The Federal Aviation Administration has launched the Accelerated Transformation of Legacy Applications and Systems, or ATLAS, initiative as a challenge-based acquisition effort designed to modernize more than 200 applications and approximately 3,000 databases across its mission-support portfolio.
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In a Feb. 17 notice posted on SAM.gov, the FAA said it expects to award one or more production contracts by Sept. 30, following a structured, downselect-driven evaluation process.
What Is the FAA ATLAS Effort?
The ATLAS initiative seeks to accelerate the rationalization, consolidation, modernization and sustainment of legacy and operational systems within the FAA’s application environment.
According to the statement of objectives, the agency is transitioning from a legacy sustainment model to an operating framework characterized by automated workflows, cloud-native architectures and artificial intelligence integration to meet the changing demands of aviation safety. The FAA stated that it seeks a strategic partnership to improve user experience, reduce technical debt and enhance security and resiliency.
The agency anticipates a 10-year period of performance, including options, for any resulting contract awards.
How Will the FAA Evaluate & Downselect ATLAS Participants?
The FAA structured ATLAS as a four-phase challenge-based acquisition under its Acquisition Management System.
Under the model, Phase 1 requires offerors to submit corporate experience documentation along with a concept paper outlining their technical approach. In Phase 2, the FAA will evaluate selected participants’ strategies for portfolio rationalization. Phase 3 will assess vendors’ ability to execute and demonstrate a modernization factory framework. Phase 4 may involve the issuance of a formal request for proposals and culminate in a contract award.
According to the announcement, the FAA will first rank offerors based on a self-scored corporate experience model and validate the top 10 submissions. Only those top-ranked vendors will proceed to concept paper evaluation. The agency stated it intends to invite approximately five companies into Phase 2, depending on the quality of responses.
The FAA indicated that technical importance increases in later phases, with Phase 3 execution weighted more heavily than earlier submissions. Final award decisions in Phase 4 will follow a best-value tradeoff in which technical factors are more important than price.
Phase 1 responses are due March 10
What Are the FAA ATLAS Program Objectives?
The FAA identified eight objectives for the ATLAS initiative: portfolio modernization and technical debt reduction; user experience; high-availability mission operations; accelerated value delivery via DevSecOps; enterprise data excellence and intelligent automation; proactive cybersecurity and compliance; program governance; and seamless service transition.
According to the SOO, the initiative calls for the use of AI and machine learning to accelerate code refactoring and application analysis; support data-driven decision-making; and enable intelligent automation, among other functions.
What Are Other FAA Modernization Initiatives?
In addition to the ATLAS initiative, the FAA has launched several other efforts to modernize key aviation systems. The agency introduced a vendor challenge to accelerate the replacement of its Traffic Flow Management System with a new platform.
In November, the agency issued a request for information on IT service providers to support its Configuration, Logistics and Maintenance Resource Solutions portfolio. It also sought industry feedback on a common automation platform that would give air traffic controllers access to flight data.
