Lockheed Martin Corp. has filed a complaint in Federal Claims Court over the U.S. Army's selection of Oshkosh Corp. to build 17,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.
The JLTV competitor from Grand Prairie, Texas originally filed a protest the $6.7 billion contract award with the Government Accountability Office in September.
Then in early December, Lockheed filed a "Notice of Post-Award Bid Protest" with Federal Claims Court, stating that Lockheed intended to file a formal complaint with the court in mid-December, according to the GAO.
That move prompted GAO officials to dismiss Lockheed's protest.
"Our Office will not decide a protest where the matter involved is the subject of litigation before a court of competent jurisdiction," according to a statement from Susan A. Poling, general counsel for GAO. "Based on Lockheed's submission of its Notice to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims stating its intent to file a protest with the Court involving the same subject matter as the protests pending before our office, we are closing our files without further action."
Lockheed officials filed the complaint on Dec. 16.
"After careful consideration of all options, Lockheed Martin decided to file a complaint with the Court of Federal Claims concerning our Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) contract award process," according to a statement from Lockheed Martin. "We look forward to working with all parties involved on the next steps."
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In an earlier statement, Lockheed officials said they "were made aware of a substantial number of documents directly related to the competition that were not provided to the GAO or Lockheed Martin until very late in the protest process."
"We believe this newly discovered information should have been considered by the GAO before issuing a ruling on the protest, however, GAO declined to grant an extension to the 100-day deadline and could not consider the new documents," according to the Lockheed statement.
The Army plans to buy about 49,000 JLTVs to replace about a third of the Humvee fleet.
Lockheed and Boeing Co., are involved in a joint protest with the GAO over the Air Force's decision to award Northrop Grumman Corp. a contract to build the Long Range Strike Bomber.
A team led by Northrop, maker of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and drone aircraft, beat out the Boeing-Lockheed team in October to win the $21.4 billion initial contract.
The next-generation bomber will be designed to fight through surface-to-air missiles, as well as electronic and information attack. It will also accommodate lasers and directed-energy systems, hypersonic missiles and other new and emerging technologies.
-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com
