UPDATE: According to the industry briefing at ITSEC, contract types may vary for each of the four main tasks:

• Simulator Common Architecture
• Security Operations Center
• Management Services
• Library

UPDATE 02/12/2018: USAF held additional One-on-One meetings with interested vendors in January, and has now pushed the released of the Final RFP to June 2018. USAF also published a list of 16 interested vendors. Half of the interested vendors were small businesses seeking solely subcontracting opportunities. 

LATEST UPDATE: In a new update, the Air Force announced another round of hour-long one-on-one meetings scheduled for May 9th through the 11th. Marketing pitches will be prohibited during the sessions at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Kettering Campus. It also appears the interested vendors list has acquired an additional 4 contractors, for a total of 20 as of March 20th. 

In response to the growing need for cybersecurity and modernization solutions across the Federal government, the US Air Force is now discussing the need for a common architecture for the over 2,380 training simulators located across 8 Air Force Major Commands.

The the potentially 10-year Simulator Common Architecture and Standards (SCARS) program will provide products and services which involve the “design, management, delivery, sustainment and evolution of a Simulator Common Architecture (SCA) which includes the ability to deliver Security Operation Center services and library services,” according to a Performance Work Statement (PWS) released this week. The SCA will be implemented incrementally as hardware and software changes by the contractor as an open system architecture which is highly modular and cyber resilient. Beyond upgrading the simulator systems, the contractor will also be required to maintain a central Security Operations Center which monitors the network and provides security authentication.

The Air Force held an industry day on October 18 where the procurement timeline was elaborated upon. The Air Force expects an RFP released by April 2018 for a full and open competition, with a contract award made in the 3rd quarter of FY19. At the start of the contract, the awardee will begin work on the SOC and on the 1st increment of SCA roll-out. During the 5-year base period of performance the SCARS contract will work in conjunction with other affiliated weapons systems contracts, as well as WAN communications contracts for SOC networking capability.

The Air Force is currently planning on holding one-on-one meetings with interested vendors at ITSEC on November 29th and November 30th, and will release sign-up instructions when the plans are finalized.

Interested in learning more about SCARS, or tracking other Air Force procurement opportunities? Sign up for a free trial with EZGovOpps. As the premiere market intelligence platform, EZGovOpps can provide the information needed to follow procurement trends, produce personalized opportunity forecasts, and provide custom analyst-updates for a complete understanding of the Federal contracting market today.

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