Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2017-07-13
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, C&C
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 45212413
Estimated value: 130000 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: Background. Watchkeeper (WK), the Army's Tactical Unmanned Air System, will undertake Operational Field Trials (OFT) from 18.9.2017 - 5.11.2017. A Military Permit for Trials Flying (MPTF) has been issued for these trials, which will run under the Accountable Manager (Military Flying) for the Thales Flight Operations Organisation (FOO). The Thales FOO operate from West Wales Airport, in Aberporth, using the adjacent range danger areas in Cardigan Bay for all WK trials activity. The MPTF ties Thales FOO to West Wales Airport for the OFT.
Army support is required to both facilitate and add realism to the OFT. A full WK sub-unit will deploy to West Wales Airport over the 7 week trial period. A tented camp will be built to accommodate the 80-120 personnel participating in the trial; this camp must be properly established with cooking facilities ablutions and enabling utilities and facilities (water, power, infrastructure).
Provision of access to airfield infrastructure (Unit 3 and Unit 7); establishment of shower blocks and toilets (male and female) together with access to sewerage for waste water; provision of power into tented accommodation; provision of water into the cooking facilities, together with access to sewerage for waste water. These facilities may be required for an additional period, should the trial period need to extend, so provision for additional weeks (week by week) will need to be factored in.
Army HQ Commercial Branch, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a contract to West Wales Airport Ltd for critical infrastructure and services to be put in place to accommodate the Watchkeeper Force for the duration of Real Life Support (RLS) to the Watchkeeper Operational Field Trials which will run from early September to late October 2017. It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 32(2)(b)(ii) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Procurement Regulations 2015) for technical reasons. This is because West Wales Airport is a recognised Unmanned Air System trials location and Thales, the providers of the Watchkeeper capability, have a contract to deliver trials flying from West Wales Airport. West Wales Airport has the regulatory permissions to operate Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) from its airfield and the necessary airspace above in which to fly them. Larger UAVs like Watchkeeper need segregated airspace and an air traffic control service to maintain separation from other air users — another regulatory requirement.
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-2017710-DCB-10604301.


Winner: West Wales Airport Ltd
Award value: 130000