U.S. Upholds Comarco’s Navy Contract

Comarco Inc. said Friday that the General Accounting Office has rejected a challenge by a Comarco competitor and upheld the Pentagon’s award of a $134-million contract to the Anaheim company.

The decision clears the way for Comarco to continue providing the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake with testing, engineering and other support services on the Navy’s air-launched missiles, such as the heat-seeking Sidewinder and the radar-guided Sparrow that downed two Libyan MIG-23 fighter jets over the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday.

In September, Support Systems Associates in Northport, N.Y., protested the government’s award of the contract to Comarco. The New York firm claimed, among other things, that the Pentagon’s evaluation of the competing bids was unfair and improper, said Don M. Bailey, a Comarco vice president. Late Thursday, the GAO denied the challenge by Support Systems.

“This removes that black cloud that has been sitting over a third of our business,” Bailey said.

Comarco expects to generate about $85 million in revenue for its fiscal year, ending Jan. 31, and about $30 million of that amount comes from its contract with the government for a variety of services at the Naval Weapons Center.

The new contract, which runs for 1 year with options for 4 more, is a continuation of services Comarco has been providing the weapons center for about 5 years, Bailey said. The company has been working at the center for 28 years, he said, and now has 700 employees there.