GAO denies Oshkosh's protest over $9.7 billion JLTV contract
WASHINGTON — The Army has been cleared to proceed with its new $9.7 billion Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) production deal with AM General, after the Government Accountability Office announced today it is denying incumbent Oshkosh Defense’s protest.
“In denying the protest, GAO concluded that the Army reasonably evaluated proposals in accordance with the [request for proposal’s] evaluation criteria, and that any judgments made were consistent with and adequately supported by the content provided in written proposals or observed as part of site visits conducting during the course of the solicitation process,” GAO attorney Edward Goldstein said in a statement.
Although the GAO will not publicly release its final report until both companies and the service scrub proprietary and sensitive source selection information from it, Goldstein provided some additional details about the protest. In addition to protesting the Army’s evaluation of both technical proposals, he said Oshkosh disputed the agency’s evaluation of AM General’s price and cost proposal, argued that the service “unreasonably and unequally” conducted discussions, and more.
“GAO also concluded that the Army reasonably and equally conducted discussions because the agency identified proposal aspects requiring revision, and did not engage in conduct that favored AM [General] over Oshkosh,” Goldstein added.
In a brief statement to Breaking Defense, an Oshkosh spokeswoman said the company is “disappointed with the decision and we firmly believe our proposal was the lowest risk, best value solution for the young men and women serving our nation.” However, she did not disclose if the company will file a lawsuit to block the program from moving forward.
Today’s announcement stems from the Army’s February decision to select AM General’s JLTV production bid over Oshkosh, which was the incumbent producer after winning a separate bid back in 2015. Under that initial deal, the government got the rights to the JLTV technical data package, meaning it could recompete the contract to find a team that could produce the vehicles at a reduced cost.
After AM General’s February win, Michael Sprang, the project manager with the Joint Program Office Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, told Breaking Defense the “Army succeeded in obtaining a lower cost than the independent government cost estimate through the recompete” but said he cannot divulge price point details due to a potential protest.
Meanwhile, Oshkosh was not satisfied with the Army’s explanations during its post-award debriefing. The company said it had “significant concerns” about how the competing bids were evaluated and lodged a formal protest with the GAO.
While such protests often lead to a “stop work” order, or program pause, while GAO investigates, Oshkosh filed its initial protest with the office on March 6, or almost four weeks after the contract award, which is a bit later than the typical window. As a result, the service opted not to halt AM General’s production work, and on May 24 it formally placed the $4.6 billion JLTV A2 order with AM General to cover work through February 2028.
“Oshkosh Defense did not file a timely protest to issue a mandatory stay,” Sprang explained.
“As such, the Joint Program Office was able to make a risk-based choice to continue or not,” he later added. “With the approval of the Program Executive Officer and the Army acquisition executive, it was decided to continue working with AM General.”
Like Oshkosh’s JLTV A1, the government owns the A2 technical data package, which means the service could again recompete production once that five-year deal expires.
In late February, John Chadbourne, AM General’s executive vice president for business development and government affairs, walked Breaking Defense through some of the changes between the two versions that he says look identical in outer appearance. The future A2, he said, includes an updated powertrain, “improved” routings for reliability and maintainability, new baseline integration kit designed to provide more cargo storage space, upgraded alternator, design changes to reduce vehicle noise, increased fuel efficiency, and more.
As for the path ahead for standing up that production line, AM General’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Cannon said in February the company wasn’t wasting time and was already expanding its Mishawaka Manufacturing Campus in Indiana.
“We leaned forward in the saddle through this whole process to get all the planning, permitting… stuff out of the way before an announcement was ever made,” Cannon said. “So, when the announcement came, literally the next day, we’re breaking ground.”
Now that the GAO’s decision is in and the way has been cleared to proceed, the JLTV A2 production facility should be completed around the August 2023 timeframe and will be near the company’s Humvee production line on the same campus. Then, the first JLTV A2 test vehicles are expected to roll off the production line, or around July 2024.
Source: Breaking Defense
