Another incumbent takes a hit

Another incumbent has lost a decade-old contract after fighting through a recompete and then an unsuccessful bid protest. This time, it's SAIC, and the contract in question is worth $760 million.

Another incumbent has taken a hit, losing a decade old contract after going through a recompete and then an unsuccessful bid protest.

This time, it is Science Applications International Corp., which lost in its attempt to keep a Defense Department logistics contract that covered the southeast United States.

SAIC has held the Defense Logistics Agency contract for troop support since 2003, but lost the recompete to Noble Supply and Logistics of Rockland, Mass.

Deltek estimates the value of the contract at $760 million over its five-year life, so it is no wonder that SAIC decided to fight for it.

The work also is a core business line for SAIC. In October, it won a similar DLA contract to support logistics for Hawaii, Guam and Kwajalein Atoll. The company pegged the contract value at $282 million over five years.

Noble and SupplyCore Inc., another incumbent, won their contracts for the southeast region in August, and SAIC filed its protest with the Government Accountability Office in September.

Beyond the news that the protest was denied, the GAO decision isn’t public yet. It generally takes a week or two for the decision to be scrubbed of proprietary information before it is released.

I’ve reached out to SAIC for comment, but nothing yet. I’ll update if I do.

In the meantime, suffice it to say incumbents continue to be under a lot of pressure to hang onto to existing contracts.

It’s also interesting that SAIC lost one contract, yet won another very similar contract. I’m not sure if the GAO decision will illuminate that point or not.

SAIC still holds a bridge contract that runs through March to support DLA.