BAE expands protest, says US Army process flawed

WASHINGTON Oct 20 (Reuters) - Britain's BAE Systems PLC (BAES.L) on Tuesday said it had filed a third protest against the U.S. Army's decision on Aug. 27 to award a $2 billion truck contract to OshKosh Corp (OSK.N).

BAE, which builds the current batch of medium trucks for the Army, said it filed a third protest about the Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) contract on Friday. It had filed the initial protest on Sept. 4 and an amended version a week later.

The Government Accountability Office had been due to rule on the protests by Dec. 21. The latest protest could extend that deadline by a month.

BAE said it remained convinced that it had offered the Army a "best value," low-risk proposal.

Oshkosh told Reuters earlier this month that it was continuing work on the fixed-price contract that calls for it to build up to 23,000 vehicles and trailers.

Andy Hove, head of the company's defense business, said Oshkosh remained confident that the Army had followed the rules in the competition and the company wanted to be ready to move on the program as soon as possible. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)