Leidos challenges $572M NORAD contract that went to Amentum
A military bus exits the Cheyenne Mountain Complex headquarters for NORAD in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Gettyimages.com/Robert Nickelsberg / Contributor
By
Nick Wakeman
Leidos is arguing that Space Force failed to consider price and did not treat bidders equally in the competition.
Leidos is challenging a $572 million award that went to Amentum to support Space Force’s operations at Cheyenne Mountain for a seven-year period.
Amentum is the incumbent on the work thanks to its 2024 merger with of Jacobs' federal services businesses. Jacobs won the contract in 2020 when it was competed under the OASIS vehicle.
Space Force awarded the recompete as an Alliant 2 task order in September to Amentum. This is the third iteration of the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex Integrated Space Support Contract, or NISSC III.
Leidos argues that Space Force didn’t consider price when selecting the winner through a best-value award decision. The company is claiming that the government made unsupported assumptions about proposal revisions.
Other challenges include unequal discussions and disparate treatment as well as how Space Force evaluated Amentum’s incumbent past performance.
The Government Accountability Office expects to rule on the protest by Jan. 29.
Work under the contract includes system administration, vulnerability management, organizational-level maintenance and test support for the system that tracks adversaries’ launches and attacks. Space Force uses the information to issue warnings to military leaders.