Shutdown hangover: NGA forced into no-compete bridge contract to keep Mojave running

Last year’s government shutdown is still reverberating at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which has been forced to issue a set of no-compete bridge contracts so it can continue to use them for back-office support functions.

In its justification document posted Wednesday, NGA said it was progressing on creating the follow-on to the Mojave general support services contract. But work on the new Vertex contract was not deemed "excepted," so the agency had to halt it during the 43-day government shutdown that opened fiscal year 2026.

NGA also cites a second reason for the bridge contracts, but that portion of the justification document was redacted by the agency.

Also redacted is the value of the individual bridge contracts awarded to the seven companies receiving them. But NGA does disclose the aggregate value total of $34.1 million. The five-year Mojave contract had a $450 million ceiling for each large business and $600 million ceiling for each small business.

The bridge contracts run through Jan. 31, 2027 and were awarded to the seven Mojave incumbents: Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International, ManTech International, Parsons/OG Systems, S2 Analytics, Science Applications International Corp. and V2X.

“The bridge contracts are imperative to prevent a critical lapse in services while NGA finalizes source selection for the follow-on Vertex contract,” the agency wrote in its justification document. “Because of [a] necessary ramp-up period, awarding to an alternate source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements.”

NGA uses the contract for a variety of support functions such as manpower analysis, change management, training and development, communications, facilities specialist, emergency management specialists, and strategic initiative support