Lockheed Martin [LMT] has dropped its protest of the Navy’s awarding of the contract for the new Air Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) to Raytheon [RTN], allowing the service to resume work on the program that had been halted while the protest was under review at the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Lockheed Martin lodged the protest in October, days after Raytheon had won the lucrative contract to build the massive radar slated for installation on the Navy’s next version of the
Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class of destroyers. AMDR is intended to detect in-theatre threats as was as ballistic missile threats and help guide interceptors to the target.
“Lockheed Martin protested the Navy’s award of the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) contract because we believed the merits of our offering were not properly considered during the evaluation process,” spokesman Keith Little said Friday. “While we believe that we put forward an industry-leading solution, after receiving additional information we have determined it’s in the best interest of the Navy and Lockheed Martin to withdraw our protest.”
Little would not say if the information received by Lockheed Martin satisfied the company’s concerns about whether its proposal had been properly evaluated.
The Navy on Oct. 10 awarded the $156. 9 million contract to Raytheon for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. The contract contains options that could reach a value of $1.6 billion dollars. The Navy and Raytheon said they are ready to resume work on the program following the lifting of the protest, which required the issuing of a stop-work order until the matter was resolved.
“We are ready to move forward with the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR),” said Cmdr. Thurraya Kent, a Navy spokeswoman. “We look forward to continuing our work with industry to bring this much-needed next generation capability to the warfighter. The Navy intends to rescind the stop work order by the end of this week and at this time, there is no immediate impact on the delivery date or schedule.”
The Navy plans to first install AMDR on a new Block III version of a DDG-51 guided missile destroyer in 2016.
“The Raytheon team and plans are in place, ready to move forward on the program,” company spokeswoman Carolyn Beaudry said. “Our focus is now dedicated to delivering this critical AMDR capability to the Navy.”
AMDR will replace the Lockheed Martin AN/SPY-1 on the future destroyers. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) plans to issue an engineering change proposal to shipbuilder General Dynamics [GD] and Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] to accommodate the larger radar that will require more space, power and cooling capacity.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] also lost the fierce competition for AMDR but did not file a protest.