Next-Gen Jammer: Watchdog Agency Sides With BAE Systems, Tells Navy To Take Another Look (From Forbes)

The Government Accountability Office yesterday handed BAE Systems a partial victory in its protest of a Navy contract award to Raytheon for development of the Next Generation Jammer. BAE and Northrop Grumman headed the two industry teams that lost when the Navy awarded Raytheon the jammer contract, but now the watchdog agency says that the service wrongly assessed technical risks associated with the contending proposals, gave Raytheon too much credit for past experience, and failed to adequately document its selection process. Since the GAO decision bears solely upon the selection process and does not address the merits of proposals, it in no way presupposes the outcome of the re-evaluation it recommends. Nonetheless, GAO’s findings look like a victory for BAE Systems and a setback for Raytheon. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.