Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2016-08-19
Buyer: MOD, ISTAR, ADEWS
Country: UK
Region: UNITED KINGDOM
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 71336000
Estimated value: 2000000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Airfield Radar Integration Project (ARIP) system provides low level radar surveillance coverage across the UK airspace. The ARIP system takes radar data from a number of military and civilian transmitter sites and routes this data via secure Integrated Systems Digital Network (ISDN) lines through a backbone site to the 3 UK Control and Reporting Centres (CRCs) for surveillance operators to utilize for situational awareness. The ARIP system was developed by Cobham Aviation Services as a product called RDSNet and has been in use since 2006.
The Airfield Radar Integration Project (ARIP) system provides low level radar surveillance coverage across the UK airspace. The ARIP system takes radar data from a number of military and civilian transmitter sites and routes this data via secure Integrated Systems Digital Network (ISDN) lines through a backbone site to the 3 UK Control and Reporting Centres (CRCs) for surveillance operators to utilize for situational awareness. The ARIP system was developed by Cobham Aviation Services as a product called RDSNet and has been in use since 2006. The current CLS contract expires on 30.9.2016 and there is a need to set up a new contract to ensure ongoing technical support for the system. There is a requirement to extend the CLS contract for a period of 5 years from Q3 2016. The length of the contract is sufficient to address uncertainties over the future migration of the ARIP system into Project Guardian, a future competitive procurement, from 2020 onwards.
The Air Defence and Electronics Warfare Systems Delivery Team (ADEWS DT) of the Ministry of Defence (‘MOD’) intends to grant a 5 year extension to a Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) contract with FR Aviation Limited (trading as ‘Cobham Aviation Services’) for the Airfield Radar Integration Project (ARIP) (‘the CLS Contract’). The ARIP system takes radar data from a number of military and civilian transmitter sites and routes this data via secure Integrated Systems Digital Network (ISDN) lines through a backbone site to the 3 UK Control and Reporting Centres (CRCs) for surveillance operators to utilize for situational awareness. The CLS Contract expires on 30.9.2016. The placing of this extension with Cobham Aviation Services will enable MOD to continue to support the ARIP system whilst a longer term solution is identified and procured. It is MOD's intention that any future solution will be procured via open competition in due course.
It is considered that the contract extension can be placed directly with Cobham Aviation Services using the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for exclusive rights and technical reasons as follows.
The contract requirement is essentially the procurement of software maintenance (and associated hardware interface) services to software embedded in the ARIP system and without which the ARIP system cannot function. Performance of the contract requires access to Cobham Aviation Services' IPR in the form of relevant source codes for that software for which neither MOD nor any third party has relevant rights. Introduction of any other software would have implications on the functionality of the ARIP system which could render the system unusable in terms of time and performance from both an operational and safety point of view.
In addition only Cobham Aviation Services also have the necessary detailed technical knowledge and know-how in the ARIP system to enable an effective support service to be provided to the reasonable satisfaction of MOD.


Award value: 2000000