SAIC [SAI] said yesterday that it is protesting the Defense Department awarding a $4.6 billion Global Information Grid (GIG) contract to Lockheed Martin [LMT].

SAIC spokeswoman Melissa Koskovich said in an email the company filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Friday over the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) contract award. GAO yesterday confirmed the protest was filed.

SAIC was the incumbent for the GIG program.

“We feel our solution is the best value for the customer and we are proud of our performance history on this contract,” Koskovich said. “We have a strong and agile team, and because of our high technical readiness levels, we feel we are the best choice to ensure secure global communication and information-sharing by providing provisioning, net operations and assurance and network maintenance services on a worldwide basis, including support of the military’s Global Information Grid.”

The $4.6 billion deal is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a mix of firm-fixed-price, fixed-price with incentive, cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus and fixed-fee pricing plans. The contract is also to sustain the existing network and subsequent technology enhancement.

Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Suzanne Smith said yesterday in a statement the company looks forward to coordinating with DISA.

“The Defense Information Systems Agency conducted a highly competitive and comprehensive bidding process for this particular Global Systems Management Operations (GSM-O) contract. Lockheed Martin submitted an affordable and innovative solution. We regard this as an opportunity to coordinate with DISA to improve the speed and efficiency of information exchange between our joint warfighters around the world as well as their commanders and allies. We look forward to beginning work on this critical mission.”

The $4.6 billion award is the contract ceiling over a possible seven-year period and is good for a base period of three years, from July 9, 2012, through July 8, 2015. The deal also includes two two-year option periods (Defense Daily, June 21).

DISA said the Global Information Grid (GIG) is the “globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, associated processes and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information on demand to warfighters, policy makers and support personnel.”