US Suppliers' Fight Over Military Contract to Take Months to Resolve

US Military Supplier Northrop Grumman and its rival Raytheon will not get a resolution until next year, regarding their contract battle over the newest ground based radar system for the US Air Force, Government Accountability Office (GAO) Associate General Counsel Ralph White said Wednesday.

"We have an administrative forum that can hear these complaints and then we have one hundred days to initiate a decision," White told RIA Novosti Wednesday.

White also pointed out that Northrop Grumman complaint said their contract was unfairly rejected.

White confirmed the GAO has until January 29, 2015 to review the contract for the right to produce the new radar system, referred to as Three-Dimensional Expediter Long- Range Radar (3DELRR). If no decision is made regarding the contract dispute, the bid for the system could be restarted, the GAO noted.

"It is not uncommon for such hearing to be held by the GAO to mediate similar disagreements on contract awards", White said.

"The company has marked the document proprietary," White added, regarding Northrop Grumman.

Raytheon's Director of Public Relations Michael Doble issued a statement to RIA Novosti Wednesday, saying that "the Air Force ran a very tough but very fair competition, and selected a world leader in radar to build 3DELRR [radar]."

"We remain confident in our resolution and we're eager to move forward," Doble said.

The total estimate for the contract is approximately $71 million and includes the construction of six blimp type radar systems and support teams, according to the Air Force. A total of 35 type systems are slated to be constructed.

The Air Force has said the new system would be able to increase radar range at a reduced cost. They claim an advance in components as the reason for the improvement.

According to the Air Force, the new system is to become the principal system for long-range, ground-based radar for detecting and identifying, tracking and reporting aircraft and missiles, heading into US air space.