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By Drew Bryant
May 26th, 2022, theloadoutblog.com

Recently, Lone Star Future Weapons has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) against the Army’s selection of SIG SAUER as the winner of the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. Back in April of this year, the Army announced the selection of SIG’s MCX SPEAR (XM5) and XM250 light machine gun (LMG) as the winners of the NGSW program. SIG’s entries into the NGSW program beat out Lone Star’s RM277 bullpup rifle and LMG offering.

The office of General Counsel within the GAO handles legal decisions and opinions “regarding federal bid protests, appropriations law, and other legal matters.” There is limited information on what exactly Lone Star Future Weapons is protesting in regards to their bid protest to the GAO.

The GAO defines a bid protest as challenge to the terms of a solicitation or the award of a federal contract. From their the GAO would adjudicate and decide these bid challenges by company’s. Below are the limited details from the bid protest submitted by Lone Star.

Bid Protest from Lone Star Future Weapons

Protestor – Lone Star Future Weapons, LLC
Solicitation Number – W15QKN-21-R-0074

Agency – Department of the Army : U.S. Army Materiel Command
File number – B-420766.1
Status – Case Currently Open
Filed Date – May 18, 2022
Due Date – Aug 26, 2022
Case Type – Bid Protest
GAO Attorney – Charmaine Stevenson

In recent years the GAO has adjudicated bid protests on other major Army programs. The most recent back in 2017, when the GAO made a determination on the Modular Handgun System program. That is back when both FN and Glock challenged the Army’s decision on SIG SAUER winning that contract, for what eventually became known as the SIG M17 and M18.

According to the GAO, from the time of filing a bid protest, the GAO has 30 days to render a verdict on the protest against the program contract. From their the protesting entity (Lone Star) can file comments on the GAO report. During this time hearings can also be held and other methods of bid resolution can be sought after. The GAO aims to deliver decision within 100 days of the protest being filed.

Currently we do not know the grievances issued by Lone Star Future Weapons in this bid protest on the NGSW program. At the time of writing this article alone Star Future Weapons nor thd GAO have made a public statement about the bid protest.

What do you think of Lone Star Future Weapons bid protest? Let us know in the comments below.

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