B-299014; B-299014.2, L-3 Communications Corporation, January 16, 2007

B-299014; B-299014.2, L-3 Communications Corporation, January 16, 2007 TITLE: B-299014; B-299014.2, L-3 Communications Corporation, January 16, 2007 BNUMBER: B-299014; B-299014.2 DATE: January 16, 2007 ********************************************************************** B-299014; B-299014.2, L-3 Communications Corporation, January 16, 2007 DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This redacted version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of: L-3 Communications Corporation File: B-299014; B-299014.2 Date: January 16, 2007 Michael A. Hordell, Esq., Charles H. Carpenter, Esq., Sean P. Bamford, Esq., and Heather Kilgore Weiner, Esq., Pepper Hamilton LLP, for the protester. Michael F. Mason, Esq., Thomas L. McGovern, III, Esq., and Michael D. McGill, Esq., Hogan & Hartson LLP, for the intervenor. Sherry Kinland Kaswell, Esq., Department of Interior, for the agency. Guy R. Pietrovito, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST In a negotiated procurement that provides for award on the basis of a cost/technical tradeoff, protest that an agency unreasonably downgraded the protester's offer to exceed the technical requirements is denied, where, in accordance with the stated evaluation scheme, the agency credited the protester's offer to exceed the requirements but concluded that the risks associated with the protester's offer did not outweigh its slight price advantage. DECISION L-3 Communications Corporation protests the award of a contract to Lockheed Martin Services, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. 1406-04-06-RP-60246, issued by GovWorks, a Department of Interior federal acquisition center, for Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) Training and Rehearsal System (TRS) engineering design and support for the Department of the Air Force.[1] L-3 challenges the agency's evaluation of its proposal and source selection decision. We deny the protest. The RFP, issued December 12, 2005, sought proposals for an "exemplar Joint Terminal Attack Controller Virtual Trainer (JTAC VT) Dome, as well as a prototype and/or enhanced interim training capability for a JTAC TRS Deployable/Garrison System, 2^nd Generation JTAC training and rehearsal simulation environment." RFP, Statement of Work (SOW), at 1. This training system is intended to "emulate a tactical combat environment" for ground-based joint terminal attack controllers.[2] Agency Report (AR), Tab 2, Acquisition Plan, at 1. The dome provides the JTAC immersive environment, in which visual images are projected. RFP, SOW, at 1. The Air Force currently has a JTAC VT dome located at the agency's Mesa Research Site; this trainer was provided by L-3 under an earlier contract.[3] Protest at 5. Only Lockheed Martin and L-3 submitted proposals; both firms offered replicas of the JTAC VT, having the same configuration as the Air Force's current system located at the Mesa Research Site. Protest at 5. Award was made to Lockheed Martin on March 22, 2005, and L-3 filed an agency-level protest, which was denied. L-3 then filed a bid protest with the United States Court of Federal Claims. In response to that protest, the agency terminated Lockheed Martin's contract for the convenience of the government, revised the RFP, and requested revised proposals. As revised, the RFP requested fixed-price, labor hour, and cost reimbursement proposals under a number of contract line items (CLIN) for a 1-year contract. CLIN 1, which was identified as the basic requirement, was for the provision, on a fixed-price basis, of an "AGOS [Air Ground Operations School] Dome with the hardware and software capability that will meet or exceed the hardware and software capabilities of [the] Mesa Research Site's (MRS) JTAC TRS," and for the installation of this dome at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada.[4] AR, Tab 9, Amended SOW, June 13, 2006, at 1-2. CLINs 2 through 4, which were identified as option requirements, provided for the performance of various tasks under fixed-labor-rate proposals. CLIN 2 was for "a proof of concept Interim JTAC TRS capability at a deployed or garrison location." As part of this effort, the contractor would provide integrated software, hardware, and systems engineering expertise to design technologies for scaling down and integrating current JTAC TRS software to be transitioned to an interim training system for JTACs at a deployed or garrison location. Id. at 3. CLINs 5 and 6 were identified as cost reimbursement items with identified cost ceilings for travel and materials. Id.