Austal USA is formally challenging a recent US Navy contract award to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) to oversee work on in-service Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).
Austal USA, the Mobile, Alabama-based arm of Australian shipbuilder Austal, filed the protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) on 20 May, according to the GAO.
The GAO has 100 days, or until 28 August, to review the protest and reject or sustain it. If the congressional watchdog agency sustains the challenge, it could recommend that the navy take some sort of corrective action.
The contract, which Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded in