Procurement of 500x Palletised Loading System (PLS) Platforms with an option to increase and extend contract quantity and duration

CPV: Flatbed and Tipper trucks

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

9 Aug 2023, 00:57 BST

Last source update

9 Aug 2023, 00:57 BST

Authority reference

708851450

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-023159

Classification (CPV)

Flatbed and Tipper trucks

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03ee1e Find a Tender

Why no open competition

No tenders or no suitable tenders/requests to participate in response to negotiated procedure with prior publication of a contract notice; 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 Vehicle Support Team (VST), as part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to award a two-year contact with the value of approximately £350m excluding VAT to Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles UK Ltd for the purchase of 500 x PLS Platforms with an option to extend for a maximum period of 5-years for purchase of additional quantities of PLS Platforms.

In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement falls to be 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). 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)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for Technical Reasons.

RMMV are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the PLS platform(s)), and they are the manufacturer of the Support Vehicle fleet and owners of the IPR. The Authority does not own or have a right to obtain or provide to third parties the proprietary information and documentation regarding these platforms. Manufacture of these platforms by a third party is not considered possible without direct OEM support and access to the proprietary information. Therefore, as the OEM, RMMV are the only economic operator capable of manufacturing this capability and meeting this requirement within the timeframe required. This vehicle is currently deployed on multiple Operations around the world and further procurement is required to mitigate shortfalls against the Land Fleet Requirement to meet Future Soldier structures. As such, procurement of anything other than the PLS model from RMMV would fail to meet the Authority’s requirement and would introduce a level of risk that is not acceptable to the Authority.

Furthermore, procuring an alternative PLS platform solution from another supplier is not considered a viable option due to the significant additional technical and interoperability complexity that would be introduced, including but not limited to platform interoperability issues, including safe recovery procedures, safe transport procedures and safe integration with UK equipment and flat racks, all of which are currently established for the current in-service RMMV platforms. Any new vehicles must be interoperable with current recovery systems and fault diagnostic equipment. Failure to achieve a coherent fleet would substantially reduce effectiveness and introduce a level of risk that is not acceptable to the Authority.

In addition, introducing different platforms with different support solutions when deployed on contingent operations would not be compatible with the Authority’s requirements existing support solutions, modifications and theatre specific role fits would not be compatible with an alternative platform without significant effort to integrate.

Finally, increased training burden associated with a mixed fleet of platforms, which would include new training material to ensure safe operation of platforms, does not meet the User’s requirement and set pre-deployment training activities. Accordingly, the Authority’s view is that the award of a contract under regulation 16(1)(a)(ii)- technical reasons ground has been met.

• Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV)Awarded supplier BRISTOL, UK

No document links were published on the notice.