Air Force kicks off network operations procurement

The Air Force wants to find a small business to manage a mammoth job: operation of its Air Force Enterprise Network, which serves 850,000 users at 129 locations worldwide.

The service said in a draft request for proposals released Monday that the work includes managing classified and unclassified systems, systems security, network administration, management of messaging and collaboration, and data storage.

The Air Force requested a budget of $125 million for AFNET in 2013 and expects to spend an additional $534.3 million on the network from 2014 through 2017.

Cathy Summers, AFNET contracting officer at the 38^th Contracting Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., said in a letter that the network contract  is being considered as a small business set-aside program.