Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2016-07-22
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Air Support, Flight Simulation and Synthetic Trainers Project Team (FSAST PT)
Country: UK
Region: Lincolnshire
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 34741400
Estimated value: 10000000 GBP
EU fund: ESF

Technical requirements: The Interim Air Synthetic Training Capability (iASTC) (Task 04-015) will address a capability gap that has been identified in the existing Distributed Synthetic Air Land Training (DSALT) provision.
The Flight Simulators and Synthetic Trainers Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), intends to place an amendment to the Distributed Synthetic Air Land Training (DSALT2) contract with QinetiQ Ltd (the Services Provider ) to provide for the Interim Air Synthetic Training Capability (IASTC) upgrade requirement. It is considered that this amendment can be undertaken without the prior publication of a contract notice and placed with the Services Provider pursuant to Articles 28(1)(e) and 28(4)(a) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulations 16(1)(a)(ii) and 16(1)(d)(i) respectively of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for the following reasons:
a. The IASTC upgrade is required to address a capability gap that has recently been identified in the current DSALT provision. This capability gap was unforeseen at the time that the DSALT2 contract was placed and the value of the upgrade will be less than 50 % of the original contract value. It cannot be undertaken separately from the services still being delivered under the original contract by the Services Provider without major inconvenience to the MOD.
b. Under the terms of the DSALT2 contract, the Services Provider is responsible for certifying any modifications made to the DSALT training system and only the Services Provider has the necessary expertise and know-how to ensure interoperability and compatibility from a technical and safety certification perspective to the reasonable satisfaction of the authority.
c. There is software within the DSALT facility to which QinetiQ hold Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Elements of this software will require modification in order to deliver IASTC. This software is not licenced to allow third party use and the MOD does not hold the necessary rights to provide access to third parties.
For information, the authority intends to seek delivery of a holisitc future requirement to be known as the Defence Operating Training Capability (Air) (DOTC(A) Defence Core Systems and Services (DCS&S) requirement to be delivered following open competition. and which, amongst other additional capabilities, is intended to wholly replace the current DSALT provision. It is, therefore, considered that the IASTC upgrade is a temporary measure which will allow the legacy DSALT system to address the training gap until implementation of DCS&S.
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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


Award value: 10000000