Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2016-03-25
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Weapons, Defence General Munitions (DGM) Project Team
Country: UK
Region: Bristol, City of
Contract type: Supplies
CPV classification: 35330000: Ammunition
Estimated value: 870000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Authority has a possible future requirement to procure the following amounts of 0.338” Ball Rounds for use within training and operational roles with the UK Armed Forces. First Delivery would be required by January 2017. The potential contract will be for 4 years, with the potential of option years to follow (up to 4 more years) to be delivered in the Spring of years 2 through to 4 of the contract; exact figures will be discussed and provided in the preceding September.
It is the Authority’s intention to remove all forms of Cobalt from In-Service Rounds; as such, a Solution free of Cobalt, including projectiles, will be looked upon favourably.
Should this requirement proceed, a Contract Notice will be published and you will be invited to complete an online Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, which will be measured against selected criteria in terms of Commercial and Technical requirements.
The Technical requirement will be base lined against the current in-service model and user requirements and include questions regarding: Battlefield Effect; Terminal Effect; Climatic and Environment; Munition Sensitivity; System and Design Safety; Human Factors; Deployability; Training; Sustainment; Policy and Legal; Capability Resilience and Reliability.
The weighting will be released within the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire to denote Key User Requirements, Mandatory, Priority 1 and Priority 2 requirements. Evidence will be required to demonstrate the ammunition can meet the Authority’s requirements set. Any additional trials the Authority require to be undertaken will require sample ammunition to be supplied at the contractor’s cost.
On award of the Contract, the supplying contractor shall provide support to ensure full qualification and maintenance of this qualification throughout the duration of the Contract. This includes, but is not limited to, MOD Safe and Suitability for Service (S3) to assess the ammunition suitability with regard to the Manufacture to the Disposal sequence (MOD may terminate the Contract if any safety concerns become apparent). Any resultant munitions procured as a result of this Prior Information Notice will be subject to the relevant Quality Assurance Standards.
The closing date for expressing your interest in this requirement and confirming you are capable of meeting it is 6.5.2016.
From 2.4.2014 the Government is introducing its new Government Security Classifications Policy (GSC) to replace the current Government Protective Marking Scheme. A key aspect of this is the reduction in the number of security classifications used. All suppliers to the Department are encouraged to make themselves aware of the changes as it may impact on this Requirement. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the new GSC.
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.
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-2016323-DCB-7962957.