Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-09-15
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Helicopters, Chinook Project Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 50212000: Repair and maintenance services of helicopters
Estimated value: 1500000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Chinook DT, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, has a requirement to place a contract covering the provision of repairs, spares and design support in respect of the control, display and navigation unit (CDNU) fitted on-board the UK fleet of Chinook Helicopters.
It is anticipated that a contract option shall be included in the invitation to negotiate for increased CDNU LRU support by the contractor's on-site engineer.
Further to DEFCON 658 the Cyber Risk Profile of the Contract is Moderate, as defined in Def Stan 05-138.
The Chinook DT, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, has a requirement to place a contract covering the provision of repairs, spares and design support in respect of the control, display and navigation unit (CDNU) fitted onboard the UK fleet of Chinook Helicopters. The authority announces its intent to to place a contract with Thales UK Ltd (‘Thales’) to undertake repairs, provide spares and engineering support in respect of the CDNU. The proposed contract term is 5.5 years and the contract value is estimated to be GBP 1.5 million. 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 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) due to Technical Reasons. Thales are the original equipment manufacturers and design authority of the CDNU fitted on the UK Chinook aircraft. As such, the in service support of the CDNU, (including the provision of repairs and spares) together with the related project management, can only be carried out by Thales as Thales exclusively holds the relevant skills, technical data, proprietary information (including drawing and design information) and know-how that is needed to meet the requirement. Thales previously confirmed that it is not prepared to share or license the use of that proprietary information outside of the Company and the UK Ministry of Defence does not have a right to obtain the necessary documentation from Thales. The aforementioned skills, technical data, drawing and design information are necessary for the performance of the requirement. Furthermore, only Thales holds the level of certification (under the Authority's Design Approved Organisation (DAOS) and Maintenance Approved Organisation (MAOS) Schemes) necessary to carry out the activities that are required in order to meet the Military Aviation Authority’s Regulatory Articles applicable to the CDNU.
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-2020910-DCB-17058086


Winner: Thales UK Ltd
Award value: 1500000