Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-07-30
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, ISTAR, Situational Awareness Command and Control (SACC) Delivery Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 72611000: Technical computer support services
Estimated value: 56000000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Situational Awareness Command and Control (SACC) Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to amend contract SACC/00003 with IBM United Kingdom (the ‘Contractor’) to allow continued support to UCCS (United Kingdom Air Surveillance and Control System (UKASACS) Command and Control System) for a further 12 months period. The UCCS system monitors UK and NATO airspace and satisfies the enduring requirement the MoD has to conduct Air Command and Control for the defence of the UK. The contract amendment will have a value of GBP 8 000 000 ex VAT.
The situational Awareness Command and Control (SACC) Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to amend contract SACC/00003 with IBM United Kingdom (the ‘Contractor’) to allow continued support to UCCS (United Kingdom Air Surveillance and Control System (UKASACS) Command and Control System) for a further 12 months period. The UCCS system monitors UK and NATO airspace and satisfies the enduring requirement the MoD has to conduct Air Command and Control for the defence of the UK. The contract amendment will have a value of GBP 8 000 000 ex VAT.
It is considered that this requirement 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 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons.
As the original system designer and manufacturer, IBM have over 19 years’ experience operating the UCCS system which is complex and requires significant expertise and experience to integrate the many individual hardware and software components that it is made up from. In addition, IBM have the necessary test and maintenance tooling required to provide this continued support. The UCCS system is aging with significant obsolescence issues in the supportability of the core system and the associated voice communications system. It is considered that only the contractor has the technical experience and expertise and tooling at its disposal to support this critical system prior to its end of service, when it will be replaced by the MoD’s new Guardian system (which was procured via a competitive tender exercise advertised in the OJEU.)
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


Winner: IBM United Kingdom Ltd
Award value: 56000000