The Navy has halted work on its next generation intranet pending the outcome of contract award protests by CSC Corp. [CSC] and Harris Corp. [HRS] and said it has not determined how challenges will impact the timeframe for transitioning to the new system.
The Navy on June 27 awarded a $3.5 billion contract for the Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) to Hewlett-Packard [HP], the incumbent firm currently operating the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).
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| Photo by U.S. Navy |
Harris and CSC, which partnered on the NGEN proposals, on Monday filed the protests with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a move that typically requires the government to issue a stop-work order. The GAO says it is due to rule on the protests by Oct. 23.
The suspension could affect the Navy’s goal of transitioning to NGEN in about a year, but a spokesman said it is too early to measure any impact on the timing.
“In accordance with the applicable regulations, the contracting officer has suspended performance under the NGEN contract pending resolution of the protest,” said Ed Austin, spokesman at the program executive office for enterprise information systems.
“The impact on the transition will not be known until the GAO issues its decision regarding both protests,” he added.
Austin noted that NMCI will continue to operate normally under a continuity of services contract currently in place with HP until the NGEN transition is complete.
NGEN is meant to provide secure, net-centric data and services to 800,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel and connects to 400,000 workstations.
The initial award to HP was $320 million but options over the next five years could raise the contract’s value to $3.5 billion.
NGEN has experienced several delays throughout its development. At the time of the award the Navy said the transition from NMCI to NGEN would be months later than the planned April 2014 timeframe.
NMCI is largest intranet in the U.S. government and began in 2000 under a contract with Electronic Data Systems, which HP acquired in 2008.
Also on the Harris-CSC team are General Dynamics [GD] and Verizon Communications [VZ]. HP group includes Northrop Grumman [NOC], IBM [IBM], AT&T [T] and Lockheed Martin [LMT].
Harris is currently a subcontractor on NMCI.