SAIC Protesting Loss of $2.5 Billion NASA Contract to Leidos

SAIC has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the loss of the $2.5 billion NASA IT contract known as AEGIS that was awarded to Leidos on June 25.

Initially filed on July 6, no details about SAIC's allegations have been publicly disclosed (as is typical in contract protests). A decision is due from GAO by Oct. 14.

Protests from incumbents that lose major IT contract re-competes are expected events that generally face long odds of success. While GAO could recommend that NASA overturn the award and re-evaluate bids, there remains a high likelihood that Leidos will ultimately take over the contract from SAIC.

New contracts are paused while protests are pending, so even if the challenge fails, it may push back the start of the AEGIS contract, currently slated to begin on Sept. 1, 2021.

SAIC generated an average of $152 million/year under the current version of the NASA IT contract, known as NASA Integrated Communications Services (NICS).