B-311004; B-311004.2, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., March 28, 2008

B-311004; B-311004.2, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., March 28, 2008 TITLE: B-311004; B-311004.2, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., March 28, 2008 BNUMBER: B-311004; B-311004.2 DATE: March 28, 2008 ******************************************************************************** B-311004; B-311004.2, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., March 28, 2008 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: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. File: B-311004; B-311004.2 Date: March 28, 2008 John S. Pachter, Esq., Jonathan D. Shaffer, Esq., Mary Pat Gregory, Esq., Le'Ontra B. Greenspan, Esq., and Kathryn T. Muldoon, Esq., Smith, Pachter, McWhorter, for the protester. Richard Sauber, Esq., Donald J. Russell, Esq., and Michael L. Waldman, Esq., Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber, for Northrop Grumman Corporation, the intervenor. Maj. Walter R. Dukes, Kim Sawicki, Esq., John J. Reynolds, Esq., and James F. Ford, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. David A. Ashen, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest against exclusion of protester's proposal from competitive range (leaving only one proposal in the range) in procurement for airborne radar is denied where agency reasonably determined that (1) protester's proposal failed to satisfy solicitation requirement to substantiate compliance with specifications and/or took exception to required levels of performance, and (2) some of the deficiencies resulted from fundamental limitations on performance of protester's proposed radar system, or otherwise would require a major rewrite to correct. DECISION General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA) protests the exclusion of its proposal from the competitive range under request for proposals (RFP) No. W15P7T-07-R-P406, issued by the U.S. Army Communication-Electronics Command (CECOM), for production of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)/Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) system. GA primarily asserts that the determination to exclude its proposal from the competitive range failed to reasonably account for the performance of its proposed SAR/GMTI system in the flight test conducted as part of the evaluation. We deny the protest. BACKGROUND The SAR/GMTI system is a lightweight, high performance, all-weather, multi-function radar system intended for use both on the Extended Range/Multi-Purpose Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and the Future Combat Systems Class IV Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV). The SAR/GMTI system will provide a battlefield commander with increased situational awareness by imaging stationary targets with the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and detecting (ascertaining location, direction and velocity of) moving targets with the Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI), even in adverse weather and through battlefield obscurants (eg., smoke or dust). A prior contract for system development and demonstration (SDD) of the SAR/GMTI system, covering the design, fabrication, integration and test of six articles (later increased to eight funded articles), was awarded to GA on November 20, 2004. Although the original SDD schedule provided for delivery of the test units 18 months after award, there has been a significant delay in delivery. During two independent operational tests of the SDD conducted by the Army Technical and Evaluation Command, the GMTI mode of GA's system was found noncompliant with the test specifications. While a new schedule was established under which eight systems were to be accepted by March 2008, as of that time, only three systems had been accepted, and these only through a waiver of some specifications. Contracting Officer's Statement at 2; Hearing Transcript (Tr.) at I/177-I/190.[1] The solicitation here, issued on August 10, 2007, contemplated award of a contract for an initial production quantity of 10 to 15 systems compliant with the SAR/GMTI Performance Based Specification (PBS), dated August 2, 2007, with four 1-year production options for up to 35 systems each, and two payload performance enhancement options. The solicitation divided the performance requirements for the SAR/GMTI as set forth in the PBS into three categories: Band A "[m}andatory critical system performance requirements that must be met"; Band B "[s]ystem performance capabilities with levels of performance that are Highly Desired"; and Band C "[s]ystem performance capabilities with levels of performance that are Desired." RFP sect.