Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-11-14
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, DSG, Defence Support Group (DSG)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 50000000
Estimated value: 1400000 GBP

Technical requirements: The Repair of Optronic Assemblies/Line Replacement Units (LRUs) and Swarmlite and Protector Remote Weapon Systems (RWS)
Babcock DSG Ltd acting as an agent on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence, has a requirement to place a 5 year framework agreement with the possibility of 2 x 1 year options, for the repair and maintenance of Line Replacement Units (LRUs) and Swarmlite and Protector remote weapon stations (RWS), equipment to be covered but not limited to:
Babcock DSG Ltd acting on behalf of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence intends to place a 5 year contract with a further 2 x 1 option years with Thales UK Ltd for the repair and maintenance of the Protector family of Remote Weapon Stations (RWS).
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 Contract Regulations 2011) for the following technical reasons:
1) Thales UK Ltd has the necessary access to the OEM design and technical documentation relating to the RWS Systems and their associated optics together with the platform integration data and associated safety approvals for the armoured vehicle that it is fitted to. Further, Thales has developed the approved safety-critical Protector Platform Configuration (PPC) software enabling SQEP support to be provided to the protector RWS safety panels. No other economic operator would be able to fulfil these requirements without introducing a high level of project risk to the integration, operational, supportability and safety aspects of the requirement, all of which would not be acceptable for the safe operation of the Protector RWS products used by UK armed forces;
2) As a result, Thales UK Ltd are currently the only economic operator with the technical expertise and know-how to undertake the services covered by the scope of this contract.
This notice is not a request for expressions of interest so please do not apply to be invited to tender. This notice advises that the authority has decided to negotiate a contract with the named supplier on a single source basis, and is published for reasons of transparency.
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-20191113-DCB-15566655


Winner: Thales UK Ltd Land and Air Systems
Award value: 1400000