Palo Alto Firewall

The Defense Health Agency, through the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is conducting market research under solicitation number PANDHA-26-P-038034 to identify capable vendors for the procurement of Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewall appliances. This request is structured as a Sources Sought Notice and explicitly states that no contract will be awarded based on responses; it serves solely to gather information on available technologies, vendor capabilities, and commercial offerings. The required solution includes two PA-1420 firewall appliances with redundant power supplies, a one-year Advanced URL Filtering license, and one year of premium technical support, all to be delivered within thirty days of order to designated locations at USAMRIID. The system must meet fourteen Minimum Essential Characteristics (MECs), including minimum throughput thresholds of 5 Gbps for firewall and 2 Gbps for threat prevention, full SSL/TLS decryption, identity-based policy enforcement, high availability clustering, FIPS-validated cryptographic modules, and alignment with DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides. All equipment must be factory-new and sourced directly from the original equipment manufacturer or an authorized channel, with compliance to federal cybersecurity standards a non-negotiable requirement. Responses must be submitted electronically as a single capability statement not exceeding ten pages, formatted in Times New Roman 12-point font, and sent via email to the designated contracting officer and contract specialist by the deadline of May 28, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Respondents are required to provide their CAGE Code and UEI Number as part of their submission and must affirm whether the offered product is commercial in nature. No pricing, contractual terms, or payment details are included, as this is not a solicitation for proposals or quotations. The government will not compensate offerors for response costs, and no formal evaluation weights, scoring system, or award basis are established at this stage. Delivery will occur at Fort Detrick, Maryland, but no FOB terms, packaging specifications, or inspection procedures beyond compliance with the MECs have been defined. While no formal contract clauses, representations, or special requirements are embedded in the RFI, responses must be marked proprietary if containing sensitive information, and the place of performance is a high-security federal facility, implying potential access control requirements for personnel. This RFI is a precursor to a future procurement that may involve a formal solicitation using a trade-off or lowest price technically acceptable approach, but no