Frequentis Defense Inc.

B-416970.2 Apr 04, 2019 Jump To FULL REPORT VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Frequentis Defense, Inc., protests the termination of its award and its subsequent exclusion from the competition under request for proposals (RFP) FA4452-18-R-0073, issued by the Department of the Air Force, for command post console systems. The protester alleges that the agency erred in concluding that the protester's proposal failed to meet a material requirement of the solicitation, or, in the alternative, that the solicitation contained a latent ambiguity. We deny the protest. We deny the protest. View Decision DOCUMENT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE The decision issued on the date below was subject to a GAO Protective Order. This version has been approved for public release. Decision Matter of:  Frequentis Defense Inc. File:  B-416970.2 Date:   April 4, 2019 Gregory Ewing, Esq., CKR Law, for the protester. Lori A. Lange, Esq., and Nick R. Hoogstraten, Esq., Peckar & Abramson, PC, for Harris Corporation, the intervenor. Alexis J. Bernstein, Esq., Joseph Loman, Esq., Heather M. Mandelkehr, Esq., Department of the Air Force, for the agency. Michael Willems, Esq., and Edward Goldstein, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST 1.  Protest that agency erred in terminating a contract award is denied where the agency reasonably concluded that the protester’s proposal did not meet a material requirement of the solicitation. 2.  Protest alleging that a solicitation contained a latent ambiguity is denied where the protester’s interpretation of the solicitation language is not reasonable and the alleged ambiguity was apparent from the solicitation. DECISION Frequentis Defense, Inc., protests the termination of its award and its subsequent exclusion from the competition under request for proposals (RFP) FA4452-18-R-0073, issued by the Department of the Air Force, for command post console systems.  The protester alleges that the agency erred in concluding that the protester’s proposal failed to meet a material requirement of the solicitation, or, in the alternative, that the solicitation contained a latent ambiguity.  We deny the protest. BACKGROUND On September 6, 2018, the agency published the RFP seeking to purchase new command post consoles at fourteen Air Force bases in the United States and Europe.  The RFP provided that a single award would be made on a lowest-priced, technically acceptable basis.  Memorandum of Law (MOL) at 1.  Among other technical requirements, the solicitation required that the contractor furnish and install new Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC)[1] certified communications consoles.  Agency Report (AR), Tab 8, RFP attach. 6 - Technical Requirements, at 1.  In addition to requiring JITC certification for the consoles themselves, the solicitation provided that the proposed command post console systems must be JITC certified.  Id.  Later in the same section, the solicitation provided other technical requirements for the console system, such as radio integration, uninterruptable power supplies, and a voice recording system.  Id.  Finally, under the heading “Certification Requirements,” the solicitation provided that all systems must be JITC certified, and be on the Department of Defense (DOD) information network Approved Products List (APL) in accordance with DOD Instruction 8100.04, “DOD Unified Capabilities (UC)” (Dec. 9, 2010), among other things.  Id. at 8. Following the initial publication of the RFP, offerors posed several questions concerning the scope of the JITC certification requirement.  See AR, Tab 10, Draft RFP Questions and Answers (Q&A), at 1, 13-14.  Specifically, one offeror asked whether the JITC approval “shall include an [assured services session initiation protocol] AS-SIP[2] connection with [multi-level precedence and preemption] MLPP[3] and the radio gateway capability of the [command post] [c]onsole system.”  Id.