U.S. Army Contracting Command – Watervliet Arsenal (ACC-WVA) Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO)

The Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) authority is per Section 1823 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which amended Section 3458 of Title 10, as codified by Public Law 119-60. DFARS Subpart 212.70 implements 10 U.S.C. 3458 for the acquisition of innovative commercial products or commercial services through the use of a general solicitation known as a Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO).

This CSO is a competitive solicitation posted on a Government Point of Entry (GPE) www.sam.gov continuously open until 30 September 2027. This CSO will be utilized specifically for Watervliet Arsenal, and Benet Laboratories. ACC-WVA reserves the right to extend this CSO beyond the open until date by amendment. Under this CSO the DoW may seek solution briefs, presentations/pitches and/or proposals from traditional and non-traditional business entities. This CSO is intended to seek proposals for innovative commercial products, commercial technologies and services or adaptations/modifications of existing commercial product technologies and services to enable the seamless integration of manufacturing resources from across the enterprise to meet U.S. Army needs.

This includes, but are not limited to, the linking of legacy analogue manufacturing systems with modern digital systems, the expansion of modeling and simulation to speed up decision making and the ability to deliver the right materiel solution to the soldier at the right time and in the right place. This CSO may result in the award of various types of contracts, which may include but are not limited to commercially-available technologies immediately available, commercially-available technologies fueled by commercial or strategic investment, but also concept demonstrations, pilots, and agile development activities that can incrementally improve commercial technologies, existing government-owned capabilities, or concepts for broad defense applications.

ACC-WVA intends to award FAR-based contracts under Part 12 Commercial Item Procedures based on specific Area of Interest (AoI) and industrial base responses to the AoI. The CSO solicitation process may include a multi-phased solicitation and evaluation approach that is dependent upon specific AoIs. The AoIs are focused topic(s)/categories that will be published under this CSO.

The following phases will be used:

Phase 1 – Submission of Written Solution Brief,

Phase 2 – Presentation/Pitch (if applicable), and

Phase 3 – Request for Commercial Solution Proposal (CSP).

A CSO is considered a competitive process, intended to ensure that competitive procedures are used to the maximum extent practicable. All solution briefs, presentations/pitches and/or proposals submitted in response to any AoI will be in response to and governed by this CSO.

Use of a CSO in accordance with DFARS Subpart 212.70 is considered to be a competitive procedure for the purposes of 10 U.S.C. 221 and FAR 6.102. Finally, Contracting Officers shall treat items, technologies, and services acquired using a CSO as commercial items. Contracts or purchase orders resulting under this authority shall be fixed-price, including fixed-price incentive fee contracts.

Additional information inclusive of instructions and definitions can be found on the attachment "CSO-Watervliet Arsenal FY26 Final.pdf"