PAE prevails in battle for $1.2B NASA contract
By
Nick Wakeman
PAE and its partner, BWXT, have cleared a bid protest hurdle, and can now move forward on a $1.2 billion NASA contract to consolidate management of two space centers.
PAE and its partner, BWXT Nuclear Operations Group, have successfully fought off a bid protest, and now can move forward on a $1.2 billion contract to consolidate operations and maintenance at two NASA space centers.
The two companies created a joint venture, Syncom Space Services LLC, to pursue the contract, which consolidated separate contracts at Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Miss., and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
They won the contract in July, but were hit with a bid protest by Jacobs Technology, an incumbent on one of the predecessor contracts. Jacobs lost its protest before the Government Accountability Office late last month. GAO has not released its decision yet.
But PAE and BWXT can now move forward with the contract. The pact is known as the Synergy Achieving Consolidated Operations and Maintenance program, or SACOM, and has a one-year base and seven option periods, bringing the total length of the contract to nine years and five months.
The contract centralizes management of the facility operations and maintenance requirement and the test and manufacturing services work at each NASA location.
The joint venture also includes several teammates: Abacus Corp., Analytical Mechanical Associates, American Services Technology, Energy Systems Group, Excalibur Inc., Nelson Engineering, NVision Inc., Madison Services, OJ Janitorial, and Schafer Corp.
According to the Syncom website, PAE consolidated two Defense Department facilities into a single organization. The company brought together the facilities management of the Guam U.S. Navy Base and Andersen Air Force Base, also in Guam. The work reduced operating costs by 40 percent.
Some of the services under the contract include logistics and property management, contract management, safety, engineering and manufacturing, site services and facility operations and maintenance.
Meanwhile, PAE continues to await a decision on another NASA contract to provide similar services at the Marshall Space Flight Center. PAE won the $453.5 million contract in February, but URS Federal Services and CH2M Hill filed protests with GAO.
The protests were dismissed in March when NASA pulled the contract back to re-evaluate bids as part of a corrective action.
So far, no new awards have been made.
PAE's NASA success stems from its 2013 acquisition of Applied Technology from Computer Sciences Corp., which brought the company more capabilities in base operations and maintenance, test and training range support and aviation maintenance.
They paid $175 million for the business, and now it has helped them win a $1.2 billion contract. Not a bad return.