The U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command’s (ACC) Acquisition Management and Integration Center (AMIC) has ended a solicitation for the more than $5 billion Enterprise Cyber Capabilities (EC2) program.
“While it is good that the requirement generated significant industry interest with over 250 proposals received, the established acquisition strategy and evaluation methodology were not suitable to result in a manageable number of prime contract awards,” the cancellation notice last week said. “It is in neither the U.S. Air Force’s nor industry’s best interest to award far more prime contracts than the program and its supporting workforce can properly administer and for which sufficient competitive opportunities are projected to provide fair opportunity to a significant number of prime contractors.”
In a Sept. 25 email, ACC said that its initial market research forecast strong EC2 interest from companies, “but the expectation was for roughly half the over 250 proposals received.”
“Alternative evaluation methodologies and amendments were considered, but ACC AMIC concluded that either would result in substantial changes to the EC2 solicitation,” ACC said. “In accordance with FAR 15.206(e), the necessary amendments would’ve been more than prospective offerors could’ve reasonably anticipated, and the EC2 solicitation was cancelled on this basis. ”
In early 2021, the EC2 effort began under the 16th Air Force–the service’s cyber component at Joint Base San Antonio–“to organically leverage economies of scale and reduce the Air Force’s overall IT footprint by providing an avenue to conduct the service’s acquisitions from a strategic perspective, leveraging the buying power of the Air Force cyber enterprise.”
The ACC AMIC cancellation last week suggested that industry lawsuits to gain reimbursement for internal company funds spent on EC2 will be of no avail, and ACC re-iterated on Sept. 25 that it will not help pay for company’s expenditures on EC2.
“ACC AMIC hereby cancels the solicitation for Enterprise Cyber Capabilities (EC2) that was originally issued on Sep 26, 2022, and for which proposals were due on Jan 6, 2023,” last week’s notice said. “As stated in Section L of the solicitation, ‘The government reserves the right to cancel this solicitation, either before or after the closing date. In the event the government cancels this solicitation, the government has no obligation to reimburse an offeror for any reason.’ ACC AMIC gave deliberate consideration to the cancellation of this solicitation and the facts support this cancellation as being in the best interest of the government. The interest and investment of industry partners is appreciated.”
“Analysis is ongoing to determine the best means, be it another solicitation(s) or existing vehicle(s) to fulfill cyber requirements that were originally projected for EC2,” the notice said.