McKinsey Wins $10 Million Air Force Systems Warfighting Architecture Navigator (SWAN) Contract

McKinsey & Co. Inc. has been awarded a $10 million firm-fixed-price contract to continue operating and sustaining the Systems Warfighting Architecture Navigator (SWAN) and provide Bird of Prey mission-thread analysis, defense industrial base analysis and decision support for Department of the Air Force acquisition and investment decisions. The work will be performed in the National Capital Region and El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 29, 2027. The Air Force District of Washington at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Bird of Prey and SWAN Details

McKinsey will maintain and sustain SWAN, a government-owned capability used for mission-thread analysis and enterprise decision support. The award also calls for mission-thread decomposition: breaking down the systems and activities involved in carrying out a mission so the department can assess them as part of acquisition and investment decisions.

A Department of the Air Force market-research document describes Bird of Prey as a methodology for analyzing Program Objective Memorandum trade-offs using SWAN. It identifies potential work involving effects-chain analysis, data integration and analytics, and assessment of supply-chain risks and industrial-base vulnerabilities. The document also describes analytical products for senior defense leaders; it does not establish that every activity considered in the market research is a deliverable under this award.

Award and Contractor Background

The Air Force made the award to McKinsey through a sole-source acquisition. The award notice describes the SWAN work as continued operations and sustainment. An earlier SWAN sources-sought listing identifies McKinsey as an incumbent on related work and lists a $59.9 million award period running from September 2024 to September 2025.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under FA701426C0044 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.