Military contractor L-3 Communications filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office against the Army over the loss of a bid for a $4.65 billion contract, the watchdog agency told the Associated Press Thursday.
The company filed the protest on Friday with the GAO after announcing last week it had lost a five-year contract to provide linguistics services and translators to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The pact went to Global Linguistics Solutions, a joint venture formed by DynCorp International and McNeil Technologies.
Six representatives from the company were debriefed by the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, INSCOM, last Wednesday, according to Mary Ann Hodges, a spokeswoman for the Army.
The company had five days after the briefing to file a protest, said Michael Golden, a GAO spokesman. An L-3 spokeswoman confirmed the company filed the protest, but declined further comment.
L-3 was widely expected to receive the multiyear deal as the incumbent contractor. The current pact runs through March, but analysts speculate a protest could extend its life to perhaps as late as June. L-3 inherited the contract when it bought Titan Corp. in 2005.
The department also awarded a contract worth up to $730 million to Thomas Computer Solutions to provide translators and linguists in Afghanistan and a contract worth up to $66 million to Calnet to provide similar services at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.