award cost-plus contract. We created two multiple awards into those two buckets to give more opportunities to compete for the work. Instead of it being all cost-plus, we have provisions for fixed pricing the work where it makes sense.”
Moving to the new strategy means increased management control and oversight from government and industry, he said. Along with that, the command’s acquisition workforce has increased from six certified positions to about 150. Additionally, funds have been set aside for training, and billets were identified.
Polowczyk’s office also will track how the strategy matches the goal. For example, there will be metrics to find out how long it takes to get new work on order and track the cost differences between fixed and cost plus work. Additionally, the office will track the quality of the delivered products. As well, the government is going to track how well it is performing.
JFCOM is now in the process of drafting somehwere around 70 statements of work, so there are clear deliverables, “not hours and dollars,” so work can begin Aug. 1.
In about 18 months, the command should have indications of whether the contracts are meeting expectations, he said.
The new contracts should offer “downward pressure on price and upward pressure on quality,” he said.