Systems Management, Inc.; Qualimetrics, Inc.

Two firms protested a Department of the Air Force contract award for a fixed-base weather observation system, contending that the Air Force improperly evaluated the protestors' and the awardee's proposals. GAO found that the Air Force (1) was not required to consider in the past performance evaluation the performance of all proposed subcontractors of the offerors or all references submitted by an offeror, and (2) reasonably determined, consistent with the stated evaluation factors, that there were strengths in the awardee's higher-priced technical proposal that warranted the award selection based on a cost/technical tradeoff. Accordingly, the protests were denied.