L-3 Communications [LLL] Vertex Aerospace, having survived a bid protest, recently started work on an Air Force contract from June potentially worth $1.9 billion to provide contractor logistics support for the service’s fleet of KC-10s.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Sept. 22 denied a bid protest by AAR Defense Systems and Logistics. AAR argued that the Air Force failed to properly consider the company’s experience, asserting that the agency improperly evaluated the offerors’ proposals under various evaluation factors and failed to properly perform a cost/technical tradeoff.
GAO said the Air Force solicitation provided that tradeoffs would be made between technical risk, past performance and price and stated that technical risk was significantly more important than past performance. The Air Force also said that, combined, technical risk and past performance were approximately equal in importance to price. The Air Force rated both AAR and L-3 as acceptable for technical, low risk for technical risk and satisfactory for past performance. AAR’s price was roughly $112 million more than L-3’s winning bid of about $2 billion.
GAO said it found no basis to question the Air Force’s evaluation under the technical risk factor. AAR argued it was improper to assign a low risk rating to L-3’s proposal under the technical risk evaluation factor since L-3’s proposal included an evaluated weakness. The Air Force considered L-3’s proposed approach for establishing a reliability-centered maintenance program as a weakness because L-3 does not currently possess historical data. The Air Force, thus, concluded AAR’s proposal was “slightly superior.”
But GAO said the Air Force properly considered the nature of the evaluated weaknesses, L-3’s proposed approach to mitigating that weakness and the potential impact on contract performance to support its determination that the evaluated weakness was not a significant discriminator.
AAR also complained that the Air Force’s past performance evaluation of L-3’s proposal was flawed. AAR cited L-3’s alleged adverse past performance of depot maintenance of the service’s RC-135 fleet and work and major accounting irregularities on a C-12 Army contract. The Air Force said the RC-135 work was done by another L-3 division, L-3 Mission Integration, a division separate and apart from L-3’s Vertex Aerospace division.
GAO said the Air Force reviewed the contractor performance assessment reports (CPAR) for the C-12 contract and found they reflected satisfactory to exceptional performance for L-3 over the past three years. GAO also said it reviewed the evaluation record and found no basis to question the agency’s past performance evaluation.
GAO also ruled that AAR’s challenge to the Air Force’s cost/technical tradeoff was without merit. The agency ruled that the data and information collection benefits offered by AAR’s technical proposal were not worth AAR’s $112 million higher cost.
L-3 toppled incumbent Northrop Grumman [NOC] for the contract. Northrop Grumman had a six-plus year partnership with the Air Force to support global mission readiness for the KC-10 extender fleet. Four offers were submitted for the KC-10 CLS contract (Defense Daily, June 3).
Under the contract, L-3 will provide contractor operated and maintained base supply (COMBS), field service representative (FSR) and depot maintenance support for 59 KC-10s as well as COMBS and FSR support for the aerial refueling system of two Royal Netherlands Air Force KDC-10 aircraft, according to a L-3 statement.
An AAR spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment when asked if the company would pursue legal action with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. No filings were found Tuesday in a search of the federal government’s court repository. A L-3 spokesperson said Tuesday the company is just beginning the six-month transition of maintenance work from incumbent Northrop Grumman to L-3 employees. Many incumbent employees, the spokesperson said, are likely to join L-3 during this transition and they will continue supporting this fleet as L-3 employees after transitioning.
L-3 provides logistics support on numerous platforms, according to the L-3 spokesperson, including on the C-12, CH-47, T-1, T-6, T-45, TH-57, F-16, F-18 and KC-130J. Key subcontractors on L-3’s KC-10 contract include HAECO, Cobham, Triumph Group and Hawker Pacific.