Coast Guard Announces Deepwater Award Term Decision
A press release issued by the Homeland Security Department’s U.S. Coast Guard announced a 43-month award term extension of the contract for its Integrated Deepwater System (Deepwater) fleet modernization and recapitalization program. Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. They received notification of the award earlier this week. The performance period of the award term begins at completion of the current base period in June of 2007 and will end in January 2011. The initial contract specified a five-year base period of performance, with potential for five additional award terms of up to 60 months each, for a maximum of 30 years.
Rear Admiral Patrick M. Stillman, Award Term Determining Official (ATDO) and former Deepwater Program Executive Officer, assured the ICGS the sole source opportunity to respond to a forthcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) for work expected to be contracted during the award term. Denise L. Randolph, Chief of Contracts for the Deepwater program, noted that "announcement of award term length does not mandate any changes to the existing contract, nor does it equate to any specific contract dollar value."
An extensive Coast Guard assessment of the joint venture's performance during the first 42 months of the base period preceded the announcement. In evaluating ICGS' performance, members of an Award Term Evaluation Board (ATEB) considered the contractually-defined criteria of operational effectiveness, total ownership cost and customer satisfaction. Performance monitors provided data and reports for board members' consideration. Stillman remarked that “The award term decision represents an appropriate step forward in the maturity of the Deepwater contract. It offers the opportunity for an additional 43 months of implementation of the systems approach to recapitalize the Coast Guard. This will be based upon successful negotiations with ICGS and agreement upon fair and reasonable pricing. This opportunity is essential for the Coast Guard to fulfill its maritime security and safety responsibilities in support of the mandates of Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense."