Legal challenge filed over high-stakes competition to design $60B warships

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press</span>
Published Wednesday, November 21, 2018 5:04PM EST

OTTAWA -- The $60-billion effort to build new warships for the navy has hit another snag, this time in the form of a legal challenge by one of three companies involved in the high-stakes competition to design the vessels.

The federal government announced last month that U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin beat out two rivals in the long and extremely sensitive competition to design replacements for the navy's frigates and destroyers.

Lockheed's design was based on a new class of frigates for the British navy. The company is now negotiating a final contract with the government and Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, which will build the ships.

But one of the other two companies, Alion Science and Technology, is now asking the Federal Court to quash the government's decision, saying Lockheed's design did not meet the government's stated requirements and should have been disqualified.

Industry insiders had long warned that Lockheed's selection as the top bidder combined with several changes to the competition after it was launched -- including a number of deadline extensions -- would spark lawsuits.

While the government, Irving and Lockheed Martin are declining to comment, federal officials have previously defended the way the competition was run and expressed confidence about defending the decision in court.

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