By Emelie Rutherford
Navistar Defense LLC, one of the companies competing to build a new all-terrain Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (M-ATV), filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday regarding a “technicality” in the military’s evaluation process.
The Warrenville, Ill.-based company and the GAO confirmed the protest yesterday but provided limited details and would not say which action of the military was refuted in the ongoing M-ATV competition.
GAO spokesman Michael Golden said Navistar logged the protest on Monday and the Army Materiel Command is expected to respond on April 30. The GAO then must render a decision no later than July 8, he said.
“I can’t say much about it because it’s under protective order,” Golden said.
Navistar in a statement issued yesterday said it is “in discussions with the government over a technicality in the evaluation” of the M-ATV program.
“Obligated by regulations, Navistar was required to formalize its request for a review of the evaluation within a certain period of time,” it said.
Navistar president Archie Massicotte said in the statement the company is “dedicated to the warfighter and is in communication with all necessary parties to get the program back on track.”
The M-ATV program, aimed at building a lighter and more-maneuverable MRAP for use in Afghanistan, is steered by the Army and Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is the executive agent and contracting activity is handled by the Army.
Truck builders submitted written proposals and armor coupons for the vehicle competition in January, followed by production-representative vehicles in February.
According to solicitation documents, after those vehicles were delivered in February the military planned to award contracts in March to qualifying companies for two vehicles each. Then indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts would be placed with up to five companies this month, before production-delivery order awards to one or more companies at a later time, the documents state. Marine Corps Systems Command head Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said in February that he expected those production orders to be placed in June (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).