Provision of Salvaged Aircraft Hulls and Facilities

Cyber & Specialist Operations Command (CSOC), part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to award a contract to eCube Solutions Ltd (eCube) for the provision of salvaged aircraft hulls and facilities to support specialist training. The contract will be for a term of 3 years (with the option to extend for up to two further periods of 12 months). The contract has an estimated value of £780,000 (inclusive of VAT).

It is considered that this contract can be awarded under Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023 because the direct award justification specified in paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 (single supplier – technical reasons) applies.

This is because there is an absence of competition for technical reasons. MoD published a tender notice inviting suppliers to submit tenders (under Notice Identifier 2025/S 000-041978 and Procurement Identifier (OCID) ocds-h6vhtk-0503c5) but received no responses. The tender was terminated (by notice identifier: 2025/S 000-062187). Subsequently, MoD contacted the suppliers who had viewed the opportunity, and they confirmed that they were unable to deliver the requirement. Notwithstanding the fact that it did not submit a tender, eCube (a previous supplier of these services) has confirmed that it can deliver the requirement. It is therefore the only supplier with the technical capability to provide the required services, and there is no reasonable alternative.