GDIT's protest partially dismissed in $865M Air Force contract dispute

General Dynamics IT may have lost its latest protest involving a $865 million Air Force contract, but is not out of the game yet.

Back in February, the service branch awarded the seven-year contract to GovCIO for technical support to aid in Air Force Central Command’s communications functions.

GDIT and a pair of companies quickly filed protests regarding the Communications Technical Support Services V contract.

In April, the Air Force took a corrective action to address how pricing was evaluated and the cost realism determination. The Government Accountability Office subsequently dismissed the protests.

But the corrective action was not enough for GDIT, which filed another protest to challenge the corrective action and seek an entire re-evaluation of proposals..

GDIT claimed that the pricing and cost determinations that the Air Force said it was going to do did not follow the solicitation. GDIT also argued that the Air Force treated it and GovCIO differently.

But in a ruling unsealed Wednesday, GAO dismissed most of GDIT’s complaints as premature. GAO denied the company’s complaint that the Air Force’s plans for a cost realism analysis were flawed.

The dismissed complaints could come back if the Air Force again awards the contract to GovCIO.

But for now, GAO has told GDIT that its complaints about how the Air Force will evaluate pricing are speculative because the corrective action is still underway. That means GDIT must wait.

The CTSS V contract has a long history of troubles, dating back to at least 2021 when the Defense Information Systems Agency tried to field the contract for the Air Force. After several protests, DISA turned the contract back to the Air Force.

In March 2023, the Air Force kicked off the latest competition.

The contract supports the communications needs of the Air Force Central Command, which oversees operations in the Southwest Asia region.

CTSS manages the communications infrastructure used by 90,000 Air Force and civilian personnel. The contract covers integration, installation, operations and maintenance and sustainment work.