The independent JASON panel of scientists appears set to receive a reprieve from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration after the Pentagon last month said it would not renew MITRE Corp.’s expiring contract.
“The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) anticipates the award of a firm-fixedprice/cost Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) hybrid contract to support the JASON program through January 31, 2020,” the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency said in a procurement note posted online Thursday.
DefenseNews first reported on the publicly available document.
The NNSA also said it might fund the JASON contract over the longer term. In the procurement note, the agency said it will “perform market research to determine a long term strategy for obtaining JASON scientific support services.”
An NNSA spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the expected financial terms of its planned JASON contract. The procurement note did not say when the new contract would take effect, but the group’s deal with the Pentagon is set to expire April 30.
The Pentagon decided to cancel the JASON contract in late March. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) made the cancellation public during an April 9 hearing of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, which he chairs. Cooper dropped the news during a round of questioning with NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty.
JASON refers both to the group of nominally independent civilian scientist advisers who provide high-level technical advice to both the Pentagon and Congress, and to members of the group. The group is working three studies for the NNSA: cybersecurity of operating equipment; nuclear detonation detection; and plutonium aging.
The JASON contract with the Pentagon is the vehicle for getting that advice to the agencies and lawmakers. The latest JASON pact had a five-year performance period.
JASON dates to the 1950s. MITRE Corp. has made individual JASON scientists, or groups of them, available under a indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract since then. Agencies besides the Defense Department can order custom studies from JASON members. The NNSA has done so many times, according to an online catalog of JASON studies maintained by the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists.
