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Desk reference

Procurement lead time, recompete schedules, and bridges

Terms for backsolving timing from a required award date and reading justifications as schedule evidence.

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Procurement administrative lead time (PALT)

Procurement administrative lead time () is the time from solicitation of offers to contract award — not acquisition planning before solicitation. Backsolve solicitation timing from the required successor award date using the agency's planning assumption, then start discovery and shaping earlier than that anchor. Prefer a newer award target over assuming the current end date can never move or that every option will be exercised. Track remaining and bridge evidence as validation points; update the provisional window when newer official signals conflict with the old one.

Watch for

Don't start PALT at expiration, treat an ultimate potential end date as proof every option will be exercised, or add lead time after performance ends — that is not how solicitation-to-award math works.

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Bridge justification

A bridge justification is a posted document — under the applicable regime in FAR 6.305, 8.405-6(a)(2), or 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D) — that can reveal continuity need, delay rationale, and extension period when a replacement competition is delayed. Successive bridges raise schedule-risk and incumbent-continuity assumptions and should move your backcast to the newest documented runway while you intensify monitoring. Use the document for what it proves; do not invent a final acquisition strategy the justification does not establish.

Watch for

Don't read a bridge as proof the planned competition is canceled forever, treat repeated bridges as authorization for every future award as permanent , or ignore posted justifications as if they had no capture value.

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