Official UK procurement notice
VTN - Project ASurvey - The Provision of an Automated Aircraft Inspection Capability for Poseidon MRA-Mk1 Aircraft of the Royal Air Force
Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionAn automated aircraft inspection capability, for the RAF's Poseidon MRA-Mk1 (P8-A), enabling fast, accurate and detailed damage mapping of external airframe damage.
Military aircraft are subject to numerous hazards due to harsh operating conditions, in-flight refuelling or loading and unloading during ground operations. Whether at their home base or during operational deployments, fleet availability and optimal aircraft condition are key to guarantee efficiency and safety of operations. As a proof of concept, Project ASURVEY will use autonomous drone technology at RAF Lossiemouth on Poseidon MRA-Mk1. As the air system is new into service, the CAMO will be able to establish a detailed baseline of the aircraft external condition and maintain a comprehensive history of damage to individual tail numbers. This will be able to feed into the aircraft structural integrity, and environmental protection working groups. The data produced for each tail number would further enable the CAMO's data exploitation working group, identifying common and unusual trends,
CPV: Specialist vehicles
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1An automated aircraft inspection capability, initially for the RAF's Poseidon MRA-Mk1…
An automated aircraft inspection capability, initially for the RAF's Poseidon MRA-Mk1 (P8-A), enabling fast, accurate and detailed damage mapping of external airframe damage
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- 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
- 19 Feb 2024, 07:51 GMT
- Last source update
- 19 Feb 2024, 07:51 GMT
- FTS notice number
2024/S 000-005306- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-043af9Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
- Published justification
The Air Commercial, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (the "Authority"), intends to award a contract to Donecle for the The Provision of an Automated Aircraft Inspection Capability for a period of 2 years. The estimated contract value is circa £200,000 excluding VAT.
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 DSPCR 2011 for technical reasons. This is because only Donecle has the technology suitably accredited to undertake this task in line with acceptable SyOPs parameters and has the know-how solution to achieve the requirement. Donecle solution is the only equipment with full security accreditation from the Air Accreditor for use. Accordingly, the Authority's view is that the circumstances specified in regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) is satisfied."
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecastContracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- Air CommercialReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- DONECLEAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.