Big Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies Inc. has won a case against the United States Army in which it claimed it was unfairly shut out of the bid process to work on the Army’s Distributed Common Ground System.

According to Bloomberg, the Army’s bid-solicitation ruled out any commercially available solutions, by default barring Palantir from bidding for the contract, since it wished to put forward an existing system. The company argued that ban was unlawful.

The Distributed Common Ground System is a weapons system that is meant to provide military intelligence from data collected from sensors and databases to Army commanders, but has been plagued with problems, according to Palantir, which argues that its already-tested Gotham system delivers a superior product at a lower cost.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn agreed with Palantir, saying to Army lawyers, “You have to follow the dictates of the statute [law]….The statute is not meaningless.” That statute is a 1994 federal law that requires the Pentagon to buy less expensive commercial systems in order to avoid the process of researching, developing and procuring the military’s own components at a higher cost. The judge subsequently ordered the Army to reopen the tender process and allow commercial solutions to be offered.

“This decision is a victory for taxpayers, whose money has been routinely wasted on lengthy and ineffective development efforts,” Palantir lawyer Hamish Hume said in a statement. The Army did not formally respond to the finding, saying only that it would do so once it has received the ruling in writing.

Image credit: US Army/Public Domain