More protests hit $865M Air Force contract

Two more companies have joined General Dynamics with complaints about the Air Force’s award of a $865 million contract for technical support services.

GovernmentCIO won the contract known as Communications Technical Support Services V in February. GDIT is the incumbent and was the first out of the gate with a protest filed on March 11.

Agile Defense and Trace Systems have now added their protests to the mix.

CTSS V supports Central Command and 90,000 military and civilian personnel across 20 countries.

As we reported, GDIT complained that GovCIO gained an advantage because it hired a former Air Force official.

GDIT also alleged that evaluations, including pricing, was unreasonable and the best-value determination was flawed.

Agile Defense says that the Air Force ignored organizational conflicts of interest and didn’t reasonably evaluate GovCIO’s pricing. The company also believes its proposal should have been assigned more strengths.

Trace also argues that evaluations were unreasonable and that the cost realism determination was flawed.

The Government Accountability Office will rule by June 24 on the Agile Defense and Trace protests. GDIT’s decision is due June 20.

If GAO decides to combine all three into a single decision, the ruling will be made by June 20.

Protests are not new for CTSS. The Defense Information Systems Agency was its initial manager, but turned the contract back to the Air Force after complaints stymied DISA's efforts in 2022.