Procurement of 70x High Mobility Truck Variant (HMTV) Platforms and Associated Support Items

CPV: Armoured military vehicles

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Goods

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

6 Oct 2022, 15:25 BST

Last source update

20 Feb 2023, 14:31 GMT

Authority reference

705131450

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-005033

Classification (CPV)

Armoured military vehicles

Delivery area

UK

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-037385 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

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), have placed a contract with Supacat Limited for the procurement of additional HMTV platforms and associated support items such as CES and training support.

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 was not 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.

This is because procuring an alternative HMTV platform solution is not considered reasonable in this instance 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 weapon systems, all of which are currently established for the current in-service Supacat HMTV platforms and would introduce a level of risk that is not acceptable to the Authority.

In addition, it would not meet the Authority’s requirement to introduce different platforms with different support solutions when deployed on contingent operations.

Existing modifications and theatre specific role fits would not be compatible with an alternative platform without significant effort to integrate.

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.

Supacat Limited are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the HMTV platform(s) and they are the sole manufacturer of the HMTV vehicles 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, Supacat Limited are the only economic operator capable of manufacturing this capability and meeting this requirement.

This vehicle is currently deployed on multiple Operations around the world and further procurement is required to mitigate shortfalls against the current fleet as well as Future Soldier structures. As such, procurement of anything other than the HMTV model from Supacat Limited would fail to meet the Authority’s requirement and would introduce a level of risk that is not acceptable to the Authority.

• Supacat LimitedAwarded supplier The Airfield, Dunkeswell, South West, EX14 4LFContact email, phoneShow contact details
• Supacat LimitedAwarded supplier01514084 The Airfield, Dunkeswell, Honiton, South West, EX14 4LF

No document links were published on the notice.