NATO Business Opportunity: Operational Network – Extension (ON-X)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the provision, operation, and continuous evolution of the Operational Network Extension (ON-X), a NATO Enterprise cloud capability, up to and including NATO SECRET, delivered and operated as a managed service.

Potential U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, laboratory, etc.) within the United States, 2) be pre-approved for participation in NATO  Competitive Procurement (NCP), 3) be issued a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) by the Department of Commerce (DOC), and 4) register with the NCI Agency’s eProcurement tool, Neo: https://www.ncia.nato.int/business/neo-eprocurement.html 

The reference for the RFP is RFP-CO-424373 and all correspondence concerning the RFP should include this reference.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT

The Alliance operates multiple NATO SECRET (NS) networks without full interoperability or centralized management, and it is constrained in scalability, resilience, Enterprise-wide collaboration, innovation intake, and cost transparency. ON-X aims to address these current limitations.

NCIA intends to contract a single accountable prime contractor for the delivery, operation, and continuous evolution of a scalable, secure-by-design, General-Purpose Cloud capability that stores and processes data up to and including NATO SECRET. The effort will also include the provision of secure digital workplace services delivered to the NATO Enterprise as a service. The prime contractor will function as a managed-service provider under NATO command and governed by NATO policies and directives.

The requirement is expressed as outcomes, measurable end-states the capability must achieve, and bidders will propose their solution. The outcomes to be contracted span, at a high level include but are not limited to:

• Progressive take-over and management of the operation of the existing Operational Network (ON) capability, with service continuity maintained

• Discovery and design of the target solution

• Demonstration of go-live readiness at a distinct proof-of-concept gate prior to further scaling

• Transition of the in-scope NS landscape to the new environment, with validated data integrity and decommissioning of associated legacy infrastructure as appropriate

• Build-up and sustained operation of the ON-X cloud platform and engineering services, identity and data services, AI platform services, secure cloud network access, federation and cross-domain interoperability services, and the digital workplace

• Enduring outcomes across the contract term include, but are not limited to:
-    Sovereignty outcomes continuously evidenced
-    Security accreditation and continuous compliance at NATO SECRET
-    Resilience and continued operation under degraded or contested conditions
-    Continuous service operations and governance, including cyber & incident management
-    Technology currency and exit readiness

The capability will be delivered and accredited under the deployment model(s) authorized by applicable NATO policies.

NATO Community-of-Interest applications and mission or warfighting systems are outside the scope of this procurement, as is the migration of their workloads, which is handled separately with support and enablement from the ON-X capability.

The Single-Award, IDIQ structure does not guarantee any volume of orders beyond a minimum commitment that will be stated in the solicitation documentation. Individual task orders will be placed from the Service Catalogue as part of the resulting contract.

The solicitation is anticipated to be conducted in two steps: Step 1 assesses vendor experience without pricing or solution design and leads to a down-selection of maximum 3 bidders.

The down-selected bidders will receive the full solicitation package at Step 2 and will be given the opportunity to present a Best and Final Offer (BAFO) after submission of an initial priced offer. This initial priced offer will be presented to the purchaser together with a demonstrator (based on use cases) to support competitive dialogue, and as an output of competitive dialogue, a BAFO will be submitted. The detailed procedure and criteria will be set out in the solicitation documentation.

BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BID

NCP requires that the U.S. Government issue a DOE for potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this project. Before the U.S. Government can do so, however, the U.S. Government must approve the U.S. firm for participation in NCP.  U.S. firms are approved for NCP on a facility-by-facility basis. 

The U.S. NCP application is a one-time application.  The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume or capability statement indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA.

U.S. firms can download a copy of the U.S. NCP application from the following website:

https://www.bis.gov/about-bis/bis-leadership-and-offices/SIES/business-opportunities-nato 

DOC is the U.S. Government agency that approves NCP applications. Please submit to the email address provided your application and supporting documentation (as attachments). If your firm is interested in a specific NCP project at this time, please also include the following in the TEXT of your email:

- the title and/or solicitation number of the project
- the name/phone/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documents

After approval of your one-time NCP application, DOC will then know to follow up by issuing a DOE for the project.  DOC will transmit the DOE to the NATO contracting agency.  

IMPORTANT DATES:

Request a DOE (and, for firms new to NCP, submit the completed one-time NCP application): 22 July 2026

NCIA distributes the RFP (planned): 31 July 2026

Bid closing (anticipated): 29 March 2027

Contract Award (estimated): 30 April 2027