How Five Amendments Spend a Bridge Year
NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic bought its incumbent a bridge year at MCAS Beaufort on June 2, then posted the recompete 23 days later and has pushed the proposal date four times since. The bridge costs 44% more than the option year it replaced, and a third of it is gone before anyone has bid.
In April 2018, NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic wrote a 60-day check to a contractor whose contract had already run out.
Ahtna Technical Services had held base operating support at MCAS Beaufort since 2008 on N69450-08-D-1255, a small business set-aside that drew six offers. The vehicle expired March 31, 2018.
The successor IDIQ had already been signed two months earlier, on Feb. 1, to T&H Services.
And the government still paid Ahtna $1,126,904 to keep the base running for another sixty days.
That is what a clean transition costs at this installation, with the award already in hand.
Thursday night the same contracting office published amendment 0005 to the recompete of that same work, and moved the proposal due date for the fourth time.
"How much of a bridge year does a proposal schedule get to spend before anyone has bid?"
The Dates, In Order
March 4, 2025: NAVFAC MIDLANT posts a sources sought under N40085-25-R-2514 for facility investment, pest control, electrical, and base support vehicles and equipment at MCAS Beaufort, Laurel Bay, Laurel Bay Schools, and Townsend Bombing Range.
NAICS 561210, size standard $47 million. Responses due in fourteen days.
The notice is explicit about what it is deciding: "Upon review of industry response to this Sources Sought Notice, the Government will determine whether a set-aside acquisition in lieu of full and open competition is in the best interest of the Government." It also caps the follow-on: "The total contract term including the exercise of any options, may not exceed 96 months."
June 25, 2026: the RFP appears. Not under that number. Under N40085-26-R-0033, and the description says so in one line: "RFP number N4008526R0033 replaces RFP number N4008525R2514."
478 days between the market research and the solicitation, and a fiscal year change in the solicitation number to show for it. The answer to the set-aside question, when it came, was 8(a).
Proposals were due July 28.
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