Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington awarded two simultaneous $249 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts for architectural-engineering services on June 18, 2026, splitting the full $498 million ceiling evenly between Jacobs Government Services Co. and a joint venture of Wiley|Wilson, Burns & McDonnell, according to the Department of Defense contracts announcement. Both awards emerged from the same ten-offer competition and cover design work across Navy installations in Virginia, Maryland, and the Washington DC area through June 2031.
Award Background
NAVFAC Washington, headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard, manages construction, renovation, and facility design across the National Capital Region's naval installations. Architectural-engineering support contracts of this type fund the planning and design of everything from administrative buildings and training centers to secure facilities and educational spaces. The agency used a firm-fixed-price IDIQ vehicle, which allows contracting officers to issue individual task orders on an as-needed basis against a pre-set ceiling rather than obligating the full contract value up front.
The competition drew ten proposals, and NAVFAC Washington selected both Jacobs Government Services Co., based in Arlington, Virginia, and the Wiley|Wilson, Burns & McDonnell joint venture, based in Alexandria, Virginia. Each firm received an identical ceiling of $249,000,000 under separate contract numbers: N40080-26-D-1501 for Jacobs and N40080-26-D-1502 for the joint venture. The minimum guaranteed award amount for each contract is $5,000, funded through fiscal year 2026 Operations and Maintenance, Navy funds that expire at the end of the fiscal year. That nominal minimum is standard practice for IDIQ vehicles and does not reflect the anticipated workload over the full performance period.
The Wiley|Wilson-Burns & McDonnell joint venture has maintained a relationship with NAVFAC Washington since 2014, when the team first won the predecessor IDIQ contract. Over that initial term, the joint venture completed more than 100 task orders, including design of the Master Time Clock and Operations Facilities at the US Naval Observatory, according to Wiley|Wilson's public disclosures. The 2026 award extends that relationship through a new performance period, keeping the joint venture active as a key design partner for National Capital Region naval infrastructure.
Scope and Geographic Distribution
Work under both contracts will be performed across three jurisdictions: Virginia accounts for 40 percent of expected activity, Maryland for 40 percent, and Washington DC for the remaining 20 percent. That distribution reflects where NAVFAC Washington's installation customers are concentrated, including the Washington Navy Yard itself and facilities stretching across Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs.
The scope of services covers architectural-engineering services for projects in the NAVFAC Washington area of operations. Neither contract carries a guaranteed workload beyond the minimum obligation; actual task-order volume depends on NAVFAC Washington's annual construction program and Congressional appropriations for Navy facility investments.
Both contracts run through June 2031. NAVFAC Washington may issue task orders without further full-and-open competition, allowing continuity for multi-year design programs that span fiscal years and involve phased construction schedules across multiple installations in the region.
Why Two Awards From One Competition
Splitting a single competition into two parallel IDIQ awards is a deliberate risk-management strategy that NAVFAC commands have used on large architectural-engineering vehicles for years. By maintaining two competing firms under contract simultaneously, the government retains the ability to award time-sensitive task orders to whichever team has available capacity, avoids single-source dependency for critical facility projects, and preserves price competition at the task-order level. Each individual task order is competed between Jacobs and the Wiley|Wilson-Burns & McDonnell joint venture, so the ceiling split does not predetermine how much work each firm ultimately receives over the life of the vehicle.
The structure also limits program disruption risk. If one contractor experiences capacity constraints, a key personnel departure, or a performance issue on a specific task order, NAVFAC Washington can route follow-on work to the other contractor without opening a new competition. The dual-award model also provides NAVFAC Washington leverage during task-order negotiations, since either firm can be passed over if pricing is unreasonable.
What It Means for Contractors
- Task-order competition is the real opportunity. Neither firm has a guaranteed share of the $498 million ceiling. Individual task orders will be competed between Jacobs and the Wiley|Wilson-Burns & McDonnell JV throughout the performance period. Firms already on the vehicle should monitor NAVFAC Washington task-order solicitations via SAM.gov.
- Both awardees are large businesses. This vehicle is not set aside; the ten-offer competition was open to all socioeconomic categories. Small businesses seeking work in the National Capital Region for Navy facility design should track NAVFAC Washington's small-business set-aside IDIQ vehicles separately or pursue subcontracting opportunities under these prime contracts.
- The performance window creates subcontracting lanes. With performance extending to June 2031, both primes will need to staff and subcontract specialized disciplines over multiple fiscal years. Engineering firms with relevant technical capabilities have recurring opportunities to participate as subcontractors on individual task orders.
- FY2026 O&M funding expires this September. The minimum guaranteed amounts are funded with expiring fiscal year 2026 Operations and Maintenance funds. Contractors and teaming partners should anticipate that the bulk of task-order funding will come from FY2027 and later appropriations, subject to Congressional action on the defense budget.
- Geographic registration matters. Work is distributed across Virginia, Maryland, and DC. Firms pursuing subcontracting positions should ensure their SAM.gov registrations and relevant state licensing are current in all three jurisdictions before task orders begin flowing.
For firms currently tracking NAVFAC Washington opportunities, this award marks the opening of a new cycle in which task-order solicitations will flow to both Jacobs and the Wiley|Wilson-Burns & McDonnell joint venture. Companies in the broader Mid-Atlantic engineering market should register interest with both prime teams' small business liaison offices, update capability statements to reflect relevant NAVFAC project experience, and monitor SAM.gov for task-order solicitations tagged under contract numbers N40080-26-D-1501 and N40080-26-D-1502. Given the ten-firm competition that produced this award, NAVFAC Washington is actively engaging the market — future vehicles and supplemental procurements in the region will likely draw comparable interest from the A-E community.
