Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2020-05-26
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Submarines, In-Service Submarines (ISM) Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
CPV classification: 31421000 | 35512000: Submarines
Estimated value:  GBP

Technical requirements: Procurement, maintenance, support and disposal of Royal Navy Submarine Type 8800 main battery cells, associated support equipment and spares which are required to support the fleet of Vanguard, Astute and Trafalgar Class submarines.
(i) The purpose of this prior information notice (PIN) is to alert the market of the intention of InService Submarines, which forms part of the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA), to enter into a contract on a single source basis with PMB Defence.
(ii) The contract shall be for the procurement, maintenance, support and disposal of Royal Navy Submarine Type 8 800 main battery cells, associated support equipment and spares which are required to support the fleet of Vanguard, Astute and Trafalgar Class submarines.
(iii) Enersys’ exit from the submarine main batteries market and their transfer of all related assets to PMB Defence has resulted in PMB Defence becoming the only supplier capable of providing InService Submarines with the requirement.
(iv) The contract shall be subject to the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice under DSPCR 2011 Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) where for technical reasons the contract may only be awarded to a particular economic operator. This is due to the technical need to utilise the Enersys cell design 8 800 main battery cells to ensure operability with multiple systems such as agitation system, ventilation system, shock, electrical protection, endurance and to ensure nuclear safety.
(v) These systems have been designed and validated against the 8 800 Ahr Enersys cell parameters and onboard battery configuration. The main battery compartment is sized around an exact multiple of the width and length of the cell. Furthermore, all support equipment is sized both electrically and spatially around the 8 800 Ahr Enersys cell. Any replacement battery would require a complete redesign and validation of the relevant systems within the battery compartment. As such, using any other cell would present significant interoperability and incompatibility issues. PMB Defence are the only contractor able to supply the required configuration of cell.
(vi) Furthermore, Regulation 16(1)(b)(i) part (bb) applies. That is because additional Royal Navy Submarine Type 8 800 Main battery cells are required as a partial replacement for the existing cells and to obtain cells from any economic operator other than PMB Defence would oblige SDA to acquire goods having different technical characteristics which would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance.
(vii) It is anticipated that the contract award date will be Autumn 2022 with an estimated value of GBP 20 million. Please note that the dates provided are provided for indicative purposes only.
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
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