Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-06-19
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Air Support, Air Commodities Project Team (AC PT)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 50000000
Estimated value: 9738079 GBP

Technical requirements: Support and spares for a wide range of mobile and fixed aircraft hydraulic servicing equipment used in the maintenance of all rotary wing, hawk and battle of Britain memorial aircraft and their associated components.
This notice is not a request for expressions of interest so do not apply to be invited to tender. The authority has decided to negotiate a contract with the named supplier on a single source basis, and is published for reasons of transparency. If you are interested in becoming a sub-contract for this requirement, you should apply directly to the supplier named above.
The Air Commodities Delivery Team, Defence Equipment and Support, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (‘the Authority’), intends to award a 5-year + 1 ‘option’ year contract to Sun Test Systems B.V for the In-Service Support (ISS) of the equipment it has in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The contract will commence on 1 January 2021 and expire on 1 January 2026, and will ensure this equipment is maintained in, or returned to, a ‘fully task-worthy’ condition through to its Out of Service Date (OSD).
It is considered that the 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 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons, the contract may be awarded only to this particular economic operator. The reasons for this are as follows:
Sun Test Systems B.V is the OEM for a range of hydraulically operated ground support and test equipment that is currently in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The company’s range of equipment is used to operate and maintain aircraft hydraulic systems, pre and post-flight, and to test the suitability of hydraulically driven aircraft components and assemblies before they are returned to service following maintenance. The contract for the in-service support of this range of equipment covers annual maintenance, calibration, physical repairs and the updating of proprietary firmware and software, however, it does not cover the release of any proprietary information to third parties and hence the Authority does not have access to the data-packs associated with the equipment this OEM has in service with the RAF. Therefore, the Authority does not have access to the necessary proprietary information to carry out the requirement itself or to share with other economic operators. Sun Test Systems B.V have confirmed they are not prepared to grant any licences in relation to their proprietary information so as to enable another economic operator to carry out the Authority’s requirement.
Sun Test Systems B.V also maintains the complementary safety cases. There is a significant risk that if a third party took over the contract for in-service support that the functionality of the equipment would decline in time due to the loss of proprietary information in the form of firmware and software upgrades that can only be provided by Sun Test Systems B.V. This means that the safety cases would, over time, deteriorate. Maintaining the risk to human life at As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) and ‘tolerable’ would become increasingly unpredictable and hence accelerate the equipment’s removal from service. Placing a contract with Sun Test Systems B.V is the only means of maintaining the integrity of the equipment through to its natural OSD.
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 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.
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
For V2.1 the award date of 15/06/2020 is to be disregarded as the contract is yet to be awarded. This has been populated as it is a required field. Go reference: GO-2020616-DCB-16739570


Winner: Sun Test Systems B.V
Award value: 9738079