Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-11-21
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Combat Air, UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) Project Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated procedure
CPV classification: 75220000: Civil defence services
Estimated value: 600000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2018-01-15
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Defence services. Live air support to operational training, operational assurance, trials and exercising across all defence environments that cannot be met organically by the Front Line Commands (FLCs).
The ASDOT programme is to meet the air support requirements across the Air, Navy, Army and Joint Forces Commands; progressively replacing existing contracted and military service provision as these programmes expire or reach their planned out of service dates, ASDOT will address this by inviting industry to invest and innovate to provide an adversary threat capability, with potential for Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) technologies, to deliver the required training effects and be capable of evolving and adapting to meet future requirements alongside other contributing virtual constructive and live programmes.
There is also the potential to provide air support to foreign governments and military forces on an ad-hoc tasking basis or when they are conducting combined training alongside UK forces.
ASDOT will be introduced from 2020 for 10 years with options for the Authority to extend for up to 5 years. The estimated value for this 15 year period is approximately 750 000 000 GBP, this element is known as Phase 1.
There is a potential of a surge in requirement around 2027, known as Phase 2, if realised the successful tenderer will have the opportunity to meet this surge requirement and add up to 500 000 000 GBP to the contract value through a contract amendment.
The scope of the ASDOT programme covers provision of live flying assets and technical capabilities to produce effects in support of training and assurance requirements as follows, in no particular order:
Contract extension: There will be 2 option periods, 3 years and two years, following the initial 10 year contract (10+3+2). The Authority will have the option to take up one or both of these options taking the contract length out to 13 or 15 years length.
Conditions relating to financing and payment will be specified in the contractual documentation. Depending on the solution agreed, payment will be made in arrears on satisfactory delivery of the service.
The Authority will require any grouping of economic operators to form a single legal entity (with appropriate financial guarantee from its parent companies) before entering into the contract.
Within the training aspects of the service provision, Training Tactics and Procedures, and the provision of data for electronic measures will be subject to security classification controls of ‘Secret, UK Eyes Only’. Access to this information will therefore be limited to members of the service provider's staff involved in the execution of the contract who have a personal Security Clearance and are nationals of the United Kingdom (UK). 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 a Security Aspects Letter, the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of the Security Aspects Letter 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 Authority will apply all the offences listed in Article 39(1) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (implemented as Regulation 23(1) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 in the UK) and all of the professional misconducts listed at Article 39(2) of Directive 2009/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (see also Regulation 23(2) in the DSPCR 2011) to the decision of whether a Candidate is eligible to be invited to tender.
A full list of the Regulation 23(1) and 23(2) criteria are at http://www.contracts.mod.uk/delta/project/reasonsForExclusion.html#dspr
Candidates will be required to sign a declaration confirming whether they do or do not have any of the listed criteria as part of the pre-qualification process.
Candidates who have been convicted of any of the offences under Article 39(1) are ineligible and will not be selected to bid, unless there are overriding requirements in the general interest (including defence and security factors) for doing so.
Candidates who are guilty of any of the offences, circumstances or misconduct under Article 39(2) may be excluded from being selected to bid at the discretion of the Authority.

Eligibility requirements: (a) Appropriate statements from the economic operator's bankers or where appropriate, evidence of relevant professional risk indemnity insurance. (b) The presentation of balance-sheets or extracts from the balance-sheets, where publication of the balance-sheet is required under the law of the country in which the economic operator is established. (c) Where appropriate, a statement, covering the three previous financial years of the economic operator, of:(i) the overall turnover of the business of the economic operator; and (ii) where appropriate, the turnover in respect of the work, works, goods or services which are of a similar type to the subject matter of the contract. We will request 2 years audited accounts. A level of financial information will be requested through the DPPQ, failure to adequately provide such information may result in potential exclusion from the process.
A financial assessment will be undertaken on the supplier's financial status. An overall pass / fail judgement will be made after considering areas such as turnover, profit, net assets, liquidity, gearing and capacity. This assessment will include the Parent company where applicable. An independent financial assessment obtained from a reputable credit rating organisation will be utilised as part of this process.
All financial questions featured in the PQQ will apply to all levels of the bidding consortium, and will be assessed against reasonable standard for which a solution will be provided.
The estimated annual contract value is 50 000 000 GBP. If the estimated annual contract value is greater than 25 % of the supplier's turnover, the Authority reserves the right to exclude the supplier from being selected to tender except where the supplier provides, to the satisfaction of the Authority, evidence showing it has sufficient economic and financial capability, e.g. such evidence may include: (1) Any additional information proving it has sufficient economic and financial resources to deliver the requirement; and (2) State whether the supplier is willing to provide the Authority with an indemnity, guarantee or bank bond.
(f) a check carried out by the contracting authority or on its behalf by a competent official body of the member State in which the economic operator is established: (i) on the technical capacity of the economic operator; and (ii) if relevant, on the economic operator's study and research facilities and quality control measures, (m) in the case of contracts involving, entailing or containing classified information, evidence of the ability to process, store and transmit such information at the level of protection required by the contracting authority. Evaluation of technical ability will be conducted through the use of a PQQ attached to this notice. The Potential Provider must have a Facility Security Clearance (FSC) granted by its National or Designated Security Authority under the relevant national rules to process, store and transmit classified information at Secret. Potential Providers must also provide similar evidence of their subcontractors' ability to handle classified information at this level of protection, where required by the sub-contract performance. Within the training aspects of the service provision, Training Tactics and Procedures, and the provision of data for electronic measures will be subject to ‘secret, UK eyes only’. Access to this information will therefore be limited to members of the service provider's staff involved in the execution of the contract who have a personal Security Clearance and are nationals of the United Kingdom (UK).
(f) a check carried out by the contracting authority or on its behalf by a competent official body of the member State in which the economic operator is established: (i) on the technical capacity of the economic operator; and (ii) if relevant, on the economic operator's study and research facilities and quality control measures, (m) in the case of contracts involving, entailing or containing classified information, evidence of the ability to process, store and transmit such information at the level of protection required by the contracting authority. Evaluation of technical ability will be conducted through the use of a PQQ attached to this notice.
The Potential Provider must have a Facility Security Clearance (FSC) granted by its National or Designated Security Authority under the relevant national rules to process, store and transmit classified information at Secret. Potential Providers must also provide similar evidence of their subcontractors' ability to handle classified information at this level of protection, where required by the sub-contract performance. Within the training aspects of the service provision, Training Tactics and Procedures, and the provision of data for electronic measures will be subject to ‘secret, UK eyes only’. Access to this information will therefore be limited to members of the service provider's staff involved in the execution of the contract who have a personal Security Clearance and are nationals of the United Kingdom (UK).