The US Air Force is requesting quotes from vendors that can provide support for a cybersecurity project under a contract worth up to $95m.
Vendors of any size are being sought to support an experimental cybersecurity platform development team that is part of the Air Force's LevelUP program.
The team's engineers are looking for vendors that can give them access to a secure DevOps platform in which they can build and test new products. Testing will be conducted at every security level and classification on private, public, and hybrid clouds.
Bidding vendors will need to prove that their company can process data securely at the second-highest security level for Defense Department systems, impact level five.
To provide the development team with the support it requires, vendors will have to access classified information, something they cannot do from their local cafe over a cappuccino. Vendors will only be considered for this valuable contract if they have access to a facility with a secret level of security clearance that they can use when they need to handle classified data.
A Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for up to 15 cloud vendors is being drawn up by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, with a performance period of up to five years. To be eligible to receive a BPA, companies must be based in the United States with no foreign ownership or control.
Bidders have until 12:00 PM CST on October 16, 2019, to submit a quote via email. Two Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions are planned for September 25 and October 3; however, times and locations are yet to be announced.
The LevelUP program, which is based at the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, and Networks Directorate Joint Base in San Antonio, Texas, was founded with the strategy to create two main products.
One product, Unified Platform, is a tool that aggregates cybersecurity incident data in a single platform that is visible not just across the Air Force, but to other military branches too. The other is LevelUP Cyber Works, a “cyber factory” in which to develop and field new capabilities at the speed and scale required in today’s cyberspace operations environment.