General Dynamics [GD] has dropped its protest of the Army’s Acquisition plan for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), and plans to continue talking to the land service about its program concerns.
“We will continue to discuss the AMPV program with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Congress,” the company said in a late Monday statement. “We do not believe a GAO protest is the right forum for this issue and we will not file one.”
Additionally, the Army has adjusted its award plan for the engineering and manufacturing development portion of the work, initially scheduled for the first quarter of 2015 to the second quarter.
Photo: BAE Systems
The company had been considering its options–continuing its protest by filing with the General Accountability Office–after Army Materiel Command April 4 denied its protest of how the Army would replace the M113, a tracked vehicle no longer fitting current conditions in the strategic environment where the land force will operate in future.
General Dynamics has been discussing their concerns that the request for proposals (RFP) is “a competition in name only,” as an April 7 statement said (
The government determined the solicitation requirements “did not unfairly favor any competitor,” AMC said in a statement.
General Dynamics believed the RFP favored competitor BAE Systems, original equipment maker of the M113.
For its part, BAE said in an April 15 statement: “BAE Systems remains focused on delivering a low cost, low risk, highly survivable offering for AMPV that puts our troops’ safety first. We look forward to competing on the merits of our offering against the Army’s requirements.”
Lockheed Martin [LMT], another potential competitor, said it would not be bidding on the program. It has been tightly focused on the Joint LIght Tactical vehicle (JLTV) f or some time.