[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] HD Hyundai Heavy Industries disagreed with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's decision to select a preferred bidder for the Navy's next frigate project and decided to face court judgment.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced on the 14th that it has filed an application for "an injunction to confirm the status of the preferred bidder" with the Seoul Central District Court in connection with the bidding for the Ulsan-class Batch 3 (Batch-Ⅲ) frigate construction project.

Last month, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration selected Hanwha Ocean as the preferred bidder for the Ulsan-class deployment Ⅲ 5th and 6th ships. Hanwha Ocean's final score was 91.8855 points, which was only 0.1422 points difference from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which received 91.7433 points. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was ahead in the technology score, but failed to win due to the security deduction (1.8 points) for filming and leaking the next-generation Korean destroyer (KDDX) concept design data of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the predecessor of Hanwha Ocean.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is putting security deductions as a decisive factor in the elimination of the preferred bidder, saying they are far ahead of their competitors in technical scores. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries plans to ask the Defense Acquisition Program Administration to clarify its technical capability evaluation scores through the injunction process and receive a judgment on the rationality of the "criteria for signing contracts by negotiations on defense capability improvement projects". The company says the deduction system is effectively excluding the participation of certain companies in the bidding, adding that there is a high possibility that the domestic ship business will be reorganized in the form of a monopoly.

 

[ⓒ AlphaBIZ. 무단전재-재배포 금지]