Protest by Harris CapRock Stalls FCSA Contract Awards (Source: Space News)
A multibillion-dollar U.S. government procurement of commercial satellite telecom solutions that has stretched out nearly two years faces additional delays following a protest by an incumbent contractor that was disqualified in April. Harris CapRock, a subsidiary of Florida-based Harris Corp., was bounced from the competition to provide end-to-end managed network services to U.S. defense and civilian agencies under the Future Comsatcom Services Acquisition (FCSA) program, according to multiple industry sources.
The company filed a protest May 7 with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a move that effectively puts contract awards on hold. The disqualification is a serious blow to Harris CapRock, one of three companies that for the past decade have cobbled together satellite solutions for U.S. Defense Department customers under the Defense Satellite Transmission Services-Global program. That program, which is being replaced by FCSA, has been the Pentagon’s primary vehicle for procuring commercial satellite bandwidth and related services, with annual spending in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (5/25)