Polaris for VA AI Work: The One SDVOSB GWAC With a Door Still Open
If you read the VETS 2 spoke, you know the frustrating part: it’s the only governmentwide contract set aside 100% for SDVOSBs, but it’s a closed pool — a brand-new firm can’t prime it. Polaris is the answer to that frustration. It’s GSA’s newer SDVOSB governmentwide GWAC, it has no master ceiling, its scope is the most explicitly AI-forward of any SDVOSB vehicle, and — the part that matters most for a new firm — it was designed with on-ramps. So unlike VETS 2, Polaris is the one governmentwide SDVOSB IT vehicle where a future prime path is genuinely plausible rather than foreclosed. The honest catch: that door exists by design, but GSA hasn’t published a date for when it opens. This is the forward-looking close to the vehicle trilogy, under the VA AI modernization pillar, and the discipline here is to be hopeful without overclaiming.
What is Polaris, and where does the SDVOSB Pool actually stand?
Polaris is a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity governmentwide acquisition contract run by GSA’s Office of IT Category — the same shop that runs VETS 2 — with four set-aside pools: Small Business, HUBZone, SDVOSB, and Women-Owned Small Business. The SDVOSB Pool finalized in November 2025 with 23 primes (winnowed from 27 apparent awardees and 251 original proposals), on a base period running December 2, 2025 through December 1, 2030, with a five-year option to 2035. The HUBZone Pool finalized the same month with 30 primes; the WOSB pool began phased awards in early 2026; and the general Small Business pool (102 awardees from December 2024) remains tied up in protests at the Court of Federal Claims.
The single most important structural fact: Polaris has no master contract ceiling. VETS 2 has a fixed $6.1B ceiling and a pool that’s been closed since 2018; Polaris is the vehicle GSA built specifically to escape that closed-loop dynamic. The primary NAICS is 541512 — the same code Truvisory carries — at a $34M size standard.
Why is Polaris the most AI-forward SDVOSB vehicle?
Because GSA wrote AI into its DNA. The scope language, consistent from the 2022 solicitations through GSA’s December 2025 award announcements, describes Polaris as supporting “emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, distributed ledger technology, edge computing, and immersive technology.” GSA’s December 15, 2025 blog tightens that into four solution buckets — AI and automation; cloud and edge; distributed ledger; immersive and emerging tech. For VA AI work the mapping is direct: document automation and RAG policy assistants fall squarely under “AI” and “automation”; claims-support and ADS tooling fits the same scope; and M-25-21 trustworthy-AI governance layers sit naturally inside Polaris’s “IT services-based solutions” framing.
The honest qualifier, and it’s a load-bearing one: this is what GSA built, not what Polaris has delivered. The SDVOSB pool only opened for orders on December 2, 2025, so as of spring 2026 there is no publicly reported VA task order on Polaris. Treat its AI-forward scope as a strong design signal, not a track record.
Can a brand-new SDVOSB actually get on Polaris?
This is where Polaris differs from every other vehicle in this cluster, and where it’s easiest to oversell — so here’s the precise version. GSA designed Polaris with on-ramps. At a December 2022 industry event, GSA’s Larry Hale said plainly that “Polaris will have regular on-ramps to refresh the industry pool,” and GSA’s December 2024 award release repeated the commitment to “refreshment of the industrial base through regular on-ramps.” That intent is real and it’s the structural reason a new firm’s prime path isn’t foreclosed.
What GSA has not done, as of spring 2026, is publish an on-ramp schedule, frequency, or open-season date. And a distinction that’s easy to miss: the “phased” awards happening now — like the DecisionPoint–Agile Defense JV added in March 2026 — are GSA still working through the original 2022 proposal pool, not a fresh on-ramp for firms that never bid. The most useful precedent is OASIS+, GSA’s professional-services vehicle, which moved to continuously open solicitations as of January 12, 2026 — proof GSA is operationalizing on-ramps elsewhere, but not a guarantee Polaris adopts the same model. The honest planning posture: Polaris is the one governmentwide SDVOSB vehicle where you can eventually prime, so build toward it — but any plan that depends on it on-ramping by a specific date is built on a guess.
Why was Polaris so late? (The litigation timeline.)
Worth knowing, because it explains both the AI-forward design and the timeline uncertainty. GSA released the first Polaris RFPs in March 2022, paused them weeks later over joint-venture evaluation concerns, and reissued — the SDVOSB RFP (47QTCB22R0007) landed in September 2022. Pre-award protests at the Court of Federal Claims followed in October 2022, and in spring 2023 the court enjoined GSA from evaluating proposals and ordered amendments. Rounds of amendments ran through 2023 and 2024; the Small Business pool awards came December 30, 2024; apparent-awardee lists for the SDVOSB and HUBZone pools posted in August 2025; and final SDVOSB and HUBZone awards landed in November 2025. The scope was set when generative AI was already a clear federal priority, but the contract only became usable at the very end of 2025 — which is exactly why its track record is still empty.
How would a VA buyer use Polaris — and which vehicle wins?
Mechanically, Polaris works like GSA’s other GWACs: a VA contracting officer (CO) needs a Delegation of Procurement Authority, orders compete under FAR 16.5 fair opportunity through GSA eBuy, and a 0.75% Contract Access Fee rides on each order (VA-native vehicles charge none). A VA CO reaches for Polaris when they want SDVOSB credit and Rule-of-Two compliance from a pre-competed governmentwide pool, when an emerging-tech requirement benefits from Polaris’s explicit AI scope (less scope-protest risk), or when they’re positioning a multi-year program ahead of the VETS 2 sunset.
| Vehicle | Owner | Ceiling | On-ramps? | Status for a new SDVOSB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polaris SDVOSB | GSA | None | Designed in (unscheduled) | The one governmentwide vehicle you can eventually prime |
| VETS 2 | GSA | $6.1B | None — closed | Closed; expires Feb 2028; team in only |
| T4NG2 | VA | $60.7B | None — closed | Closed; sub to a prime |
| SPRUCE | VA | $2.44B | None — closed | Closed (10 primes); sub to a prime |
For a net-new SDVOSB, the near-term revenue doors are still the Veterans First / Rule-of-Two set-asides and the $5M sole-source fast lane, plus teaming into VETS 2, SPRUCE, or T4NG2 primes. Polaris is the long game layered on top.
What’s the honest play for a brand-new SDVOSB?
Three tracks, not a binary.
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Position for the next on-ramp (2–4 year build)
What Polaris scores — qualifying relevant-experience projects, a sound accounting and purchasing system, certifications, and joint-venture structures — is what every modern small-business GWAC scores. So the work to be on-ramp-ready is the same work that strengthens every other capture: build qualifying past performance, mature your systems, and structure at least one mentor-protégé JV before the door opens.
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Team with a Polaris prime now
This is where 2026–2027 revenue lives. Of the 23 SDVOSB primes, three are the strongest VA-aligned teaming targets: IronArch Technology, which explicitly markets Polaris for VA work and is also a prime on SPRUCE and T4NG2; IT Concepts (Kentro), which reportedly draws about two-thirds of its prime revenue from the VA and is a T4NG2 prime; and 9th Way Insignia, a T4NG prime with deep VA OIT relationships. What Truvisory brings to their VA AI team is concrete: Cloudflare-native delivery on a FedRAMP-Moderate (High in process) edge platform, M-25-21-aligned trustworthy-AI delivery, and working software in 90 days — with NAICS 541512 matching Polaris’s primary.
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Watch and prepare
Track GSA’s Polaris updates and the SAM.gov alerts for solicitation 47QTCB22R0007; the Small Business pool litigation outcome will likely foreshadow the rules of the next SDVOSB open season.
What Polaris is not for Truvisory today: a contract it holds, a vehicle it primes on, or a near-term revenue line on its own. CMMC, for the record, doesn’t enter into it — Polaris is a civilian GSA GWAC and CMMC is DoD-only.
Frequently asked
Is Polaris Best-in-Class?
When's the next on-ramp?
Can Truvisory bid Polaris today?
Polaris or VETS 2?
Does CMMC apply?
Working with Truvisory
Truvisory is an SBA-verified SDVOSB founded by a combat veteran. We don’t hold a Polaris contract — we’re building toward the next SDVOSB on-ramp, and in the meantime we’re the Cloudflare-native, FedRAMP-aware, M-25-21-aligned SDVOSB sub a Polaris prime adds to a VA AI/automation task-order team when they need working software in 90 days.
If you’re a Polaris SDVOSB prime running a VA AI capture, let’s talk — see our capability statement and the teaming structures we use. For the full map of doors into VA AI work — including the closed VETS 2 predecessor this vehicle succeeds — start at the pillar.