Raytheon files protest over military contract

Raytheon Co. said today it has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over its loss of a potential $6 billion contract to supply the Army and Air Force with a new cargo plane.

In an interview today, Jim Hvizd, vice president for Raytheon's cargo aircraft program, contended that the Waltham defense contractor's proposal for the C-295 transport plane was more than 15 percent cheaper than that of its rival, L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. of New York, which was awarded the contract on June 13.

Hvizd said officials from Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems division in El Segundo, Calif., were told at a June 18 debriefing by a joint Army and Air Force team that the Raytheon and L-3 proposals had been rated equally on non-price criteria, such as technology, logistics, program management and past performance.

"We're basing our protest on errors in the evaluation of our program and in the application of their weighting criteria," Hvizd said.

GAO officials are expected to establish a process in the next 30 days for reviewing Raytheon's bid protest. If the company gets its way, the accountability office will overturn the contract award.
(By Robert Weisman, Globe staff)