The U.S. Army on October 18 issued contract awards to 198 companies for its potential 10-year, $37.4 billion Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) contract, which covers a wide range of government programs with Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) mission requirements.
RS3 is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a five-year base ordering period and five-year optional ordering period. The new contract awardees will be able to vie for task orders that support multiple C4ISR service areas–including engineering; research, development, test and evaluation; logistics; acquisition and strategic planning; and education and training services.
This is the second round of awards for the RS3 contract. The Army issued 56 awards in May 2017 in the first phase of the contract, and remained on schedule for its planned October 2018 phase two award date, which it announced in August 2017.
One of the most comprehensive categories relating to military information systems, C4ISR is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of potential IT services, centered on military situational awareness and the ability to receive decision-grade information.
As such, the RS3 contract will span an equally broad range of support services – which can include web-based training, web and software development, cybersecurity, evaluation of technology applications, artificial intelligence R&D, and more.
The RS3 contract replaces five IDIQ contracts within the Army that have expired or are set to expire, including the Rapid Response – Third Generation (R2-3G) contract and Strategic Services Sourcing contract (S3).
