The second time around isn't the charm for NETCENTS-2
The Air Force has dismissed all of the protests associated with the recently awarded $6.9 billion Network Centric Solutions (NETCENTS-2) Netcentric Products contract vehicle as it seeks to take corrective actions on the contract related to the Trade Agreements Act, which prevents the procurement of components from certain countries.
It looks like the second time around isn’t the charm, as the Air Force has dismissed all of the protests associated with the recently awarded $6.9 billion Network Centric Solutions (NETCENTS-2) Netcentric Products contract vehicle as it seeks to take corrective actions on the contract related to the Trade Agreements Act, which prevents the procurement of components from certain countries.
At this point, Air Force officials have not commented on their exact rationale for halting the contract, or what comes next. When the Air Force shelved the first round of NETCENTS-2 contract winners in 2012, it took another entire year before the second round of winners was announced. Now, the contract is once again in limbo.
The losers in all of this are the winners picked by the Air Force last month. The awardees were: Ace Technology Partners, Arlington Heights, IL, CDW Government, Vernon Hills IL, CounterTrade Products, Arvada CO; FedStore Corp., Rockville, MD; General Dynamics IT, Needham MA; Intelligent Decisions, Ashburn VA; Iron Bow Technologies, Chantilly VA; and World Wide Technology, Maryland Heights MO.
Fourteen protests followed the awards, leading to this week’s step back on the contact by the Air Force.
The NETCENTS-2 contract vehicle is a firm-fixed-price, multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract for net-centric solutions and products. It will provide for commercially available off-the-shelf products to support the Internet Protocol network, and will include the following categories of net-centric products and associated support worldwide: networking equipment, servers/storage, peripherals, multimedia, software (not included on other enterprise licenses), and identity management/biometric hardware and associated software.
The period of performance for NETCENTS-2 was scheduled to be six years (a three-year basic period with three, one-year options). The contracting agency is Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/HICK, Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, AL.