Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-09-04
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Weapons, Air To Air Missiles (AAM) Project Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 75220000: Civil defence services
Estimated value: 1798000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Air to Air Missiles (AAM) Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a new contract to extend the support of Rangeless Airborne Instrumented De-Briefing System (‘RAIDS’) for RAF Fast Jet Squadrons with MBDA UK Ltd ‘MBDA’) for a period of 18 months starting 1 October 2020. The value of this extension is GBP 1 798 billion.
AAM PT intends to place a new contract to support of RAIDS with MBDA for 18 months starting 1 October 2020.
This contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication 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) because competition is absent for technical reasons as MBDA is the only economic operator with the required level of expertise to support the requirement.
MBDA are the design authority for the heavy-weight pod and the bespoke harnesses. There are C of D’s which are derived and held by MBDA. Failure to implement suitable support would jeopardise the training and full post-flight debriefing. It is considered only MBDA are suitably qualified and experienced to provide the support, as well as offering an acceptable level of risk to the safety and maintenance of the capability.
The Air to Air Missiles (AAM) Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a new contract to extend the support of Rangeless Airborne Instrumented De-Briefing System (‘RAIDS’) for RAF Fast Jet Squadrons with MBDA UK Ltd ‘MBDA’) for a period of 18 months starting 1 October 2020. The value of this extension is GBP 1 798 billion.
It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication 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) because competition is absent for technical reasons. This is because MBDA is the only economic operator that has the required level of expertise to support the requirement.
MBDA are the design authority for the heavy-weight pod and the bespoke harnesses used to fit the heavy-weight pods to Typhoon aircraft. There are multiple certificate of designs which are derived and held by MBDA. In addition, MBDA maintain a spares inventory, have bespoke RAIDS test equipment and have personnel trained to repair the system and deliver training to Users. The technical expertise within MBDA is key to the continued support and maintenance of the RAIDS system for the RAF Fast Jet Squadrons. Failure to implement suitable support would jeopardise the training and full post-flight debriefing for the RAF. It is therefore considered that MBDA are the only organisation suitably qualified and experienced to provide the required level of support, as well as offering an acceptable level of risk to the safety and maintenance of the capability.
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-202091-DCB-17014980


Winner: MBDA UK Ltd
Award value: 1798000