The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied two protests on the $387 million Army contract for training support at Fort Rucker, Ala.
Both DynCorp International LLC and L-3 [LLL] Army Sustainment LLC protested the contract award to M1 Support Services, which was announced in September.
L-3 had been the incumbent contractor for more than a decade, having delivered services at Fort Rucker since 2003. That was its largest Army contract.
“We are convinced our proposal represents the best value to both the military and the U.S. taxpayers,” Christopher E. Kubasik, L3’s president and chief operating officer, said following the loss. “We look forward to the GAO’s review.”
According to GAO documents, L-3 protested “virtually every aspect of the agency’s source selection process, including challenges to the evaluation of technical proposals, the evaluation of past performance, the evaluation of cost/price, and the adequacy of discussions.”
DynCorp protested “various aspects of the agency’s source selection process, including challenges to the agency’s evaluation of technical proposals, the agency’s evaluation of past performance, and the agency’s consideration of the awardee’s experience,” according to GAO documents.
In September, L-3 expected its Vertex Aerospace business to take $178 million charge against its earnings in the third quarter of 2017. The following month, the company announced at its earning call it would shed the business, regardless of the outcome of the protest.
Vertex lost three major contracts in 2017: a fixed-wing aircraft support contract for which it was the incumbent, a challenge to incumbent Lockheed Martin [LMT] to support U.S. Special Operations command, and the Fort Rucker contract.
Sale of Vertex was expected within a year.
The support contract at Fort Rucker is a “hybrid contract” that includes cost, cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price-award-fee and fixed-price-incentives for maintenance services. Deliverables support Army entry level and advanced, as well as Air Force advanced rotary aviation training at Fort Rucker. The work is estimated to be completed in September 2027.
M1 is a privately held aviation training and support provider. It is based in Denton, Texas.