The U.S. Navy has issued its highly-anticipated request for proposals for a complete overhaul of its intranet under the potential $4.5 billion Next Generation Enterprise Network contract.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract will run up to five years, according to a Navy post on the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command‘s e-commerce website.
Proposals will be accepted until July 18, 2012 and the Navy intends to award NGEN by Feb. 12, 2013.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), which obtained control of NMCI in 2008 after acquiring Electronic Data Systems, has formed a team to bid on NGEN that includes AT&T (NYSE: ATT), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT).
As the incumbent contractor, HP believes it is the “best-suited of any bidders” to perform work under NGEN, said Bill Toti, vice president for Navy and Marine Corps programs, in a statement.
Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) have formed their own partnership to bid on NGEN.
Awardees will provide information technology services to help the Navy transition from the incumbent Navy Marine Corps Intranet Continuity of Services contract to NGEN.
Additional work will include helping the Defense Information Systems Agency improve network enterprise security services in compliance with designated approving authority standards.
The final RFP reflects feedback from interested vendors, Capt. Shawn Hendricks, NGEN’s program manager, said in a statement Wednesday night.
NMCI delivers secure IT services to more than 800, 000 users in more than 2, 500 Navy and Marine Corps installations and was operated through programmatic and operational oversight until Sept. 30, 2010.
Subsequently, the Navy moved to the NMCI continuity contract Oct. 1, 2010.
NMCI services are scheduled to run through April 30, 2014.
