Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-09-13
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, Dismounted Close Combat (DCC)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35300000: Weapons, ammunition and associated parts
Estimated value: 3500000 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The authority requires the provision of a combined support contract for a range of in-service optical sights for an initial term of 3-years with an option to extend for a further 2-years.
The authority requires the provision of a combined support, supply and repair contract for a range of in-service optical sights from FLIR and Trijicon. The supplier would be required to act as design authority (DA) and hold exclusive rights to the IPR, technical data, knowledge and expertise, and proprietary documentation maintained by the DA necessary to provide the required support and repair to the in-service fleet of sights.
Options will be available on the contract to extend the term of the contract for a further 2-years. Options will be available on the contract to procure additional in-service sights from the original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
The dismounted close combat programme team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a 3-year contract with one 2-year option, for the combined support, supply and repair of a range of in-service optical sights with Beechwood Equipment Ltd.
It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons. This is because the chosen supplier is the sole UK agent for the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and design authority (DA) for the in-service optical sights and hold exclusive rights to the IPR, technical data, knowledge and expertise, and proprietary documentation maintained by the DA necessary to provide the required support and repair to the in-service fleet of sights. This includes: technical drawings, tooling and test equipment, and specific manufacturing processes that includes software programming, and undertake any post design services to underwrite any changes or modifications that ensures the operational performance and effectiveness of the sight is not compromised or invalidates the safety case for the weapon systems.
Without access to the proprietary documentation, knowledge and expertise, any technical support and advice provided by another supplier would require new testing, new verification and validation to ensure that the safety and suitability for service of the systems and the interoperability with both the weapons and platforms is not compromised. A change of supplier would also oblige the Authority to acquire goods having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility between the existing platforms and weapons and the goods to be included under the contract. There would also be disproportionate cost, time and technical difficulties incurred to the Authority associated with introducing new items into the authority’s supply chain and inventory that would affect the support, technical publications and documentation, training and logistics (of a multiple platform fleet) from that already provided in current service.
During the life of the contract, the Authority would reserve the right to add additional optical sights supplied by Beechwood Equipment Ltd to the contract to support any future weapon systems brought in to service.
The authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government Security Classification.
Advertising Regime OJEU:- This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU),the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2019910-DCB-15350283


Winner: Beechwood Equipment Ltd
Award value: 3500000