![]() In January of 2017, the agency began researching industry's ability to accommodate an additional 10,342 IARs to supply almost every member of the Marine Corps' infantry squads with an IAR. At this point in time, the total cost of procuring, developing, testing, and fielding the IAR amounted to approximately $27.4 million. The additional procurement exhausted the maximum order quantity under H&K's 2008 IDIQ contract. As a result of this limited fielding, the agency decided, in 2011, to replace the M249 SAW with the IAR in every infantry battalion and every light armored reconnaissance battalion, which resulted in the purchase of 6,042 additional H&K IARs as well as accessories and spare parts, at a total cost of $18,430,000. In 2010, the Marine Corps ordered 458 IARs from H&K along with accessories and spare parts and performed a limited fielding to five infantry battalions. These tests included operational testing, comparisons to the M249 squad automatic rifle (SAW), cold weather testing, and humidity testing. After the second round evaluation, in 2009, the agency awarded H&K a delivery order for 24 low rate initial production IARs at a total cost of approximately $67,571.28, and conducted an expansive third round of tests at a cost of approximately $1,850,000. The second round of testing involved some of the same performance criteria used in the initial testing, but the testing also included environmental testing and limited user evaluations. The agency expended approximately $136,070 to purchase the IARs and another $1,009,136 for a second battery of tests. Each awardee received a delivery order for ten IARs for second round evaluation. Following evaluation of the proposals, four indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts were issued to three of the offerors, including FN and H&K. Id.Īs part of the 2008 competition, the agency expended approximately $429,140 for an initial round of tests including rate-of-fire testing, reliability testing, and precision testing. The competition resulted in ten proposals from the seven offerors, some of which proposed more than one rifle in response to the RFP. In 2008, the agency issued a J&A limiting competition for the IAR to seven offerors-the original six offerors and one additional offeror-and issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking technical proposals and product samples for evaluation. Of those six offerors, three received delivery orders for testing prototypes, while the other three offerors remained eligible to compete for the production contract. In 2006, the Marine Corps first released a solicitation for prototypes of the IAR and received six offers, including offers from FN and H&K. The protester alleges that the justification and approval (J&A) supporting the notice of intent is flawed in several respects. M67854-17-R-1248, issued by the United States Marine Corps for the purchase of M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles (IARs). Proposed award of a sole-source contract for infantry rifles is unobjectionable where the agency reasonably determined that it needed to acquire the same model of rifle already in use for the purposes of standardization and safety, and the record reflects that the cost to replace the existing rifles would not be recovered if the agency were to change to a new model.įabrique Nationale America, LLC, (FN), of Columbia, South Carolina, protests a notice of intent to award a sole-source contract to Heckler & Koch America (H&K), of Ashburn, Virginia, pursuant to Solicitation No. Sole-source award for a follow-on contract for highly specialized equipment is unobjectionable where the agency reasonably determined that award to any other source would likely cause substantial cost duplication, not expected to be recovered through competition, and unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements.Ģ. ![]() ![]() Michael Willems, Esq., and Edward Goldstein, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.ġ. Kraics, Esq., United States Marine Corps, for the agency. Wozniak, Esq., Williams Mullen, for the protester. ![]()
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