Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-03-20
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Combat Air, Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35613000
Estimated value: 1 GBP

Technical requirements: The provision of contractor logistic support to include supply of spares, equipment storage, maintenance and repair, training support, engineering and engineering safety support and maintenance of technical documentation.
The Secretary of State for Defence (“the Authority”) through the defence equipment and support unmanned air systems team intends to renew the contract for the provision of contractor logistic support (CLS) to support contract number (TUAV/00026), made between the authority and Thales UK Limited (“the Contractor”) for the demonstration, manufacture and initial support of the Watchkeeper Unmanned Air System (UAS) (“the DMIS Contract”) in Jul 2005. The current support service is delivered via the Provision of Watchkeeper Support contract (UAS/00069) which is due to expire 31.3.2019.
There is a continuing requirement beyond this date for the provision of support to the system at the full operating capability (FOC) equipment standard. The proposed contractual requirement will be for a period of 3 years with a further option period of up to 2 years. The contract will also contain associated training services for the development of Watchkeeper operators and maintainers.
The authority considers that this contract action can be taken 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). This is for the following technical reasons:
Firstly, there is a strict technical impracticality for any contractor other than the current contractor to provide the required services due to the necessity to use specific know-how and information which only the contractor has at its disposal. Ongoing development of the Watchkeeper UAS under the DMIS contract to deliver the contracted FOC equipment standard, means there is currently insufficient baseline technical data available (including flight trial, maintenance, servicing and spares data) to provide an alternative contactor the information necessary to bid for and deliver the required support thus necessitating reliance on the contractor’s know-how and expertise.
Secondly, there are constraints associated with the impracticality for alternative suppliers to be able to deliver the required services, including the training solution, due to logistical, interoperability and safety requirements which must be met to the authority’s satisfaction during the continued development and modification of the systems to the FOC equipment standard under the DMIS contract.
Thirdly the conversion of the systems to FOC standard will necessitate the provision of a technical data pack, to be provided by the contractor, without which the required service cannot be undertaken by another contractor.
This notice is not a request for expressions of interest so please do not apply to be invited to tender. This notice advises that 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-contractor for this requirement, you should apply directly to the named supplier.


Winner: Thales UK Limited
Award value: 1