Insiders Glevum & McNeil Technologies in the Hunt

by John Stanton

“They need now is to get a decent contracting company in there that is actually focused on the job and they just might prove some worth as a force multiplier.”

On 22 September 2010 The US Army Contracting Command Center at Fort Eustis posted a Sources Sought request (fbo.gov) to support the US Army Human Terrain System. The contract ceiling for the effort is in the $7 million range. The deadline to submit information to the US Army is 11 October 2010.

There are 20 “interested vendors” listed on the FBO website. Those include current HTS insiders Glevum Associates (Andrew Garfield) and McNeil Technologies, Inc.   (Steve Rotkoff , formerly part of HTS management is apparently with this group).  McNeil is now owned by AECOM which has numerous and lucrative contracts with the US military.

Other interested vendors include S3 Syzygy.  Syzygy’s CEO since 2009 is Sarah Letts-Smith, a former Human Terrain Team Leader in Iraq and “External Consultant” to the HTS program. She is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves.  She has been a Director, Leadership Development at United States Army Reserve; SOCCENT J2 Liaison at United States Department of Defense and a Mortgage Loan Officer at Sterling Capital Mortgage

Linc Government Services’ subsidiary Operational Support & Services--based in Fayetteville, North Carolina—may be a contender. “OSS has a long and successful history of providing and supporting unique training, linguists, intelligence support services, language and cultural immersion, administrative, logistical, and Subject Matter Expert requirements to the Department of Defense, U.S. Government agencies, and NATO.”

It appears that US Army TRADOC is either taking a shot at correcting the troubles within HTS or is simply seeking to replace the services provided by the Georgia Tech Research Institute that announced its intention to bolt from the program.

At any rate, in the end, the “winner” will be managing the HTS program from top to bottom recruiting, hiring and training students at a pace of 35-50 trainees a month with a “success” aim point of 95 percent . “The intended acceptable performance metric is 95% of student requirements hired prior to start date of each training cycle; and, at least 95% of the candidates will meet the Governments Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) qualifications and deploy at the end of the training cycle.”

According to the announcement, other tasks include coordinating HTS data collection efforts with battle command general officer steering committees and decision forums, fielding and training the Mapping the Human Terrain (MAP-HT) system, and overseeing collection efforts to ensure the HTS Program meets combatant commander requirements. In addition, “the contractor shall conduct research and analysis to satisfy time sensitive (within 8-96 hours) and routine Requests for Research, as well as directed research specified by the Director of the Reach Back Research Center. Output form varies but may take such form as white paper or geospatial products.”

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John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. Reach him at cioran123[at]yahoo.com

John Stanton's Human Terrain System articles:

http://cryptome.org/0001/hts-stanton.htm