Early Recompete of Army’s $23 Billion CR2 Program Anticipated

Existing Contracts Expected to Reach Ceiling Value Driving the Need for Early Recompete

The Army’s Communication Electronics Command (CECOM) Rapid Response program (CR2) is expected to be recompeted early and could be worth up to $23 billion over eight years, according to a recent report released by INPUT, an authority on government business. The report suggests that the current program contracts will reach their funding ceilings before they expire and a new competition will be required to avoid any disruption to the program.

“The popularity and scope of CR2 is driving some of the existing contracts to top out and CECOM will need lead time to get a new contract in place,” said John Slye, senior industry analyst at INPUT. “The ceilings could be reached within the 2007-09 option period and that suggests we could hear news of a recompete from CECOM sometime before this summer,” Slye added.

The CR2 program will likely continue to cover a broad range of technical services ranging from R&D to systems integration to logistics support and winning vendors will see ample opportunities over the life of the contract. “It is a systems integrator’s dream contract because the contract covers such a broad range of services,” said Slye. “This really plays to the large integrator-plus-subcontractors model that allows a handful of contracts to take away the lion’s share of the work,” Slye added. The current CR2 contracts were awarded to eight firms, but an analysis of the task orders in the four years since the awards reveals that three quarters of the work was clustered among a few of them, according to the INPUT report.

The INPUT report also stresses the need for potential bidders to begin early their preparation for the competition.

In an opportunity this large, hopeful participants need to get ahead of the competition if they want to secure a place on the right teams,” said Slye. “Many of the vendors I have spoken with say they are already forming their alliances. Some of them took part in the first competition and they are not necessarily going with the same teaming arrangements as last time,” Slye added.

INPUT’s CR2 INPUT/Output(R) report is available to INPUT Network(TM) members. For more information on becoming a member, call 1-888-99-INPUT or submit an online information request at member.input.com.