Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2017-05-23
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Air Support, Air ISTAR
Country: UK
Region: Lincolnshire
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 50211000: Repair and maintenance services of aircraft
Estimated value: 10000000 GBP

Technical requirements: Initial design work for the Sentinel mission system, to design out obsolescence and sustain the capability until the aircraft's Out of Service Date of 31.3.2021 to at least the same level of performance as the current system.
The AirISTAR Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (‘MoD’) intends to award a contract to Raytheon Systems Limited (‘RSL’) to undertake initial design work for the Sentinel mission system, to design out obsolescence and sustain the capability until the aircraft's Out of Service Date of 31.3.2021 to at least the same level of performance as the current system.
The AirISTAR Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (‘MoD’) intends to award a contract to Raytheon Systems Limited (‘RSL’) to undertake initial design work for the Sentinel mission system, to design out obsolescence and sustain the capability until the aircraft's Out of Service Date of 31.3.2021 to at least the same level of performance as the current system. The contract will cover initial design work up to a Preliminary Design Review stage for modification of the Dual Mode Radar (‘DMR’) which is the primary sensor for the Sentinel fleet of aircraft and an update to the Workstation Sub System (‘WSS’) operating software. A mission radar software update will be made to resolve a known issue with the radar reaching its physical end stops. Modifications to the Satellite Communication (‘SatCom’) system will be made to sustain the system; alternative parts will be developed to resolve obsolescence in the backplane and system controller within the extant SatCom Air System Data Processor. The SatCom scope of work will either be contracted in full or up to the Critical Design Review stage only. The contract period of performance is for a period of up to 14 months.
It is considered that this contract can be awarded using the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical and exclusive rights reasons. This is because RSL is the only contractor with the expertise and specific know-how to perform the work. RSL is the only entity with knowledge of the system interfaces and subsystems and with access to the technical data to perform the work. This includes design data, engineering and manufacturing drawings and the software product specification.
The DMR is the prime sensor of the Sentinel aircraft. The entirety of the aircraft interior rear cabin space and large parts of the aircraft fuselage have been designed and developed to accommodate the DMR system in its current form as supplied by RSL. The WSS integrates the DMR and SatCom with the rest of the aircraft systems and has been designed and developed to support the DMR and SatCom systems and to fit within the cabin space. The software being run by the WSS is also Sentinel specific and written to interface with the DMR and the individual circuit card assemblies and components therein, it is written by RSL. Only RSL have the expertise and specific know how to fulfil this requirement and so it would be technically impracticable for another contractor to do so.
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-2017519-DCB-10242074.


Winner: Raytheon Systems Limited
Award value: 10000000