KBR wins $1.1B weather data collection recompete
A mesonet used by the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Photo from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
By
Ross Wilkers
The National Weather Service uses this contract to fuse data from both its own platforms and those operated by non-federal entities in order to fill coverage gaps.
KBR has won a five-year, $1.1 billion contract to continue helping the National Weather Service operate and maintain systems used for acquiring observational data from surface-based observing networks, commonly known as mesonets.
The National Mesonet Program functions as NWS’ primary program for purchasing non-federal data from those networks and others that provide observations of wind, temperature, moisture and other related quantities. NMP’s principal objective is to facilitate community efforts in predicting high-impact, local-scale weather events and fill in observation capability gaps.
NWS' parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, made the award on Wednesday and received two bids for this recompete of the Commercial Data Program, according to Sam.gov records. KBR was originally awarded the work in the spring of 2020 and has received $138 million in task order volume since, according to GovTribe data.
Solicitation documents from the fall of 2025 describe how NWS continuously seeks to extend and increase its observational capabilities by using non-federal platforms. These deployed at significantly closer spacing than the agency’s own platforms or in places where NWS does not operate them.
All non-federal weather data goes into the federal government’s Meteorological Analysis and Data Ingest system, which acts as a repository for NWS field offices to use in making forecasts and issuing alerts.
KBR is responsible for delivering that non-federal data via a commercial cloud-based offering that is analogous to MADIS in order to fuse it with federal data.
NWS also can use the contract to support individual pilot projects for evaluating new commercial data streams that can inform the agency’s forecast and alert mission.
The new contract’s last date to order is Aug. 31, 2031.
KBR is in the process of spinning out its government segment into an independent, publicly-traded company and targeting Jan. 4, 2027 as the effective date.