Progress made in protest for Army's cyber range

The Army is inching closer to clearing out a couple protests involving its $2.4 billion contract to support the National Cyber Range Complex.

In July, the Army made 14 awards to companies to provide testing, planning and event services at the range, which is in essence a model of the internet. The range is used to test tools and simulate attacks and responses to attacks.

ManTech International and the BKM IDS Mentor-Protégé joint venture then filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over not being selected for an award.

Both companies are arguing that there are problems with how the evaluation was awarded.

GAO has dismissed ManTech’s protest after the Army said it would re-evaluate its proposal and make a new selection decision.

But the Army is not doing the same for BKM IDS, so that protest remains active and could headed to a GAO decision.

BKM IDS pursued an award in the small business category. A decision on that protest is expected by Nov. 19.

Eight of the 14 winners are small businesses. The remaining six are large businesses including Lockheed Martin, which built the range in 2011 and has managed it since 2014 under a $750 million contract.

The new contract greatly expands the services and how the cyber range will be used.

This article first appeared on Washington Technology, a Defense Systems partner site.