Protesting pays off for this small business

Protesting has paid off for a small business joint venture originally left off the list of winners for a $2.4 billion multiple-award contract to support the Army’s cyber range.

BKM IDS LLC is a mentor-protégé joint venture, whose bid was rejected by the Army for the small business portion of the National Cyber Range Complex contract to acquire event planning, operations and other support services.

The Army made 14 awards in July, after which BKM IDS protested to argue there were problems with the evaluation.

In September, the Army said it would take a second look at BKM IDS’ proposal and the protest was dismissed.

On Tuesday, the Defense Department announced BKM IDS would be added to the contract vehicle to make 15 overall awards so far.

Eight of the original 14 winners are small businesses, so BKM IDS becomes the ninth awardee in the set-aside category.

Awardees will compete with each other for task orders and some of those competitions will be reserved for small businesses.

The contract is divided into two categories. Category one is for re-engineering and creating realistic internet simulations along with identifying needed skill sets. The National Cyber Range is essentially a replica of the internet that is used to test tools and simulate attacks and responses to attacks.

Category two covers the infrastructure needed to maintain the range and develop training and evaluation events. That work includes maintaining data centers and networks.

Among the bidders on the contract's full-and-open portion, ManTech International’s bid was rejected and it filed a protest.

ManTech's protest was dismissed in September as well, so the Army could take a second look at the company's proposal.

But so far there is no clear sign of any movement on that front, whether that be an award or another rejection.

ManTech declined to comment.