Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-01-10
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Helicopters, Chinook Project Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 34711500: Military aeroplanes | 35612400 | 71356300 | 72250000: System and support services | 72253000: Helpdesk and support services
Estimated value: 1 GBP

Technical requirements: In-service support services for the hardware and software for the Ground Mission Support System (GMSS) on the Chinook aircraft.
The Cyber Risk level of this procurement has been assessed: Risk Level “Low” and reference RAR-JWHQ83Y3.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence is seeking to put in place in-service support arrangements for the Ground Mission Support System (GMSS), which provides data and information on to the Chinook Fleet using a data transfer module for loading aboard aircraft. The authority intends to place a contract with Thales UK Ltd with a duration of 2 years for the ongoing support of the extant GMSS hardware and software, including laptops and servers (such contract being the contract). Thales UK Ltd will further provide under the terms of the contract technical support and support management services (including but not limited to obsolescence and configuration management) in relation to the GMSS.
It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC and Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/No.1848) on the basis that for reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights the contract may be awarded only to Thales UK Ltd. Thales UK Ltd is the original equipment manufacturer and design authority of the GMSS and alone holds all relevant technical rights (including rights in the system's source code), data and information (including in relation to the Chinook Mission Avionics System, with which the GMSS must be interoperable) required for the performance of services under the contract. There is no available and lawful equivalent right that another economic operator could offer, which could support the contract services: Thales UK Ltd has not licensed its rights’ exploitation to any other economic operator nor does the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence have a licence to use such exclusive rights which would enable it to procure the subject matter of the contract from another supplier. Accordingly, a third party would be unable to carry out the essential support activities required (such as software upgrades and modifications) under the contract.
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-201818-DCB-11690322.


Winner: Thales UK Limited
Award value: 1