CONTRACT NOTICE FOR CONTRACTS IN THE FIELD OF DEFENCE AND SECURITY

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

II.1.2)

Type of service contract

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

II.1.3)

Information on framework agreement

The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

	Framework agreement with a single operators
	Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds seven years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

1 Since the first V2 attack on London in 1944 ballistic missiles have posed a near constant threat to the UK, its overseas interests, and forces. Adversaries continue to invest in and proliferate increasingly advanced ballistic and manoeuvrable threat systems to challenge our freedom of action.

2 The UK Missile Defence Centre (MDC), a unique government-industry partnership within MOD Head Office, is responsible for all UK missile defence Research & Development (R&D). The MDC was established as a government-industry partnership to provide support to decision makers on all aspects of Missile Defence and to provide a pipeline of funding to sustain SQEP in relevant UK industry sectors. Through continuing implementation of the 2020 MOD Science & Technology (S&T) Strategy, the Missile Defence R&D category must sustain, exploit, and develop UK industrial and academic expertise to continue to develop next generation and generation after next technologies applicable to Integrated Air and Missile Defence.

3 The Missile Defence R&D Category Strategy, approved in May 2023, recommended creation of a new route to market bringing together core research and technology maturation projects into a single contract, enhancing research outcomes and supply chain efficiency. The contract shall manage delivery of research covering all activities to counter ballistic missiles and advanced threats including but not limited to simple non-separating threats, complex separating threats, Manoeuvring Re-Entry Vehicles (MaRVs) and Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs), Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs), Hypersonic Cruise Missiles (HCM) and hybrid threats which share characteristics with BM, HGV and/or HCM. The research required will cover analysis, experimentation, trials and technology/system development across all pillars of missile defence:

• Counter-proliferation - measures to minimise the spread of missile technology,

• Deterrence - measures to discourage the use of threat missiles,

• Counterforce - measures to reduce the quantity of missiles and supporting equipment / facilities available to an aggressor during a conflict,

• Active defence - measures to detect, track, intercept and disable/destroy missiles in flight,

• Passive defence - measures to mitigate and recover from the effects of threat missiles impacting on their target.

4 The Contractor will be required to work in close co-ordination with the MDC to design and manage a contract pipeline to deliver the Missile Defence R&D category’s research requirements. The pipeline will need to permit large, multi-year research technology maturation projects, multinational and multi-supplier trials, as well as short-term rapid analysis and short-notice access to subject matter expertise to contribute to the rapid provision of advice to decision makers across UK Government. It is envisaged that this will be best delivered with a coordination function co-located with the Missile Defence Centre in Farnborough.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Information about subcontracting

	The tenderer has to indicate in the tender any share of the contract it may intend to subcontract to third parties and any proposed subcontractor, as well as the subject-matter of the subcontracts for which they are proposed.
	The tenderer has to indicate any change occurring at the level of subcontractors during the execution of the contract.
	The contracting authority/entity may oblige the successful tenderer to award all or certain subcontracts through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to specify which part or parts of the contract it intends to subcontract beyond the required percentage and to indicate the subcontractors already identified.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to subcontract the following share of the contract through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC: minimum percentage: (%), maximum percentage: (%) of the value of the contract. (The maximum percentage may not exceed 30% of the value of the contract)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.1)

Conditions Relating to the Contract

III.1.1)

Deposits and guarantees required

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

The successful Contractor will need to hold Facility Security Clearance within three months of contract award

At least 95% of the value of the contract must be delivered by a UK workforce to develop, nurture and sustain UK experience and capabilities in Missile Defence research and development.

III.1.5)

Information about security clearance

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once)

- Browse to the eSourcing Portal

- Click the “Click here to register” link

- Accept the terms and conditions and click “continue”

- Enter your correct business and user details

- Note the username you chose and click “Save” when complete

- You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure)

2. Express an Interest in the tender

- Login to the portal with the username/password

- Click the "PQQs Open to All Suppliers" link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires open to any registered supplier)

- Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content.

- Click the “Express Interest” button in the “Actions” box on the left-hand side of the page.

- This will move the PQQ into your “My PQQs” page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only)

- Click on the PQQ code, you can now access any attachments by clicking the “Settings and Buyer Attachments” in the “Actions” box

3. Responding to the tender

- You can now choose to “Reply” or “Reject” (please give a reason if rejecting)

- You can now use the ‘Messages’ function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification

- Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ

- There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available)

If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial standing

III.2.3)

Technical and/or professional capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

	The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
	The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of Procedure

	Restricted
	Accelerated restricted
	Negotiated
	Accelerated negotiated
	Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

	Prior Information Notice
	Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

Section VI: Complimentary Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

The Contracting Authority intends to use an e-Tendering system in this procurement exercise, please visit www.contracts.mod.uk for full details and to register your interest in this procurement.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice