VETS 2 for VA AI Work: A Closed GWAC You Team Into, Not Onto

What is VETS 2, exactly?

VETS 2 (Veterans Technology Services 2) is a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity GWAC run by GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, and it’s the only governmentwide contract set aside exclusively for SDVOSBs. GSA awarded it in February 2018 to 70 SDVOSB primes, then exercised its five-year option in February 2023 for 45 of them; the ordering period runs through February 22, 2028, with task-order performance allowed through 2033. In June 2024 GSA raised the ceiling from $5B to $6.1B. It’s an OMB-designated Best-in-Class (Tier-3) solution, which matters because federal buyers get category-management spend credit for using it. The primary NAICS is 541512 (Computer Systems Design Services) — the same code Truvisory carries as its primary — and the scope is IT services broadly, explicitly including new and emerging technology across data management, software development, systems design, IT security, and operations. AI, RAG policy assistants, document automation, and claims-support tooling all sit comfortably inside that umbrella; this isn’t a vehicle you have to argue AI into.

Why would a VA contracting officer use VETS 2?

Because it solves a specific problem cleanly: it’s a pre-competed pool where every prime is already an SDVOSB, so an order through it satisfies veteran small-business intent without a fresh market survey. A VA contracting officer (CO) reaches for VETS 2 when they want that pre-vetted pool plus the things a GSA GWAC adds — Best-in-Class spend credit, full contract-type flexibility including cost-reimbursement task orders, the option to hand the work to GSA’s Assisted Acquisition Services, and a streamlined FAR 16.5 fair-opportunity process where orders at or below $10M generally can’t be protested. The cost a CO weighs against all that is the 0.75% Contract Access Fee that rides on GSA vehicles — VA-native IDIQs like T4NG2 and SPRUCE don’t charge one. Ordering itself runs through a delegation of procurement authority and GSA’s eBuy, with primes competing for each task order.

The VA has been one of the vehicle’s heaviest users from the start, which is the whole reason it belongs in this cluster. A concrete, recent example of the kind of work that flows through it: a roughly $157M VA Benefits Appeals and Memorial program-management and technical-support task order awarded to the SDVOSB MicroHealth on VETS 2 in 2025 — exactly the program-and-technical-services shape that AI/automation increasingly lives inside.

Can a new SDVOSB get onto VETS 2?

No — and this is the part most vehicle write-ups soft-pedal. VETS 2 has been closed to new primes since the original 2018 solicitation; there is no continuous on-ramp, and GSA has not opened one. The pool has actually shrunk: it went from 70 awardees to 45 at the 2023 option, and some of those 45 have since outgrown small-business status, which makes them ineligible for new fair-opportunity awards — so the count of currently eligible primes is lower than 45. For a brand-new firm, there is no version of “apply to VETS 2” that works today.

What works instead, in order of realism:

1. Subcontract to a current VETS 2 prime on a VA task order. This is the direct path — you bring a capability the prime needs for a specific VA AI pursuit, and you perform under their flow-down.
2. Form an SBA-approved mentor-protégé joint venture with a prime. A properly structured JV can bid the prime’s task orders with your past performance and capability counting in the mix. (The mechanics — the 50% similarly-situated rule, JV structures, and how SDVOSB workshare is treated — are the subject of the teaming spoke.)
3. Build past performance now and position for the successor. Which brings us to Polaris.

Is there a “VETS 3”? (No — it’s Polaris.)

There is no VETS 3. Nothing by that name appears on any GSA solicitation, roadmap, or pre-solicitation notice through May 2026. GSA’s own language points elsewhere: it has repeatedly described Polaris’s SDVOSB Pool as “the next generation SDVOSB GWAC,” and unlike VETS 2 it carries no master-contract ceiling. GSA finalized the Polaris SDVOSB Pool in November 2025, selecting 23 primes from 251 proposals, with a base period running December 2025 through December 2030 and a scope that explicitly names AI, automation, and edge computing. For a new SDVOSB, that’s the long game: Polaris is where the next on-ramp opportunity and the next decade of governmentwide SDVOSB IT work will live. The caveat worth stating plainly: Polaris’s SDVOSB Pool was only finalized in late 2025, so its AI-forward scope is GSA’s design intent, not yet a track record of delivered VA task orders.

VETS 2 or a VA-native vehicle — which door?

Here’s the honest heuristic, even though it points partly away from this page’s own subject: for a net-new SDVOSB, the VA-native and direct-set-aside doors are usually faster than VETS 2, because you can’t prime VETS 2 anyway. VETS 2 is the right door when a current prime is your path to a live VA task order, or when a VA CO has already chosen it for Best-in-Class or cost-reimbursement reasons.

For a new firm, the cleanest sequence is usually: pursue Veterans First / Rule-of-Two set-asides and the $5M sole-source fast lane directly with the VA; team into SPRUCE or VETS 2 primes for the larger task orders; and position for Polaris as the long game.

What does Truvisory bring to a VETS 2 prime’s VA AI team?

Not a prime seat — Truvisory doesn’t hold VETS 2, and won’t claim to. What it brings to a prime’s team for a VA AI/automation task order is delivery muscle: Cloudflare-native engineering on Cloudflare for Government (FedRAMP Moderate authorized today, FedRAMP High in process), FedRAMP-aware and VAEC-ready rather than CMMC-certified (CMMC is DoD-only and doesn’t apply to VA work), M-25-21-aligned trustworthy-AI delivery, and a fixed-scope, 90-day model that ships a working RAG policy assistant, document-automation pipeline, or claims-support tool inside a pilot window. Truvisory’s primary NAICS, 541512, matches VETS 2’s — so the capability maps directly onto the vehicle’s scope when a prime adds it to a team.

Working with Truvisory

Truvisory is an SBA-verified SDVOSB founded by a combat veteran. We do not hold a VETS 2 prime contract — we’re the Cloudflare-native, FedRAMP-aware, M-25-21-aligned SDVOSB sub that VETS 2 primes add to a VA AI/automation task-order team when they need working software in 90 days, not a strategy deck.

If you’re a VETS 2 prime scoping a VA AI pursuit, or an SDVOSB peer weighing a mentor-protégé JV, let’s talk. Before you do, see the capability statement guide for how we position; the teaming spoke for JV and subcontract structures; and the VA AI modernization pillar for the whole map of doors into VA AI work.