Air Force Industry Day for $500M Data Science Contract

The U.S. Air Force held an industry day on Dec. 12 to explain to potential bidders on its data support contract how the service wants to improve data governance and “leverage data as a strategic asset to improve operational effectiveness,” according to the event slides. The contract, known as Visible, Accessible, Understandable, Linked and Trusted Subject Matter Expert (VAULT SME) Support could be worth as much as $500 million.

The goal of the VAULT data platform program is to ensure “data is visible, accessible, understandable, linked and trusted across the air, space and cyberspace domains in order to support data-driven operational decisions,” according to the industry day presentation. During the event, officials listed their major challenges, such as antiquated architecture and legacy systems, that make it difficult to access and manage data.

The Air Force is seeking experts to work in four areas: data preparation and architecture, agile algorithm solutions, data analytics, and data governance. It’s also looking for agile and flexible architecture solutions that are cloud based and open source, and rely on a variety of vendors and tools.

A draft request for proposals is expected by the end of the month, and a solicitation is expected around January 2020. An award is anticipated in April 2020 with an ordering period running from May 2020 through May 2025.

The contract will be a firm-fixed price, multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, and will off ramp, or remove, companies with poor performance or those that haven’t bid on more than three task orders in a year. The government will examine both price and non-price factors in evaluating proposals.

Click here for a list of contracts and task orders in Bloomberg Government’s data analytics and business intelligence market that are expiring in the next six months.

To contact the analyst: Robert Levinson in Washington, D.C. at rlevinson@bgov.com

To contact the editor responsible: Daniel Snyder at dsnyder@bgov.com