DARPA awarded eight small businesses a $350 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under the Managed Enterprise Network Support Services (MANNUS) program on May 19, 2026, selecting the awardees from a competitive field of 26 offerors under solicitation HR001126DE002-009. The award covers non-personal IT services across DARPA's technical and support offices in Arlington, Virginia, with task orders expected to flow throughout the contract's ordering period as program offices compete individual requirements among the eight awardees.
What MANNUS Covers
MANNUS divides its scope into two broad service categories: commodity IT and mission IT. Commodity IT encompasses the enterprise network infrastructure, end-user computing, helpdesk, cybersecurity operations, and systems administration that any federal agency requires to function -- the foundational IT services that keep DARPA's classified and unclassified networks operational and compliant with federal information security requirements. This category is similar in character to enterprise IT contracts at other defense agencies, though DARPA's classified research environment imposes security requirements that exceed standard civilian-agency baselines and demand cleared personnel for a broader range of roles than a typical federal IT contract.
Mission IT is where MANNUS diverges from a standard enterprise IT vehicle. DARPA's program offices run highly varied, often rapid-cycle research programs that require ad-hoc technology solutions -- custom software environments, data analytics platforms, prototype integration work, and specialized computing resources tied to specific research thrusts rather than standing enterprise systems. Mission IT task orders under MANNUS can support program managers who need a tailored capability in weeks rather than months, without the overhead of standing up a separate acquisition vehicle for each research program's specific IT requirements. The inclusion of product lifecycle support within the scope adds a sustainment dimension, covering technology refresh, software updates, and end-of-life transitions for systems fielded under earlier task orders so that no research office is left managing orphaned infrastructure.
The non-personal services designation is standard contract language distinguishing contractor-provided services -- where the contractor controls how work is performed -- from personal services arrangements that would create an employer-employee relationship between the government and contractor personnel. At DARPA, where program managers work closely with support staff in research office environments, maintaining this distinction is both a legal compliance requirement and a workforce management consideration that affects how task orders are scoped and overseen.
The Eight Awardees
The eight companies selected from 26 offerors are: Nemean Agile JV, Ares Enterprise, Data Interfuse, Eastern Sky Solutions, FedTec Ventures, Intelligence LLC, ITFrastructure, and Vertekal. The inclusion of a joint venture -- Nemean Agile JV -- alongside individual small businesses reflects a common approach on competitive IDIQ awards, where teaming arrangements allow smaller firms to present broader capability coverage across the full scope of a requirement without any single company having to be strong across every task area. Joint ventures formed for this purpose must maintain their small business status through the JV structure to remain eligible under the small business set-aside designation.
A competitive field of 26 offerors for a small business set-aside IT IDIQ at DARPA reflects the attractiveness of working with the agency. The government's selection of eight from 26 means roughly a third of the competitive field won seats on the vehicle, a relatively high selection rate that indicates broad technical acceptability across the offeror pool. The 26-offer response demonstrates that the small business defense IT community viewed this as a worthwhile investment of proposal resources -- a vote of confidence in the expected task order activity under the vehicle.
For the eight awardees, a MANNUS seat places them in the pool for task order competitions across DARPA's technical offices. DARPA operates through a program office structure in which each program manager runs a portfolio of research programs with distinct IT and data needs, meaning task order opportunities will be varied in scope, duration, and technical focus rather than repetitive commodity work. Awardees who invest in understanding individual DARPA program office requirements and building relationships with program managers will be better positioned than those who treat MANNUS as a passive revenue vehicle.
What It Means for Contractors
For small businesses not among the eight awardees, the primary path to MANNUS-related work runs through the awardees' subcontracting programs. The $350 million ceiling spread across eight prime contractors over the ordering period creates a sustained market for subcontractors in cybersecurity, software development, cloud architecture, data engineering, and specialized research IT support. DARPA's environment places a premium on cleared personnel -- many task orders will require Top Secret/SCI clearances -- which means cleared small businesses and individual contributors with active clearances are particularly sought as subcontractors, regardless of whether they hold prime IDIQ seats.
The small business set-aside designation for MANNUS reflects a deliberate policy choice to channel DARPA's IT contracting dollars to the small business sector. This is notable because DARPA's research programs often attract larger defense contractors for the technical research work itself; maintaining small business set-asides for enterprise IT support ensures that small businesses retain a meaningful footprint at the agency even as large-prime research contracts dominate program dollars. For small businesses, a MANNUS subcontracting role can serve as an entry point to broader DARPA engagement over time.
For firms seeking their first DARPA contract relationship, a MANNUS subcontracting role offers a lower barrier to entry than competing on research-focused Broad Agency Announcements, which typically require deep technical specialization in specific research domains that DARPA pursues. Enterprise and mission IT subcontracting -- particularly in cleared environments -- allows companies to build relevant past performance and internal relationships within DARPA program offices before competing for more technically specialized work through other DARPA vehicles. The ordering period extending through at least the early 2030s means task order competitions will continue well into the next decade, giving time for new entrants to develop the relationships and past performance that make them competitive for larger opportunities. Small businesses tracking MANNUS should register interest with each of the eight awardees and align their capability statements to the specific task areas where they can offer the most differentiated value.
