DoD Prepares Follow-Up to $15 Billion Global Counterdrug ContractsBy Steve Peacock;
U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor (Aug. 10, 2011)
A privately contracted, five-year global counterdrug program valued upwards of $15 billion is one year away from expiring—and the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DoD) wants to assess the capabilities of potential prime contractors in advance of the August 23, 2012, expiration date.
The DoD Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office (CNTPO) on Aug. 2 issued a Special Notice (Solicitation # W9113MCNTPO) announcing its intentions to “issue a follow-on procurement†to perpetuate that endeavor.
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, on behalf of the CNTPO, in 2007 issued a multiple award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, or MAIDIQ, contract (Solicitation #W9113M-06-R-0014) to five prime contractor:s: Blackwater Lodge & Training Center, Inc.; Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems; ARINC Engineering Services, LLC; Raytheon Technical Service Company; and Northrop Grumman/TASC, Inc.
Though it is not yet seeking proposals, the CNTPO made clear it will award a MAIDIQ follow-on contract to unspecified vendors in the future. In the meantime, it is accepting “capability statements†from qualified companies. The anticipated acquisition, as was the case in the prior contract vehicle, will be for: “critical services and procurements†in support of the CNTPO mission to:
disrupt, deter, and defeat the threat to national security posed by illicit trafficking in drugs, small arms and explosives, precursor chemicals, people, and illicitly-gained and laundered money. Support shall be provided in the following major functional areas: Training; Operations and Logistics; Program Support; and Command, Control, Communications, Information, Detection & Monitoring (C3IDM).
The embedded links in the above summary [see source link] offer documents that detail specific projects anticipated under the MAIDIQ follow-on contract, most of which are planned for Afghanistan, Colombia, and Pakistan.These endeavors involve various DoD combatant commands, the Drug Enforcement Administration, client-nation law enforcement and military organizations, and other U.S. federal entities.
Information about previous tasks is contained in a separate Statement of Work for the current MAIDIQ contract.
Separately, back in November the CNTPO announced that it intended to award a no-bid contract to The Rendon Group to perform "Public Communications Support and Facilitation" services specific to CNTPO operations within the U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Central Command areas of responsibility. Those services largely were targeted toward helping the governments of Pakistan and Colombia to communicate with the news media and to develop national and international support for U.S.-led counterdrug operations in those nations.
Specific to Pakistan, the objective for the The Rendon Group was to:
(a) provide training and support to the Pakistan Government to increase their capability to use public communications as a means of building national and international support for counterdrug and related initiatives; (b) to develop a public engagement strategy for implementation by the Pakistan Government and third party valuators to initiate, maintain and drive public conversation related to the overall mission objective; and (c) provide open source media analysis of English, Pashtu and Urdu print and electronic media in support of the U.S. Embassy.
Relevant to Colombia, the objective for the firm was to:
(a) continue to work with the Colombian Ministry of Defense (MoD) to inform the Colombian public and the world community on the negative impact of the drug trade and the efforts of the Government of Colombia to thwart drug trafficking; (b) train Colombian MoD personnel on the proper way to interface with the media in the field; (c) presenting the MoDs message to the public; and (d) continuing to develop tactical media products to aide in CN activities.
The solicitation (#W9113M-11-C-0030) emphasized that "None of the products developed or proposed under this contract are intended for US audiences." No further information is available, as DoD did not post an award notice, as is federal policy, to the FedBizOpps database.
