And they almost did not have the chance this time. The set-aside was nearly scrapped last August when female-owned companies that answered the initial solicitation for the Afghan army and police supplies submitted incomplete and mistake-ridden proposals. Product samples, like the brown shirt Captain Flores displayed, came in the wrong color, the wrong size and the wrong fabric — and sometimes all three.

Ms. Babida and her colleagues quickly realized that the businesswomen did not understand what the Americans were seeking and had never before been asked to produce to such exacting specifications.

Instead of giving up, however, Ms. Babida, an entrepreneur herself who believed strongly in the effort, thought the businesswomen might feel less intimidated if they could ask another woman all of their proposal-related questions. She and her contracting colleagues agreed to try once more, this time holding information sessions to walk the women through the arcane details of the obscure “request for proposal” submission process with painstaking precision.

“We thought rather than just abandon this, let’s bring them in so people can understand and try again,” Ms. Babida said. “We have a lot of female-owned companies that want the opportunity and you know they have the capability, they just don’t understand the language barrier” and the regulations.

Yet despite great enthusiasm both from the U.S. military contracting experts and the entrepreneurs at the session, the initial question concerning the program’s viability remains: Will companies owned by Afghan women have the capacity to meet the requirements of so large a contract for so demanding a customer?

Awards for the Afghan army and police clothing and gear are expected to total $35 million in the first year alone, with a $300,000 minimum for each company that submits a winning contract. Though both their numbers and their successes are growing, to date few female Afghan entrepreneurs have produced at such volumes or won such big contracts.

Businesses competing for the contract, whether as a single company or a joint venture, will have to assemble a proposal to produce one of two groups of items, either undershirts and linens or rain gear and sleeping bags. Both are complicated propositions given that large-scale, in-country manufacturing experience remains the exception rather than the rule among Afghan entrepreneurs.