Infrastructure Defense Technologies
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In the United States Court of Federal Claims (Filed April 7, 2008) (Originally Filed Under Seal March 14, 2008) INFRASTRUCTURE DEFENSE ) TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, ) No. 07-582 C Plaintiff, ) (Consolidated Lead Case) ) v. ) Pre-award bid protest; subject matter ) jurisdiction; standing; prejudice; waiver; bridge THE UNITED STATES, ) contract; sole source supply contract; cross- Defendant, ) motions for judgment on the administrative ) record; motion to dismiss; one responsible and ) source exception to the Competition in ) Contracting Act; standard of review; national HESCO BASTION, LTD, ) defense and security. Defendant-Intervenor. ) ) INFRASTRUCTURE DEFENSE ) TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, ) Plaintiff, ) ) No. 07-695 C v. ) (Consolidated Member Case) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) Defendant. ) C. Joël Van Over, McLean, VA, for plaintiff. Jack Y. Chu, of counsel. David A. Harrington and A. Bondurant Eley, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant, with whom were Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Jeanne E. Davidson, Director, and Brian M. Simkin, Assistant Director. Douglas C. Proxmire, Washington, D.C., for defendant-intervenor. Elizabeth Gill, of counsel. OPINION AND ORDER1/ Merow, Senior Judge In this pre-award procurement protest, brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1491(b)(1), the protestor, Infrastructure Defense Technologies, LLC (hereinafter “IDT”), seeks injunctive and declaratory relief to preclude the Defense Logistics Agency (“DLA”) from awarding a follow-on sole source Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (“IDIQ”) contract for collapsible force protection (“Concertainer”) units to Hesco Bastion, Ltd. (“Hesco”). Hesco has intervened in this action. Pursuant to RCFC 52.1, motions have been filed, by all parties, for judgment on the administrative record of this procurement which record was supplemented by the deposition of DLA official Thomas Lauersen and material submitted by plaintiff. (Order Aug. 9, 2007.) Plaintiff also protests the award of a “bridge contract” entered into by DLA to cover military requirements for Concertainers during the pendency of this litigation. The administrative record for this protest is referred to as “2nd Protest.” Various other material, submitted during argument by counsel or in response hereto, has also been considered. Defendant also contests IDT’s standing to bring this litigation and IDT has filed a motion for entry of a default pursuant to RCFC 55(a), which is opposed by defendant. Upon consideration of the extensive records and the thorough briefing of the issues by all parties together with the helpful and comprehensive argument of counsel, it is concluded, for reasons that follow, that IDT’s Motion for the Entry of a Default is denied, that IDT lacks standing to bring these protests, and that if, however, standing were present, IDT then has not established a basis for relief under the standards set forth in Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 706, as applicable in this bid protest context. NVT Techs., Inc. v. United States, 370 F.3d 1153, 1159 (Fed. Cir. 2004). 1/ The court issued this Opinion and Order under seal on March 14, 2008, and gave the parties until March 31, 2008, to submit any proposed redactions. That deadline has passed, and no proposed redaction has been received. Accordingly, the Opinion and Order is released in its entirety. -2- FACTS From January through September 2007, DLA received requisitions from military units in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than $375 million worth of Concertainers. (AR 24 (2nd Protest).) Concertainer is the Hesco brand or trade name for a collapsible force protection barrier commonly used in hostile theaters as a substitute for sandbags. (AR 516; AR 132 (2nd Protest).) Force protection barriers available to the United States military include sandbags, barbed concertina wire, concrete barriers and other devices including, as relevant to this litigation, earth-filled barriers – collapsible forms or components that are transported flattened on pallets to a planned site where they are assembled or unfolded, interconnected and filled with sand, soil or other native material to create barriers, walls, buildings and the like that protect, to varying degrees, from weapon fire, explosives, vehicle crashes and other hostile forces. The Joint Forward Operations Base Force Protection Handbook (“JFOB”) contains descriptions, and in some instances, specifications of many, but not all military force protection options. (AR 488-595.) Reflecting lessons learned from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and created with guidance from the Army Test and