The Department of Defense (DoD) is gathering industry feedback for a potential $15 billion contract aimed at supporting its Advana initiative, a multi-domain analytics and AI platform managed by the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO).
The draft request for proposal (RFP), published on SAM.gov on Nov. 20, details the DoD’s requirements for the Advancing Artificial Intelligence Multiple Award contract (AAMAC).
Responses are due by Dec. 20.
The multiple-award contract will have a potential combined value of $15 billion – including all basic contracts and resulting orders – which “aims to enhance the development of AI-based technologies,” the RFP reads.
CDAO Radha Plumb initially announced the AAMAC in September, stating that the contract will help scale the department’s data backbone and bring in new digital tools to meet more varied needs from a wider population of DoD users, encourage vendor diversity and partnerships, and drive innovation and mission delivery at scale.
“[The] journey and the growth of the platform has been truly remarkable and is a testament to the Department’s rapid digital transformation. Rooted in these successes but with many lessons learned, we are now evolving Advana,” Plumb said. “Everything from the scope to the technical architecture to the acquisition approach to meet the needs of the future,” she said.
The AAMAC is aligned with efforts to support Advana, a multi-domain analytics and AI platform that the department aims to further scale.
DoD launched Advana in 2021 to enhance decision-making across the department by integrating data from various sources to improve efficiency. Booz Allen Hamilton secured a five-year, $674 million contract in June 2021 to support further development of Advana.
But after years of the single-vendor approach for Advana, DoD plans to broaden access to Advana by including small businesses and non-traditional contractors.
Within that effort to scale out Advana the DoD is taking on a major overhaul of the program. The changes are designed to accelerate the addition of new software capabilities and improve the interoperability of the Advana data infrastructure with other platforms, including AI.
The department is structuring the AAMAC as a potential 10-year contract, which could extend until July 31, 2035, if all options are exercised. The department currently plans to issue between 50 and 70 awards under the new contract.
According to the notice, the draft RFP are voluntary and won’t affect contractors’ ability to submit a proposal once the final solicitation is released.
