What Is SeaPort NxG? A Guide for Small Businesses

If you sell engineering, technical or program management services to the Navy, or want to, SeaPort NxG is the contract vehicle that matters most. It's also one of the harder ones to get on, not because the proposal is complicated, but because the door only opens every few years.

This guide covers what SeaPort NxG is, who buys through it, how companies get on it, and what actually happens after award. We hold a SeaPort NxG contract ourselves, so parts of this come from going through the process firsthand.

What SeaPort NxG is

SeaPort NxG (SeaPort Next Generation) is a multiple-award IDIQ contract managed by the Navy. It's the Department of the Navy's main vehicle for buying engineering and professional support services. Thousands of companies hold a SeaPort NxG contract, and Navy commands use it to issue task orders for specific work.

The Navy first awarded SeaPort NxG in December 2018 and has added companies through two on-ramps since then, in 2021 and 2025, bringing the total to several thousand contract holders. The Navy originally estimated about $5 billion a year in services would flow through the vehicle, and reported task order awards reached about $8.1 billion in 2024.

The current ordering period, including options, runs through the end of 2028. That matters if you're planning ahead, because whatever comes next, whether another on-ramp or a follow-on contract, will shape how companies get on the vehicle after that.

What kind of work goes through SeaPort NxG

SeaPort NxG is organized into two categories with 23 functional areas in total:

When you propose, you show experience in one or more of these functional areas. The better your experience maps to them, the stronger your position.

Who buys through SeaPort NxG

Task orders come from Navy and Marine Corps commands, including:

• Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)
• Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
• Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR)
• Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP)
• Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC)
• Military Sealift Command
• Office of Naval Research
• Strategic Systems Programs
• United States Marine Corps

This matters for strategy. If your past work is with one of these commands, you already have a head start on the task orders it issues.

Is SeaPort NxG a good fit for your company?

SeaPort NxG tends to be a strong fit if:

• You provide engineering, technical, or program management services.
• You have recent experience supporting the Department of Defense, as a prime or a subcontractor.
• You want to grow Navy or Marine Corps work, or you already have relationships there.
• You're a small business. Small businesses hold the large majority of SeaPort NxG contracts, and many task orders are set aside for small, SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone and small disadvantaged businesses.

It's a weaker fit if your work is mostly products, mostly civilian-agency, or unrelated to the 23 functional areas. In those cases, a vehicle like GSA MAS or OASIS+ may make more sense first.

How companies get on SeaPort NxG

You can't submit a SeaPort NxG proposal whenever you want. The Navy opens periodic on-ramps, called Rolling Admissions, and only accepts proposals during that window. The most recent one, Rolling Admissions II, opened in April 2024, closed that summer, and led to awards in January 2025. On-ramps have historically come every two to three years.

In that last on-ramp, the core requirements were:

• Active SAM.gov registration
• NAICS 541330 (Engineering Services)
• Recent and relevant experience supporting the Department of Defense, as a prime or subcontractor, in work applicable to Navy needs. Recent meant within the last 10 years.
• One to three examples of that experience, tied to the functional areas
• A short technical proposal, evaluated on whether it was technically acceptable

What happens after you're on the contract

This is the part many companies underestimate. A SeaPort NxG award doesn't come with guaranteed work. It gives you the right to compete.

The numbers make the point. As of early 2025, only about 440 companies had won a task order, out of thousands of holders. Most companies on the vehicle had never won work through it.

Holders compete against each other for task orders, and where that happens changed in 2026. The Navy stopped posting new task order solicitations in the legacy SeaPort portal at the start of 2026, and task orders now run through PIEE (the DoD's Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment). If your company still thinks of "the SeaPort portal" as the place to watch, it's time to update that process. The companies that win consistently usually did the work before the solicitation dropped: they knew the command, understood the incumbent's position, and had their teaming partners lined up.

A few things we've seen make the difference:

• Pick your commands. Focus on the commands and program offices where your experience is strongest instead of bidding everything.
• Team early. Many task orders need more capability than one small business has. Teaming decisions are often made before the solicitation is public.
• Set up PIEE correctly. A basic PIEE account isn't enough. Your team needs the vendor roles for the solicitation module, including the Proposal Manager role, which is required to submit an offer. Test the submission process before a real deadline, not during one.
• Build reusable proposal content. Past performance write-ups, resumes and management approaches that are ready to tailor save days on every bid.

How to prepare for the next on-ramp

As of this writing, the Navy hasn't announced the next on-ramp. The window is short when it opens, usually a couple of months, and companies that start then are often scrambling. Here's what we'd do now:

1. Inventory your DoD experience. List every contract and subcontract from the last 10 years that supported the Department of Defense.
2. Map it to the functional areas. For each project, identify which of the 23 functional areas it demonstrates. Pick your strongest one to three examples.
3. Gather the documentation. Contract numbers, points of contact, scope descriptions and any performance ratings. Subcontract work needs details from the prime.
4. Confirm your SAM registration and size status under NAICS 541330.
5. Watch SAM.gov and the SeaPort NxG website for the next Rolling Admissions notice or follow-on announcement, and be ready to write the week it drops.
6. Get your PIEE account and roles in place now, so you're ready to bid on task orders the day you're awarded.

If you don't have enough DoD experience yet, subcontracting to a current SeaPort NxG holder is one of the best ways to build it, and it gets you close to the task orders being competed today.

Where to go from here

SeaPort NxG is one of several vehicles we help companies get on, alongside GSA MAS and OASIS+. See how we help with SeaPort NxG, explore our other contract vehicle services, or browse more contract vehicle guides.

Because we've been through the SeaPort NxG process ourselves, we know where companies get stuck. If you're thinking about the next on-ramp, a short readiness review now can tell you whether your experience is enough and what to do if it isn't.