SAIC pushes back on lost $2.5B NASA IT contract
By
Nick Wakeman
Science Applications International Corp. isn't taking the loss of a $2.5 billion NASA IT and communications infrastructure contract lightly and is protesting the award of that work to Leidos.
Science Applications International Corp. isn't taking the loss of a $2.5 billion NASA IT and communications infrastructure contract lightly and is protesting the award of that work to Leidos.
SAIC has held the incumbent contract since it was part of "Old SAIC," before the 2013 split that created Leidos and today's version of SAIC.
The 10-year Advanced Enterprise Global Information Technology Solutions contract covers wide-area and local networks, cybersecurity, collaboration tools, emergency and early warning systems, telephony, cabling and radio systems.
When SAIC won the contract in 2011, it was known as NASA Integrated Communications Services or NICS.
In its protest, SAIC is arguing that the evaluation was not done properly. If it had, then SAIC would have retained the work.
A decision from the Government Accountability Office is expected by Oct. 14.
As I said when Leidos first won AEGIS, the contract is interesting for more reasons beyond its size and scope. AEGIS also illustrates both how much the market has changed, as has Leidos and SAIC since the split.