By Ann Roosevelt
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday denied protests by Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] and Textron [TXT] of the Army awards of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program technology demonstration contracts and the government has lifted stop work orders.
Northrop Grumman lodged the first protest Nov. 7, and Textron filed a protest Nov. 12 after the Army awarded three companies JLTV awards: BAE Systems, General Tactical Vehicles, a joint venture ofGeneral Dynamics [GD] and AM General, and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
The three contracts totaled about $166 million.
The Army said the GAO decision validated the service’s contracting process.
In a statement, Northrop Grumman said, “We are extremely disappointed. Northrop Grumman feels it offered an alternative to conventional JLTV approaches and believes its proposal was a better value to both the warfighter and the taxpayer. The report remains under protective order and is not yet releasable to the public. At this time, we do not have and cannot share additional details about the GAO’s decision.”
The winning teams naturally supported the GAO verdict.
“Lockheed Martin is pleased that the GAO has upheld the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps decision to award our team the JLTV technology development contract,” said Jeff Brown, a company spokesman.
“The GTV team looks forward to getting back to work to help our military forces equip their Soldiers and Marines with the finest JLTV family of vehicles, Karl Oskoian, a GTV spokesman, told Defense Daily. “The GTV team of GDLS and AM General are ready to apply innovative technologies, plus our combined 120 years of experience in tactical and combat vehicles, to produce a highly capable, flexible and affordable JLTV family of vehicles.”
“The BAE Systems-Navistar team is pleased with the GAO decision. We’re excited to resume our work with the government on the Valanx very soon,” the company said in a statement.
JLTV is a joint Army/Marine Corps program with the Army designated as the lead service. Though procurement is several years away, the total requirement could be for more than 140,000 vehicles.
“The joint protection requirements found within JLTV are designed to better meet our warfighter’s current and future survivability needs–all packaged in a mobile, transportable, supportable, and expeditionary solution,” said Mr. Kevin Fahey, they Army’s Program Executive Officer Combat Support & Combat Service Support (PEO CS & CSS).
“JLTV performance and reliability testing, along with assessments from joint warfighters, will help reduce technical risks and validate design and cost estimates for long-term military modernization objectives,” said Col. John Myers, Project Manager for Joint Combat Support Systems.
The Request for Proposals was released in February 2008 to develop a JLTV Family of Vehicles (FoV). The JLTV FoV, and companion trailers, must be able to perform multiple mission roles and are designed to provide protected, sustained, networked mobility for personnel and payloads across the full Range of Military Operations (ROMO) (Defense Daily, March 18).
The JLTV program is one of the first to fully implement the Office of the Secretary policy calling for competitive prototyping by competing teams to reduce risk and synchronize requirements.
During the 27-month technology demonstration phase, armor, ballistic hulls, vehicles and trailers will be tested for performance and reliability to include assessments from joint warfighters.
The services have also entered into initial discussions on the program with Australia, the United Kingdom, and other NATO and non-NATO countries per guidance from the Defense Acquisition Executive.
Once the technology development phase is complete, the services currently expect to hold another full and open competition and award two contracts for further development and demonstration, with Milestone C decision in Fiscal Year 2013 and full production and fielding anticipated in 2015.