<£10m · UK public procurement notice

CPV: Unmanned underwater vehicles

Procedure method

Negotiated without publication of a contract notice

Legal basis

CELEX · 32009L0081 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (Directive 2009/81/EC)

Procurement category

Goods

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Competitive procedure

GPA / WTO covered

Yes (GPA)

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

17 Jan 2024, 12:14 GMT

Last source update

17 Jan 2024, 12:14 GMT

FTS notice number

2024/S 000-001597

Classification (CPV)

Unmanned underwater vehicles

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-042de1 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the directive; The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

The Secretary of State for Defence intends to enter into a contract with QinetiQ Limited for the for deployment, maintenance and support of the Underwater Mobile Acoustic Targets (UMAT) programme. The UMAT is an underwater target used by submarine crews during Spearfish Heavyweight Torpedo certification firings at MoD British Underwater Test Evaluation Centre (BUTEC), Scotland. In accordance with regulation 4 of the Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement is regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450) (“DSPCR 2011”).

Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate. It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(d)(i)(aa) of the DSPCR 2011because the incumbent prime contractor and subcontractor undertaking the mandated upgrade programme of the UMAT are the only economic operators with the approved licencing and technical capability to upgrade the existing UMAT to maintain the Spearfish Firing Certification, based on the fact that their upgrade design programme is the only design approved and licenced by the US Department of Defence, the providers of the UMAT. The subcontractor will only maintain a contracting relationship with the current prime, and the shared ownership of the upgrade design makes too difficult to compete this requirement.

Any change of contractor from QinetiQ would require a full reset of the upgrade programme creating a significant capability gap of up to 24 months, as any new contractor would require design approval for required upgrades, and ITAR certification from the United States Department of Defence. The upgrade requirement was an unknown requirement prior to the award of the current incumbent contract, this additional work was unforeseen. It is necessary to fulfil a strategic capability and it cannot for technical or economic reasons be carried out separately from the original contract without major inconvenience to the contracting authority or the Royal Navy.

It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011. This is because the design, created and owned between QinetiQ and Emeritus Solutions, is the only technical upgrade solution that has been given formal approval by the US DoD to upgrade their UMATs. Any alternative upgrade design programme would require review, approval, and certification from the US DoD and would also require ITAR licencing approval. This could incur a capability gap of up to 24 months. UMAT is mandatory in the submarine crew Spearfish certification firing process, which is a strategic national capability for maintaining Spearfish aboard the Continuous At Sea Deterrent (CASD). Therefore for technical reasons only QinetiQ can provide the technical solution necessary to maintain this critical strategic capability.

• QinetiQ LimitedAwarded supplier Portsmouth, UK

No document links were published on the notice.