Falls Church’s DynCorp International and Springfield’s McNeil Technologies Inc. have won a $4.6 billion contract from the U.S. Intelligence and Security Command to provide interpretation and translation services to the Army and other agencies working in Iraq.
The two companies will hire up to 7,000 people for the work. Most of the employees will be stationed in Iraq, according to DynCorp spokesman Douglas Ebner. A maximum of 6,000 translators will be locally hired from Iraq, and up to 1,000 will be U.S. citizens with security clearances.
“We think we’re offering a solid proposal,” Ebner said, and “we’re definitely competent and capable of meeting the contract requirements.”
DynCorp and McNeil Technologies, who have not worked together previously, formed a consortium, Global Linguistics Solutions, to bid for the contract.
DynCorp is the managing partner in GLS with a 51 percent stake. DynCorp specializes in logistics support and mission-critical services, while McNeil Technologies is known for recruiting and deploying linguists.
The five-year contract originally was awarded to the two companies in December 2006 but faced protests twice from L-3 Communications, which had acquired the previous Army linguistics contractor, Titan Corp., in 2005.
The General Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, sustained the first protest, GLS submitted a revised proposal, and the U.S. Army Inscom awarded the contract again to GLS in December. After a second protest from L-3 Communications, the Army re-evaluated the proposals and chose GLS late last week.
