The Options Ran Out Before the Recompete Started
Space Systems Command exercised the last option on LinQuest's MILSATCOM engineering contract in February, and on Tuesday it told the market it wants up to 24 more months without competing. Nothing resembling a follow-on has been posted to SAM.gov since 2018.
The solicitation number on the notice Space Systems Command posted Tuesday is not a solicitation number.
It reads FA880819C0006. That is the PIID of the contract the notice is about: LinQuest Corporation's MILSATCOM Systems Engineering, Integration and Test vehicle out of El Segundo, awarded in June 2019, cost-plus-incentive-fee, $689,629,173 obligated across 129 modifications so far.
The notice is typed sources sought and titled "Notice of Intent." Its first line does the work:
"This notice of intent is NOT a request for competitive proposals. The Government intends to negotiate with only one source, LinQuest Corporation, for the continuation of Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test (SEIT) support."
What the government wants is 12 months plus four 3-month options, a potential total extension of 24 months, at a level of effort the notice puts at approximately 380 FTEs. The stated reason is to hold continuity "while the Government completes its follow-on acquisition activities."
Capability statements are due at 10 a.m. PDT on September 23.
That is eight days.
Six Options, All Spent
The interesting part of this contract is that it never had any slack in it.
LinQuest won FA8808-19-C-0006 on June 18, 2019, off solicitation FA8808-18-R-0001, full and open, two offers received. The award announcement described it as a "$562,302,987 cost-plus-incentive-fee base plus six option years contract," with the base period valued at $118,363,040.
Those six option years are all gone. The ladder in FPDS is clean and boring: P00026 in February 2021, P00045 in 2022, P00066 in 2023, P00095 in 2024, P00107 in 2025, and P00124, signed February 26, 2026, for $124,970,867.54 (chart below).
P00124 bought the year that ends February 26, 2027.
That is the ultimate completion date the contract has carried since the day it was signed in 2019.
So the mechanism here is simple, and it is the whole story. Option authority is finite and it is priced at award.
Once the ultimate completion date arrives there is no clause left to exercise, and the next day of work by the same contractor is a new contract action that has to be competed or justified.
Space Systems Command has 164 days before that happens.
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