Incumbent battles for lost $400M Army contract
By
Nick Wakeman
At least one incumbent isn't willing to give up the fight for a $400 million contract to provide logistics support to the Army in southwest Asia.
A large contract to support Army operations in southwest Asia continues to draw protesters.
The $400 million logistics contract is a task order under the Army’s Eagle contract and supports operations out of Kuwait and Qatar. It consolidates several other contracts into a single award.
The consolidation means that several incumbents are being left out in the cold now that URS Federal has won the contract.
Vectrus Systems, which held two of the incumbent contracts, filed a protest this week. A decision is expected Dec. 22.
Earlier this year, two other companies – Honeywell (an incumbent) and a joint venture formed by Fluor and ManTech – filed protests shortly after the solicitation was released in January. Those protests were dismissed after the Army took corrective action.
The contract covers a wide-range of logistics services such as maintenance of tactical equipment, transportation, supply operations, ammunition supply and management operations. The work will be done at various locations in Kuwait and Qatar.
It is no surprise that such a contract will be hotly contested, especially when you consider that the U.S. draw down in recent years has tightened the market place. At the same time, the region continues to be of great strategic importance to the United States.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more protests at GAO in the coming days.
The contract has a one-year base and three one-year options. If all options are exercised, the contract has a value of $393 million.
While the protest is pending, the Army will continue to use the incumbent contracts.