This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2356Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication.ISBN: 978-1-9774-0005-5 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2018 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark.iii PrefaceThis report documents the RAND Corporation's assessment of the prevalence and impact of bid protests on U.S. Department of Defense acquisitions. It is the product of a study on this issue that Congress called for in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. 1 The findings are intended to inform Congress and U.S. defense leaders about the effectiveness of current procurement policies and processes to reduce bid protests. It assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge of the federal bid protest system and venues for filing protests.RAND assembled and analyzed available data on bid protests and sought to address the study elements specified in Section 885 of the legislation. The analysis built on prior RAND research that assessed trends in U.S. Air Force bid protests, analyzed two high-profile bid protests (the Combat Search and Rescue Helicopter and Aerial Refueling Tanker Aircraft programs) for lessons learned, and recommended changes to Air Force acquisition tactics to counter bid protests in the future. 2 In addition, for the current study, the RAND research team reviewed and summarized studies and analyses conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, and other organizations on the prevalence and impact of bid protests.This report was delivered to Congress on December 21, 2017. It has since been professionally typeset and proofread.This research was sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, and conducted within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and developm...

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.