General Dynamics' $11B DOD 'Fourth Estate' IT protest denied
Gerry Fasano is group president of Leidos' defense business. Courtesy of Leidos
By
Ross Wilkers
Barring more action, this lets Leidos proceed on its work for the 10-year Defense Enclave Services award and consolidate IT systems for 22 DOD agencies.
General Dynamics has lost its protest for at least a second chance at a potential $11.5 billion IT services contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency won by Leidos.
The Government Accountability Office denied General Dynamics IT's challenge on Wednesday in a ruling that will be sealed until attorneys representing the companies and DISA agree on what will go in the publicly available decision.
Leidos won the potential 10-year Defense Enclave Services contract in February. General Dynamics IT filed its protest to GAO the following month.
Barring more action by GDIT, Leidos can now proceed on the massive undertaking to consolidate IT systems across the Defense Department’s “Fourth Estate” administrative and support agencies. Those 22 agencies are outside of the combat service branches.
"Our robust and continuous preparation has positioned us to start delivering benefits to the user base on or ahead of current planned schedule, and we look forward to leveraging our decades of technological expertise to support mission success," Leidos' defense group president Gerry Fasano said in a statement sent via a spokesman.
General Dynamics IT has the option of taking its protest to the Court of Federal Claims, which has more authority than GAO to enforce bid protest rulings. A GDIT spokesman declined our request comment.
DISA's Enclave competition is only the latest in the series of such between both companies for single-award, multibillion-dollar IT contracts.
GDIT fended off Leidos earlier this year for a $4.5 billion end-user IT contract at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, while the roles were reversed for the Navy's $7.7 billion NGEN network services award finalized last year.