Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-12-15
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, Other
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35410000: Armoured military vehicles
Estimated value: 15414331 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: The Thermal Imaging System (TIS) within the Challenger II Main Battle Tank (MBT) provides both the gunner and the commander with a dual magnification thermal picture with a superimposed aiming mark.
The TI System will suffer critical obsolescence with current estimates indicating that the Challenger II fleet will be impacted between 2018 and 2023. Whilst there is a parallel project (Challenger II Life Extension Project) scheduled to deliver in 2023 to solve this and a number of other obsolescence issues, it is forecasted that obsolescence issues in the TI System will impact prior to this date. Therefore an interim solution is required to sustain the Thermal Imaging capability until any future replacement is delivered into service.
The Armoured Vehicles Programme In-Service Platforms Team, part of the Ministry of Defence, intends to place a contract with *BAE Global Combat Systems* for the Demonstration and Manufacture of an interim modification to the Challenger 2 Thermal Imaging System.
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 UK Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011) for technical reasons.
Only *BAE Global Combat Systems*, as the Design Authority for the Challenger II platform, have access to the technical information, expertise, and know-how necessary to provide the modification. If a third party were to carry out this work, there would be a delay delivering this requirement due to the disproportionate time it would take to qualify and implement a new TI system.
There is a strict technical impracticality for a supplier other than BAES to fulfil the activity associated with Proving Trials and the updating and approval of the Platform Safety Case within the required timescales and to the necessary standard. In turn, it will also mitigate any delays to the programme that would otherwise result in an inherent safety risk and consequently lead to a dramatic reduction in both Platform capability and availability.
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-20171212-DCB-11559232.


Winner: BAE SYSTEMS Global Combat Systems Ltd. (BAES)
Award value: 15414331
Number of bids: 1