Comment: Know people at a few of those Huntsville, AL companies

LESCO
Torch
Paragon

$5B contract is huge so not surprised there is such a large pool of contractors. The scope covers all kinds of stuff too. LESCO for instance is logistics, Torch does support engineering (SETAC) type work. I think Paragon does similar work too.

It's ID/IQ which means each piece of that $5B will be put in a task order that the various contractors will have to compete against each other to win.

I doubt any of them are guaranteed any % or $ value, or if they are it's some nominally small amount (e.g. $10,000) just to meet contracting rules.

ID/IQ is how more DoD contracts are going these days which makes it tough on companies because of the increased proposal costs, not to mention much greater uncertainty about whether they will see any return on their investment.