WASHINGTON — The Army is backing off a plan for the service to submit its own bid to the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle replacement competition after it indicated its intention to offer up its own design in a draft request for proposals posted in July.
The service tried once before to competitively solicit designs for its Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) but ended up with just one offering after its requirements proved too onerous to industry and included a requirement to deliver a working prototype to the Army by October 2019.
In a statement sent to Defense News Sept. 17 from Ashley John, an Army spokeswoman, said “As a result of industry feedback and continuous dialogue between Army senior leaders, the government will not submit a proposal in response to the OMFV RFP. A revision to the draft OMFV RFP was made today and deletes paragraph A.3.1 Interested Government Offeror in its entirety."
The Army’s intention to develop its own bid was met with scrutiny as industry officials questioned whether the service could play the game after service leaders had already seen industry’s cards during an earlier iteration of the competition. The move, many in industry thought, would have easily teed up protests.
The service reviewed and analyzed over 500 industry comments and will now spend several weeks providing responses to industry concerns, John said.
“As we continue to progress through the first-phase of our five-phased approach for the OMFV program, communication, inclusive feedback and innovative thinking from industry remains key,” John said.
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The Army waded back into the OMFV effort with the release of a market survey in February that tapped industry for ideas on what a future vehicle might look like. The market survey itself asked companies to weigh in on what affected their decisions to participate in the previous OMFV competitive effort and how the Army might better engage with industry this time around.
Instead of providing a laundry list of requirements that when paired together became unachievable — especially when delivered over an ambitious fielding goal of 2026 — the Army will give industry roughly nine characteristics with which to work. The Army is also not requiring the delivery of physical bid samples in the first phase of competition.
The Army plans to release a final RFP in December, which will results in the award of up to five contracts in June 2021.
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Army backs off idea to submit its own bid in Bradley replacement competition - DefenseNews.com
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