BAE Systems, who led a team that lost a bid to Raytheon for the Navy’s Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) Technology Development contract earlier this month, has filed a formal protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the contract.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on July 8 awarded Raytheon a $279.4 million, 22-month technology development (TD) contract for NGJ, which is designed to replace the aging ALQ-99 jammer aboard the land- and carrier-based Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft. Raytheon beat out bids from BAE Systems and an ITT Exelis-Northrop Grumman team. More
“BAE Systems has filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office challenging the U.S. Navy’s decision to award the Next Generation Jammer Technology Development contract to Raytheon," BAE said in a statement to Avionics Magazine. "The solution we put forward would provide the U.S. Navy with an affordable and effective way to significantly enhance current capabilities and protect our aircraft, ships and armed forces. We protested the award based on concerns with the Navy’s evaluation of our offering."
The protest is not a surprise as BAE Systems indicated after the contract was awarded that it was "considering all of our options.”
"Raytheon is confident in the superior technical and programmatic design of its NGJ offering. The company remains ready to partner with the Navy to deliver this critical national security capability in a timely and cost efficient manner," Raytheon said in a statement.
All GAO protests must be resolved within 100 calendar days of when filed. In this case, BAE filed its initial protest on July 18. As a result, if the case goes forward to a decision on the merits, that decision must be issued not later than Oct. 28.
Northrop Grumman declined to comment on the protest.