More protest troubles for $141M F-35 contract
By
Nick Wakeman
The losing bidders on a $141 million contract to provide knowledge-based services to the Navy's F-35 program office seem to be taking turns protesting the award, which was given to Booz Allen.
There seem to be alternating bid protests going on involving a $141.1 million contract to provide support to the Navy’s F-35 program office.
Booz Allen Hamilton won the contract, wresting it away from the incumbents – Wyle Inc. and Alion Science and Technology. A third incumbent, Engility, was part of Wyle’s team.
The contract was awarded by the Navy under its SeaPort-e program, and supports the Navy, Air Force, Marines and several foreign nations that buy the F-35 fighter made by Lockheed Martin.
The Government Accountability Office has already rejected Wyle’s protest. The company claimed that the Navy didn’t properly evaluate the proposals.
Now, it is Alion's turn.
The company’s first protest was dismissed in June when the agency took a corrective action. But the result of that corrective action still meant that Booz Allen was the pick to provide engineering knowledge-based services to the program office.
So now Alion has filed a second protest.
Generally, GAO bundles protests involving the same contract into a single item, but Alion and Wyle must be raising different issues in their protests. If GAO ultimately rules in Alion’s favor, it isn’t likely to bring any relief to Wyle. But you never know. Will we see another round?
Alion filed its protest on July 13. A decision is due Oct. 21.