The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is looking for companies to help build a network to link its supercomputing centers.

The agency plans to release a formal request for proposal (RFP) for the Defense Research and Engineering Network III (DREN III), a communications network that will be geographically dispersed across and outside the continental United States, according to a solicitation notice on the FedBizOpps.gov website. The RFP will post on or about Dec. 17, the agency said.

DREN III will include more than 200 service delivery points of varying bandwidth, according to the notice. It is meant to link thousands of researchers to the Department of Defense's (DoD's) six supercomputer centers, according to a published report.

The DoD's supercomputing centers -- part of the department's High Performance Computing (HPC) Modernization Program -- provide high-performance computational capabilities to the department's science and technology and test and evaluation communities.

They operate out of the following locations: the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio; the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center in Alaska; the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Maryland; the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Mississippi; the Navy DoD Supercomputing Resource Center in Mississippi; and the Maui High Performance Computing Center in Hawaii.

Several other HPC centers also share resources with the six main supercomputing facilities so the broader HPC community can use them.

The contract for DREN III will be a firm fixed price, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity and is in accordance with Part 15 of the federal government's Federal Acquisition Regulation, which deals with contracting by negotiation.

The contract duration will have a three-year fixed base period with seven one-year options, according to the notice.