715958490 - EOD Enabling Support Contract

Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement; Defence Security Operational

The Ministry of Defence (the “Authority”) intends to award a contract to NP Aerospace Limited (“the Supplier”) for the provision of Service Life Extension and Through Life Support through an enabling support contract for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bomb Suits (the “Equipment”) and its associated In Service Support (“ISS”) through to the planned Out of Service Date in 2035.

The contract has an estimated value of £20,000,000 including VAT. The contract will be for nine (“9”) years.

In accordance with Section 41(1)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023 (the “Act”), the Authority intends to rely on the Single Supplier direct award justification, as set out in Paragraph 6 and Paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 of the Act, to award a public contract directly to the Supplier not being an excluded Supplier.

It is considered that a direct award is permissible under the Act on the basis that, due to an absence of competition for technical reasons and the incompatibility of services by alternative suppliers, only the Supplier can carry out the services and there are no alternatives to those goods, services or works for the following reasons:

The Supplier is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEM”) and Design Authority for the current in-service EOD Bomb Suit/Equipment capability.

• As OEM, only the Supplier has the necessary technical knowledge and capability to undertake the required safety-critical analysis, design assurance activities, post-design services, obsolescence management and life-extension activities associated with the equipment.
• A change of supplier would create significant technical and operational risks, including incompatibility with the current Equipment design baseline, disruption to established safety assurance arrangements, additional qualification and certification activity, duplication of costs, and unacceptable delays to the delivery of critical capability.
• Such disruption would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in both operation and maintenance and would undermine the Authority's ability to maintain assured EOD protection capability of the Equipment.
• The interoperability and integration issues created through the introduction of a new supplier would result in services incompatible with the existing goods, services or works and would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and/or maintenance of the Equipment.

Accordingly, the Supplier is considered as the only supplier that can provide the services and there are no alternatives to those services as required by the Authority.

The contract will not be awarded to an excluded supplier. A Contract Award Notice and Contract Details Notice will follow in accordance with Procurement Act 2023.