NATO Business Opportunity: Asset Tracking Capability Development Campaign

Active

Contract Opportunity

Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide support for the CWIX (Coalition Warrior Integration Exercise) Asset Tracking Capability.

U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility within the United States, 2) be approved for participation in NATO Competitive Procurement (NCP), and 3) be issued a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) by the U.S. Government.

Key personnel of vendors (partners and subcontractors) must hold a NATO SECRET security clearance or national equivalent at the time of proposal submission

The contract will be awarded to one vendor. It will be a fixed price contract.

The reference for the RFP is RFP-ACT-SACT-26-40 and all correspondence regarding the IFIB should include this reference.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT

Many of the NATO standards associated with asset tracking (e.g., the application and use of barcodes, shipping labels and radio frequency identification) have existed for several years. But work has only recently been finalized that establishes the full set of policy, procedural and technical standards for asset tracking. Those standards are compliant with NATO’s data strategy in support of network enabled capability and conform to the NATO Architecture Framework. Inter-system and inter-network messaging can be undertaken using both ADat-P3 and XML-MTF (i.e., eXtensible Mark- up Language-Message Text Format) messages.

Main events that support ATCIC:

Exercises ATCICXX.

Coalition Warrior Integration Exercise series (CWIX). Asset Tracking focus area.

Asset Tracking Working Group (ASTWG) meetings.

NATO standard agreements writing teams meetings.

Project Context & Objective

The organization plans for a multi-year program that permits validation of the products of NATO asset tracking standardization and provides for the education and training of personnel engaged in realizing the capability.

NATO recognizes that the tracking of assets can take place through a mixture of approaches, from the entirely manual through to the fully automated. Those approaches may be supported by a wide variety of technologies.

The envisaged NATO asset tracking capability assumes at least some degree of automation. It has its basis in the concept of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). This embodies the notion of Automatic Identification Technology (AIT), which includes the likes of barcodes, data matrices, and passive and active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices.

An integrated NATO asset tracking capability will be built on the following:

- NATO’s future Operations Logistics Chain Management (OLCM) capability. This calls for the coordination of logistic support to NATO missions. In-transit visibility contributes to the requirement for visibility concerning the logistic resources available to the commander.

- A Business Process Model (BPM) in which the requirement to exchange information is fully embedded. The asset tracking BPM identifies the physical process activities and the information products that must be shared in order to realize network-wide in-transit visibility.

- The construction of message content according to the situation that pertains within the context of the BPM, as guided by the business rules that specify the required content of the message and its distribution.

- The transmission of messages in accordance with an agreed system architecture requirement.

- Recognized AIT on which data is encoded using a NATO agreed format.

- The physical labelling of transport packages, shipments and consignments in accordance with NATO agreed specifications.

Scope of Work

The technical expertise and support required to be performed by the contractor consists of the following lines of effort:

The specification, exchange and validation of AST messages as appropriate, based in NATO STANAG and international standards (e.g. GS1). Definition of the exchanges based on the business processes. Developing those deliverables required for each event. This requirement applies to the planning and product development stage of the project as well as to the operational conduct and analysis of interoperability exercises and reporting stages.

The contractor shall ensure that the technical component of the project (format of the messages, Information exchange requirements, design of the networks, AST system architecture) supports and informs the overall conceptual design create by the logistic experts and is compliant with the business process.

The contractor shall support SACT as the NATO Officer Scheduling Exercises. This responsibility will be discharged in line with direction and guidance provided by the Contracting Representative (COTR) appointed by ACT. Tasks will lead to such deliverables as the technical annex of the Exercise Specification (EXSPEC), the Exercise Plan (EXPLAN), the exercise aim, Exercise Objectives (EOs), and the Training Objective (TO).

The contractor shall design the technical component of the interoperability test cases defined for the exercises by SACT.

The contractor shall support SACT during the execution of exercises control (to include the review of test cases related to message exchanges and the provision of host nation support).

The contractor shall provide final technical reports.

The contractor shall provide support to other AST exercises, meetings and workshops in order to facilitate the best preparation to accomplish the AST Campaign.

The contractor shall Support with new developments to increase the interoperability using new technologies

BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BID

NCP requires that the U.S. Government issue a DOE on behalf of potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this contract. 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 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

The Department of Commerce (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 contract

- the name/phone/email of the company point of contact for the bid documents

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

IMPORTANT DATES

U.S. firms should request a DOE (and, for U.S. firms new to NCP, submit the one-time NCP application): 02 April 2026

HQ SACT issues RFP (planned): 07 April 2026

When the solicitation is released, HQ SACT will distribute by email the solication documetation to firms that have been issued a DOE.

Bid closing (planned): 15 May 2026

Contract award (anticipated): 05 June 2026

Period of Performance: From award date until 31 Dec 2026, to which four option periods may be added: 01 Jan – 31 Dec 2027, 01 Jan – 31 Dec 2028, 01 Jan – 31 Dec 2029, 01 Jan – 30 Jun 2030.

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