The United States has operated in Afghanistan for nine years and based on a FedBizOpps notice last week, at least one part of the Army plans for another five years.
The Rock Island Contracting Center of the Army Contracting Command said it plans to issue next week a request for proposals for Army mail services. The contract will have one base year and five option years, which shows at least one part of the Army has long-range plans in Afghanistan.
I don't know if the folks who deliver mail for the Army have any special insight into top-level strategic thinking or are just good planners. But the notice sure does confirm that careful reading of FedBizOpps is a good way to discern long-range plans at a very low level -- i.e. pretty good open source intelligence.
COMMENTS
Staffer,
Appart from all the contracting mumbo-jumbo about options and the special insight question, don't you think releasing a solicitation with 5 years of commitments/options is in direct contridiction to the Commander In Chief who said last week during the State of the Union we will be out of Afghanistan not later than than August 2010? Mr Brewin simply pointed out the inconsistency. You probably would not have made your comment to Mr Brewin "not going to happen" had you had the special insight of what the Commander In Chief would say about Afghanistan during his address that evening, right?
Truth and Justice 02/03/10 12:03 pm ET
The notice really has to be interpreted to mean one base period plus four option years. This means that after Start of Work, the base period is generally 12 months. Any option years are unilaterally at the discretion of the government.
This is common contracting procedure and cannot be interpreted to mean other than what the immediate prior sentence says.
Bob ramos 02/01/10 09:12 am ET
Doesn't mean the folks who deliver the mail, or the Rock Island Contracting Center for that matter, have any special insights. This type of contract is standard practice. With an option contract, after the base year, you determine each year whether you need to exercise the "option" to continue the contract for another year. If we were to pull out of Afghanistan completely this year (not going to happen), they would simply not exercise the next year's contract option. FedBizOpps might tell you what we're buying and offer some other limited insights based on type of contract (Firm Fixed Price, Price Plus Incentives, IDIQ, etc), but Bob's reading way too much into the most common type of Army contracting vehicle.
staffer 01/27/10 07:36 am ET