The Army last week re-opened a competition to operate and maintain the Radford Army Ammunition Plant that Britain’s BAE Systems had won this spring from incumbent contractor Alliant Techsystems [ATK].
BAE in May won the potential $850 million contract to manage, operate, and maintain the Virginia-based facility (Defense Daily, May 16). The contract was for 10 years and contained options to extend BAE’s role for up to 15 years more.
A week after the award, ATK protested. That protest was dismissed last Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office after the Army said it has decided to re-evaluate contractor proposals in light of its review of ATK’s protest claims.
The Army “will make an award decision based on the results of this re-evaluation,” the Army said in an email response to query by Defense Daily.
BAE is confident that it will ultimately win the Radford contract again.
“The Army has indicated that it intends to take corrective action and amend certain portions of the solicitation request,” BAE said in a statement provided to Defense Daily on Friday. “We are confident that our revised proposal will again provide the U.S. government the best value.”
ATK said it “is pleased” with the Army’s decision to amend the Request for Proposals and to request revised proposals. “We look forward to providing a revised proposal and continuing our long-standing history of excellence operating the Radford facility,” the company said in a statement.
Radford is a government-owned, contractor operated facility that primarily manufactures energetic nitro-cellulose and gun and rocket propellant grains.
The Army declined to provide additional details on upcoming milestones for the revised proposals and a new award.