704395456 FTL-SS-VTN

The Dismounted Close Combat programme team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a five-year contract with Ian Edgar (Liverpool) Limited (TA – Edgar Brothers) for the procurement of a Fused Target Locator (FTL) capability, with an initial procurement of 36 FTL systems at an estimated value of £6,000,000 and scope to procure additional FTL systems and increase the contract up to a value of £191,000,000 Ex VAT if required. In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI No.2019/697) this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011) as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450).  Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate. It is considered that this Contract can be placed using the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) and is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR for technical reasons due to strict technical impracticality for any economic operator other than Edgar Brothers to achieve the technical requirements needed by the Authority for the FTL system and the critical interoperability, compatibility and commonality purposes that is required with the current FTL system. Edgar Brothers is the only economic operator that is able to meet the Authority’s requirement to provide a handheld TRL 9 FTL solution that meets the Authority’s bespoke needs in possessing the following set of technical capabilities: (a) The capability to detect vehicles in excess of 25km in the IR spectrum, via a multi-channel handheld sensor (b) The capability to provide a range to target in excess of 25km and to the limit of visual detection (c) The ability to provide accurate target location within a TLE of Cat 1, as defined in JSP 900; utilising software that complies with STANAG 4609 and is not of a security classification higher than Official Sensitive. Edgar Brothers are the sole UK sales agent for its FTL system’s main component the Jim-compact and in combination with other system elements, provide a unique FTL system. The Authority’s critical technical capabilities can only be met by this unique FTL system, and the requirement therefore cannot be met by any other economic operator. The current FTL system provided by Edgar Brothers has integrated in a manner that permits networking of the sensor feed without affecting interoperability or safety. In addition to technical capability, the Authority is not able to procure an alternative solution as it would be incapable of fully satisfying the technical requirements relating to interoperability as any new system would be incapable of communicating with the existing FTL fleet due to a lack of integration and would provide a fleet of inconsistent capability. This interoperability issue would unacceptably affect the ability for new and existing FTL systems to effectively communicate, thus compromising the safety of the end-user in operational theatre and substantially increasing risk to life.