BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, Inc. (B-423271)

You should not care.

Category: Technical evaluation, staffing

Date: 14 April 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423271

BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair protested the Navy's award of a ship repair contract for the USS Russell to Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD) under RFP No. N00024-24-R-4429. The protest centered on the Navy’s decision not to award based on BAE’s proposal volume A, which relied on a privately operated dry dock, and on BAE’s claim of unequal evaluation of manpower data. BAE argued that its private dock proposal was improperly deemed “utilized,” thus negating the NDAA 2024 section 126 preference for private facilities, and also alleged flaws in the Navy’s evaluation of both its own and CMSD’s manpower forecasts.

Dry dock capacity and eligibility for preference: GAO rejected BAE’s contention that its POCA dry dock had sufficient capacity. The Navy found BAE's graphical representation showed concurrent use of the POCA dry dock for both the USS Russell and the USS Green Bay with no adequate deconfliction plan. Despite BAE’s mention of another dock (POSD), it failed to identify it as an alternative in any of the proposal's official attachments or narrative.

Manpower evaluation: The protester claimed the Navy ignored supplemental workforce capacity from affiliated shipyards in other locations and mitigation strategies such as increased hiring. GAO sided with the Navy, finding the RFP restricted consideration to local manpower and required specific project-level detail, which BAE failed to provide. The agency also reasonably discounted similar data for CMSD’s aircraft carrier subcontract work because it didn’t meet the 30% threshold for inclusion.

The protest was denied. GAO concluded the Navy reasonably followed the solicitation’s terms and that BAE’s proposal did not warrant the statutory dry dock preference. It also found no unequal or irrational evaluation of manpower across offerors.

Digest

1. Protest challenging agency’s conclusion that protester did not demonstrate sufficient capacity at its privately-operated dry dock to qualify for an award preference is denied where the evaluation was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria.
2. Protest alleging that agency evaluated offerors’ manpower proposals unreasonably and unequally is denied where the protester’s assertions are not supported by the record.