The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) awarded parallel $2.25 billion fieldwork-support contracts to CACI International and Peraton. Both contracts support DCSA's mission to process security clearances and background investigations for the federal cleared workforce — the largest single security-clearance program in the world. Coverage from MeriTalk and Defense Daily.
What's in scope
- Field investigations of security clearance applicants
- Reinvestigations of currently cleared personnel
- Subject interviews, record checks, employment verification
- Personnel security case processing support
Why parallel awards
DCSA splits work across two primes to manage capacity, ensure mission continuity, and maintain competitive pressure. Backlog has historically plagued background-investigation processing — parallel primes are part of the workforce-scaling strategy to reduce the queue.
Subcontract pipeline
Investigative-services subcontract work flows naturally from primes to specialty firms — language-capable investigators, regional fieldwork, technical case management software. Firms with cleared investigator workforces have a clear lane.
What to do
- If you're a small firm with cleared investigators: pursue subcontract relationships with both primes to spread risk
- If you're SaaS for case management: DCSA backlog reduction depends on tooling improvements — there's a software-services adjacent opportunity