708753450 - Sonar 2117 In Service Support (ERMC)

Description

The Capability Development, Underwater and Electronic Warfare (CD UEW) Project Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to place a new single source contract with BAE Systems to the estimated value of £1.0M ex VAT for in service support of Sonar 2117, for a duration of 5 years (3 Years plus 2 Year Option). S2117 is a software tool that is used to assess the impact of tactical active sonar deployment and the potential harm to marine mammals. The new S2117 came into service in 2022 as an update to the previously outdated S2117 software and is used on various platforms within the Royal Navy. BAES are the Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) for this system software. It is considered that the award of this contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance Regulation 16 (1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons. BAE hold the expertise, technical knowhow and understanding of this specific capability, including a detailed technical understanding of how the key functional parts of the software should interact and knowledge of specific range readings between these key components. For these reasons, it is not considered that another provider could deliver the required level of technical support (e.g., defect resolution, software updates etc) to the software tool in its current design. A redesign of the current software would be strictly impractical on the grounds it would not meet the timescales required by the Authority and therefore contract obligations could not be met without introducing unacceptable technical risk to MOD capability.