Evaluation Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Deputy Directorate for Antiterrorism and Homeland Defense, with significant assistance from U.S. Central Command, this handbook describes best practices and techniques to counter rocket, artillery, mortar and improvised explosive device threats in Iraq to reduce the combat casualty rate. Earth-filled barriers are among several options addressed in the “Physical Barriers” section of Chapter Six entitled “Perimeter Security.” (AR 496-513.) Instructions, diagrams, specifications and design factors are given for “[t]ypical anti- vehicular barriers” for stopping vehicles at the perimeter, including concrete walls, berms, ditches, cabled chain link fences, and “[e]arth-filled barriers (Hesco Bastions, metal revetments”).2/ (Id. at 502-03.) 2/ These barriers are referred to throughout as revetments and/or bastions. A revetment is “an embankment or wall as of sandbags or earth, constructed to protect against strafing, shell fragments, etc.” WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY 1149 (3rd ed. 1988). A bastion is “any fortified place; (continued...) -3- Earth-Filled Barriers. Earth-filled barriers are typically employed at a JFOB to provide blast and fragment damage protection. As fragment protection, these barriers work extremely well; for blast mitigation purposes these barriers reduce structural damage only slightly by reducing reflected pressures to incident pressure levels. However, earth- filled barriers can also be effective as anti-vehicular barriers. Examples of earth-filled barriers include the HESCO bastion concertainers and metal revetments. HESCO Bastion Concertainer. Concertainer geo-composite materials can be used to construct anti-vehicular barriers and are often favored because of their capability to minimize transportation weight and volume requirements, while optimizing the provided level of threat protection. The geo-composite material is composed of collapsible wire-mesh cells that are lined with a geo-textile fabric. The advantage of using this material is that during transport the geo-composite is collapsed and upon arrival at the final destination is expanded and filled. This quality allows the walls to be transported at only 5 percent of the as-constructed volume. The concertainer wall sections consist of a series of large, linked, self- supporting cells constructed from geo-textile-lined wire-mesh panels. The wall cells are connected at the corners with spiral wire hinges that allow the wall sections to be expanded from a compact, folded-storage configuration. For deployment, the wall sections are expanded, positioned, and filled with available soil, sand, gravel, rock, concrete rubble, etc. (the use of gravel, rock, or concrete should be minimized due to the fragmentation caused by an explosion). The wall sections can be connected to form longer walls, separated to form shorter sections, or stacked to increase wall height. (AR 511-12.) 2/(...continued) strong defense or bulwark.” Id. at 116. -4- Three paragraphs, two pictures and a drawing are devoted to Hesco Concertainer products. Immediately following is one paragraph describing generic metal revetments described as another type of anti-vehicular barrier.3/ Like the concertainer, these barriers have the capability to minimize transportation weight and volume requirements, while optimizing the provided level of threat protection. The advantage of using this material is that during transport the metal material can be collapsed and stacked and upon arrival at the final destination expanded and filled. More information on metal revetments can be found in Chapter 8 (Protective Construction). (AR 512-13.) Following this paragraph is a photograph of metal revetment walls. (AR 513.) Chapter Eight, titled “Protective Construction,” includes a section on “Sidewall Protection and Revetments.” (AR 514-33.) “[M]ost revetment designs are just variations of techniques to hold the soil in a vertical position.” (AR 514.) Included is a subsection on the “Hesco Bastion Concertainer® Revetment,” with specifications of nine sizes and two colors, a listing of limitations, construction procedures and considerations and diagrams, at an estimated cost of $39 per linear foot (excluding labor and fill material). (AR 516-19.) Description: Hesco Bastion Concertainer® is the brand name for a commonly used revetment used in Iraq and referred to as “Hesco.” The Hesco wall sections consist of a series of large, linked, self supporting cells. Each cell consists of collapsible wire mesh lined with a geotextile fabric. The cells are connected at the corners with spiral wire hinges that allow the wall sections to be expanded from a compact, folded storage configuration. The advantage of using this material is that during transport the cells are collapsed, and upon arrival at the final destination expanded