U.S. Army Releases Common Hardware System-6 Request for Proposal

By Kathryn Bailey, PEO C3T Public AffairsOctober 7, 2022

U.S. Soldiers assigned to 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conduct a platoon live fire exercise at the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, June 1, 2022. The exercise demonstrated the squadron's use of the newly fielded Integrated Tactical Network (ITN).  CHS supplies commercial tactical IT hardware as part of the Army's network modernization effort.
U.S. Soldiers assigned to 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conduct a platoon live fire exercise at the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, June 1, 2022. The exercise demonstrated the squadron's use of the newly fielded Integrated Tactical Network (ITN). CHS supplies commercial tactical IT hardware as part of the Army's network modernization effort. (Photo Credit: Spc. Ryan Parr) VIEW ORIGINAL

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (October 7, 2022) – The Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical released a Request for Proposal today for the Common Hardware System-6 (CHS-6) contract.

CHS, now executing its fifth generation contract effort (CHS-5), supplies commercial tactical IT hardware to multiple Army, Joint and other Government agency program offices and customers, processing hundreds of delivery orders for thousands of pieces of equipment per year. The RFP will ask for responses to serve as the prime contractor for the CHS-6 effort, performing management of the CHS tactical network commercial IT hardware catalogue, integration, logistics and warranties. The CHS-6 contract is planned to award in late-FY23.

The CHS-6 contract is a $7.9B dollar, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) effort with a 10-year Period of Performance (PoP), four-year base period with two, three-year option periods. The CHS-6 contract will be solicited on the basis of Full and Open Competition, and it provides new options over the CHS-5 contract, including more competitive pricing.

“In addition to offering CHS-5’s full-service delivery order option, which comes with pre-negotiated pricing, configuration management, five warranty options and bonded storage for one year, CHS-6 offers the option for basic purchase orders, which comes with fewer services for potentially quicker transactions,” said Mike Hartley, product lead for CHS, Project Manager Interoperability, Integration & Services (PM I2S).

Additional changes include an increase in extended warranty turn-around time from 72 hours to 96 hours, and separately priced bonded storage verses inclusive pricing.

“The Common Hardware Systems contract is a key enabler in the Army's network modernization strategy and will allow for us to seamlessly procure and deliver new capabilities for the Army of 2030,” said Matt Maier, project manager for I2S. “The CHS-6 solicitation release signals the Army's intent to provide more flexible, customer-oriented procurement options at a lower cost, and its subsequent award will ensure no gaps in service occur.”

RFP responses from industry are due Nov 07, 2022, 2:00 PM EST. For more information, please visit: https://sam.gov/opp/5f205c65b2a8434d8919bcb956f46c30/view