Navistar withdraws protest against JLTV decision; BAE will not file............One of three losing defense contractors that designed their Joint Light Tactical Vehicle offering in metro Detroit briefly protested the awards(subscriber-only content) of $187 million to three competitors, but then withdrew its protest today.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120904/FREE/120909983
Navistar Defense, a business unit of Warrenville, Ill.-based Navistar International Corp. with extensive engineering operations in Madison Heights, filed a bid protest late Friday before the U.S. Government Accountability Office of the Aug. 22 contract awards on JLTV by the U.S. Army Tacom Life Cycle Management Command in Warren.
Fellow losing bidder BAE Systems Inc., which led an industry team that proposed The Valanx armored vehicle through its Sterling Heights offices for the JLTV program, also decided late Tuesday it would not protest the Army's decision.
Tacom awarded $66.3 million to Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp.; $64.5 million to Indiana-based AM General LLC; and $56.4 million to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp. for the second phase of development on the JLTV, which enters production in 2015.
AM General expects to divide its development work on JLTV between Indiana and an engineering center in Livonia, while work on the other two contracts will be largely sourced in Wisconsin and Texas.
"Following our (industry) debrief with the government (on JLTV, last Thursday), the company had concerns regarding the selection process, and we had limited time to submit our filing," Navistar communications manager Elissa Koc said in a statement Tuesday. "(But) today, Navistar decided to withdraw its protest."
Navistar, which designed the Saratoga at its Madison Heights engineering and program management offices and uses Troy-based AxleTech International LLC as a component supplier, lost out on JLTV along withBAE Systems Inc. and General Tactical Systems, a joint venture of Sterling Heights-based General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General. Navistar does not plan to resubmit a protest later, Koc said.
All three contractors attended an Army debriefing last week about the contract awards, often a precursor to filing a formal bid protest to the Government Accountability Office. BAE, which had said earlier in the day it was still reviewing its options, decided later in the day it would accept the Army's decision.
“While we are disappointed that the U.S. Army has bypassed our JLTV offering for the EMD phase, we respect their decision and will not contest it," BAE said in a statement Tuesday. "BAE Systems is proud to be part of the industry team led by Lockheed Martin, and will continue to support the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and the men and women in uniform as a member of the Lockheed Martin JLTV team and through our many other military programs.”
A separate division of BAE based in Texas is collaborating with Lockheed on its bid, after BAE acquired one of Lockheed's previous project collaborators on JLTV a few years ago.
Executives at General Dynamics Land Systems are still reviewing the details of the contract award and have yet to decide on a bid protest, Communications Director Marie Remboulis said today.
The Army typically issues a stop-work order on any contract under a pending bid protest, but it was not immediately clear whether the short-lived Navistar protest disrupted any contracting work over the holiday weekend.