After a series of advances and withdrawals, the U.S. Army is once again giving the go-ahead to agencies to pitch for its $200 million ad contract; and it is attempting to lure them in with promises of a two-year award - the first time that the contract period has been extended beyond the U.S. government's customary one-year period - AdAge reports. The contract will offer the winning agency a guarantee of a two-year contract with up to three one-year renewals - for a possible $1 billion total.

Coming a month after awarding its current agency Leo Burnett a six-month extension of the account that foresaw a lift in annual adspend to $250 million, the current RFP anticipates a $200 million annual amount.

After six ad agencies had chased the army account, having spent millions during their forays, they were caught by surprise as the Army canceled the review in April.

The most recent RFP comes as the Army is finding that recruiting soldiers has become more difficult - it is running at 86 percent of its fiscal-year recruitment goal amid near-daily reports of military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Previous coverage:

- Army Extends Burnett Contract, to Spend up to $50MM More
- Army: Never Mind… $200MM Review on Again
- U.S. Army: Just Kidding about the $200MM Review
- U.S. Army Reviews Account