BAE Systems and its 3,000 employees in Sealy, TX received good news this week. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) declared the Army’s recent decision to manufacture the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) under a new contract with a Wisconsin-based manufacturer flawed based on disproportionately weighting price over other factors such as performance, expertise, and existing capacity. As one of the anchor original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the TMASC region, BAE Systems’ plant in Sealy helps strengthen supply chains and lower costs for complimentary manufacturing operations throughout Texas and Northeastern Mexico. The announcement from the GAO will lead to reconsideration of BAE’s proposal; from the Houston Chronicle:
The contract appeals division of Congress’ watchdog GAO set aside the Army’s decision to move a potential $3 billion, five-year contract for up to 23,000 trucks and trailers from the Sealy-based division of BAE Systems to Oshkosh Corp., a 92-year-old firm in Wisconsin that bid roughly 10 percent below BAE Systems.
Michael R. Golden, the GAO’s associate general counsel for procurement law, said his agency upheld protests lodged by Britain-based BAE Systems and Illinois-based Navistar Defense because “the Army’s evaluation was flawed with regard to the evaluation of Oshkosh’s proposal.” [...]
The GAO recommended that the Army re-evaluate proposals by the three rival bidders for tactical combat vehicles and “make a new selection decision.” [...]
The GAO decision is “potentially good news” for over 3,000 BAE Systems’ employees in Texas and Michigan who have built more than 56,000 (tactical) vehicles since 1992, said Bob Murphy, president of BAE Systems Land & Armaments group. “We look forward to working with the Army to agree (on) a way forward.”
Analysts weighed in on the GAO’s decision:
“This outcome is not surprising, because the Army conducted a superficial comparison of company capabilities to perform the contract,” Loren Thompson, an analyst at Lexington Institute, in Arlington, Virginia, said in a phone interview. The Army treated Oshkosh as if “it had in place the same skill, supplier relationships, tooling, design drawing that BAE already possessed,” Thompson said.
Although this is a positive development for BAE and the many people who work at the assembly plant in Sealy and supporting firms across the region, the GAO’s decision is by no means a guarantee that the Army will make a wise decision. From the San Antonio Express-News:
“While the ruling is welcome news, the process is still ongoing and the fight is not over,” cautioned Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, a member of the state’s 34-member House-Senate delegation that has been working to salvage the lost Army truck contract.
Learn more about BAE Systems’ objections to the FMTV contract process and recent developments at WeAreFMTV.com and defendtexasjobs.org.
[...] First, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently asked the U.S. Army to reexamine a contracting decision that improperly omitted performance and experience in evaluating manufacturers bidding for Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) production. This is an affirmation of the 17 years of expertise BAE Systems has producing the FMTV in Sealy, as well as a testament to the quality and diversity of vehicles produced within TMASC. We discuss the GAO decision in depth here. [...]