Congressman Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is requesting formal hearings with two congressional subcommittees on the Army’s recent decision to abandon its longtime Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) contract with BAE Systems.

McCaul sent letters last week requesting the hearings to Neil Abercrombie, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee Air and Land Forces, and that subcommittee’s ranking member, Roscoe Bartlett, along with John Murtha, chairman of the subcommittee on Defense House Appropriations Committee, and ranking member, the Hon. C.W. Bill Young.

In his letters, McCaul questions the Army’s selection process and decision to award the FMTV contract to a company that has never built the truck line in the past.

BAE Systems, which employs 3,200 at its Sealy plant, learned in August the Army awarded an FMTV rebuy program contract to competitor, Oshkosh, despite BAE Systems building more than 56,000 FMTVs and trailers under contract with the Army for the past 17 years.

The company is currently protesting the decision, and McCaul has taken that fight to Washington, D.C., most recently with his hearings requests.

McCaul wrote that the Army’s decision "will adversely affect the capability of the industrial base", especially as reports continue of the new provider’s potential bankruptcy.

"I have a great concern as to whether the Army, in selecting the awardee, followed one of its own primary criteria for awarding a contract: financial capability," McCaul questioned.

"In fact, 40 percent of the selection criteria was cost and price, which includes financial capability. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that the awardee was on the edge of bankruptcy and had suffered a $1.2 billion loss last year," the congressman added. "In the Army’s evaluation however, the awardee, was rated the same as BAE on financial capability as both being excellent/ low risk."

McCaul also questioned why no independent cost analysis was done to confirm the awardee, Oshkosh, can build the FMTVs at the price it bid. The FMTV contract was said to be based primarily on cost.

"In my judgment, the awardee will not be able to perform under the terms of this contract at this price," McCaul said. "Cost overruns could also occur which might eventually delay delivery of FMTV and come at a cost to the taxpayers and to the war fighter in the field."

McCaul said the Army’s decision just doesn’t make sense.

In the past 17 years, the Army has invested more than $300 million rebuilding the infrastructure at the Sealy plant, making it a state-of-the-art facility where workers crank out 44 vehicles a day.

The company has consistently met, and exceeded, McCaul pointed out, the Army’s expectations in efficiency and quality.

Earlier this month, BAE Systems held a day of celebration at the Sealy plant, with nearly 1,000 employees sending a clear message to the Army that they plan to take their protest of the recent FMTV contract all the way to the top.

Dennis Morris, president of BAE Systems Global Tactical Systems, said he is proud of BAE Systems' accomplishments and takes great pride and responsibility in the work it does.

"We don’t agree that the government can discount 17 years of production. We don’t agree that building 56,000 vehicles and trailers should count for nothing," Morris said. "Further, we want to ensure that the men and women of the U.S. military get the best, most dependable vehicle in the world and those vehicles are produced in this very facility."

Those same vehicles - declared by the Army to be "ultra-reliable" - are used by military personnel currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

McCaul spoke at that celebration, telling the workers and company leaders this is a fight they will win. The FMTV is the only wheeled vehicle in the Army inventory to be recompeted in a time of war, the congressman said, a decision he said creates significant competitive inequity.

"There are a myriad of questionable actions and inactions that occurred during the award of this contract that simply do not pass the common sense test," McCaul said, alluding to the fact that the awardee was notified of the award two days before a public announcement was made, and that the Army has still not identified the Source Selection Authority, which McCaul said is standard practice.

McCaul hopes formal hearings on the matter will help shed light on the decision-making process, and resolve several unanswered questions.

In the meantime, workers at BAE Systems' Sealy plant continue to focus on pushing out vehicles and trailers.

The company is currently in a contract that continues through 2010. The government has until Dec. 14 to make a decision on the appeal.