Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-04-16
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, Vehicle Support Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35421100
Estimated value: 2500000 GBP

Technical requirements: The vehicle support team – Operations, part of the Ministry of Defence, intends to place a one-off 1-year supply contract with general dynamics land systems – Force Protection Europe (“the Contractor”) for the manufacture and supply of the following Foxhound items, at an estimated total value of up to 2 500 000 GBP:
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 (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011), for technical reasons. The procurement of replacement of the items above from another contractor would result in the ALARP status of the Foxhound fleet being compromised. These items form part of safety critical sub-systems (pneumatic power, braking, vehicle power and engine electricals) and if not built to the approved build standard/specification would cause operational and maintenance issues with the potential for loss of control of the platforms due to failure or tolerance issues.
Only the Contractor, as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the Foxhound engine, pneumatic system (compressor and ABS), power system (battery) and engine electronics (starter and ECU), has access to the design and technical information, expertise, knowledge and know-how necessary to provide the required goods for the Foxhound items listed above. A third party would not be able to carry out this work without access to the necessary design and technical information which is required to produce the goods to the correct technical specification, in terms of quality, performance and safety. The items listed above being procured under this contract form part of sub-systems that have been deemed to be safety critical to the operation of the platform and so must be produced to the correct specification, held only by general dynamics land systems – Force Protection Europe. This information is not available to the Authority as it is owned by the contractor in their role as the OEM and the Authority does not have the necessary rights to that information to provide to any third party.
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-2019412-DCB-14795782


Winner: Force Protection Europe Ltd
Award value: 2500000