GD joins protests of Leidos DISA win
By
Nick Wakeman
General Dynamics has joined the fight against a Leidos win of a $100 million DISA contract for a tactical data system.
General Dynamics has joined the fray with its own protest against Leidos winning a $100 million DISA contract.
Leidos took the contract from incumbent Raytheon, which has supported the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System since at least 2009.
Raytheon has filed its own protest with the Government Accountability Office.
The contract is worth $98.1 million over five years. The data system provides automated fire support and coordination from the firing unit through the theater level. It is used by the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
DISA is looking for a contractor to modernize the system’s architecture and redesign the front end so it has a web and role based interface. The modernization also will integrate the system with the Army’s Common Operating Environment and embed training technologies.
GD Mission Systems filed its protest on Jan. 17. Raytheon’s first protest filing was on Jan. 11, and then a second filing was made Jan. 17 as well. A decision from GAO is expected by April 21.
The ultimate prime on this project will be expected to provide systems architecture design and analysis, software interface support, design and system engineering, and systems integration. DISA is looking to improve network connections so users can connect to the system via a web browser. For users in the field, with less reliable networks, the system will need to be hosted on a local end-user device.
The dollar value isn’t high, but it does have broad implications. Raytheon has sold similar systems to Australian and United Kingdom.
General Dynamics has tactical data systems as a line of business under its C4ISR unit. The Marine Air Ground Task Force is a primary customer.
For Leidos, integrated tactical systems are a line of business under the C4ISR segment of its national security solutions business. It isn’t clear to me if this is work it picked up from the acquisition of Lockheed Martin last year. The company hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
Either way, it looks like we being seeing at least Raytheon, Leidos and GD competing fiercely for these opportunities in the U.S. and globally. Every new contract is a chance to add another qualification for a future bid.