Supercomputer battle continues between SAIC, Lockheed
By
Nick Wakeman
SAIC has won a $600 million supercomputing contract for the second time in two years, but it is again hit with a bid protest from incumbent Lockheed Martin, which is reluctant to give up work it has held for 13 years.
Science Applications International Corp. wrestled what could be a $600 million contract away from Lockheed Martin. The win is only another step in a continuing battle.
SAIC won an $84.7 million contract from the Army Corps of Engineers to provide management and technical support to the Corps' high performance computing efforts on June 13. The value of the contract is for one year – through June 2017 - but options put the value closer to $600 million, according to Deltek.
But this is the second time SAIC has won the contract, known as the High Performance Computing Next General Technical Services, or HITS contract. The company first won in 2014.
At that time, two companies, Raytheon and Analytical Services filed protests, which led the Corps to pull back the awards. Lockheed didn’t file a protest, but now has since SAIC has won the contract a second time.
Counting SAIC, there were three bidders this time around. We know from its protest that Lockheed Martin was one. So, either Raytheon or Analytical Services were disappointed a second time. We track the GAO docket to see if another protest is filed.
The contract supports efforts at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Stennis Space Center.
The work supports modernization of the high performance computing efforts including shared resources centers, networking and software applications support. Work includes requirements analysis, systems performance analysis, business management support, outreach and security.
Requirements also can change depending on the site on where the work is being performed.
The high performance computing centers do work such as simulating battlefields to evaluate weapons and sensor systems, modeling work to help detect enemy submarines and work on fluid dynamics, astrophysics, structural mechanics and signal and image processing.
Lockheed has done this work for 13 years.
The company filed its protest with the Government Accountability Office on June 20. A decision is expected by Sept. 28,
The protests after the 2014 award to SAIC centered on whether SAIC was eligible to bid. The Corps pulled back the award to consider that question, and with the second award to SAIC, the Corps obviously decided the company was eligible.