Northrop, NCI file early protests of Army contract

Northrop Grumman and NCI Information Systems have both filed pre-award protests over an Army logistics support contract.

Northrop is one of the incumbents on the contract, according to the Deltek database.

The contract is being competed under the Army’s EAGLE contract, and an award is expected to be made in September, but that will likely be delayed because of the protests.

The Army can continue to evaluate the proposals but cannot make an award until the Government Accountability Office resolves the protest. GAO’s deadline for a decision is Oct. 29.

The work currently is being done under the Army’s Field and Installation Readiness Support Team, or FIRST, contract, but that contract is near its ceiling, according to Deltek, so the Army will switch to another vehicle. The contract supports logistics services at Fort Polk, La.

Among the services the Army needs are field and sustainment-level maintenance work on tactical and non-tactical equipment.

Northrop has been the top contractor providing services under the predecessor contract with $176.9 million in task orders since 2009. CACI International at $50.3 million and URS Corp. at $17.5 million are the other incumbents, according to Deltek.

The grounds for the protests are not known at this time, but there is a possibility that the companies are raising issues now to get on record their objections to terms in the solicitation, which could help a later protest if they ultimately lose the competition and file a post-award protest.