SACC/00113 - Provision of Link 16 Network Management System (L16 NMS) - VTN

Description

SACC/00113 - Provision of Link 16 Network Management System (L16 NMS) - VTN Situational Awareness Common and Control Delivery Team, part of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) within the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a Single Source Contract for the In-Service Support of a Link 16 Network Management System (NMS), with Thales UK Limited for a period of 2 years with options. Please note the Contract has not yet been placed. This VTN is for transparency purposes only. Lot 1: VTN – JNMS The Situational Awareness Command and Control (SACC) Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (the Authority), intends to award a contract for the In-Service Support of a Link 16 Network Management System (NMS), with Thales UK Limited (the Contractor) for a period of 2 years with options. The estimated value of this Contract is £1.6M ex VAT excluding options. 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 (DSPCR) 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 for technical reasons as the Contractor owns the relevant technical information relating to the equipment and only the Contractor has the required technical expertise and know-how necessary to fulfil the Authority’s requirement. United Kingdom (UK) Defence has an enduring requirement to manage and monitor all Link 16 activity within the UK and support up to 2 deployed operations. The NMS allows the Network Management operators to monitor network activity and modify the network architecture to provide optimal Link 16 network operating conditions. NMS also monitors all Link 16 activity to ensure compliance with the MOD/Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) UK Frequency Clearance Agreement (FCA). The current equipment set up is unique and the software installed on the equipment is owned and supported by the Contractor. As the OEM with proprietary rights for the software that is installed on the equipment, support can only be provided by Thales UK Limited, as only they hold the technical information, tools and expertise required. In the immediate term changing the system would have a potentially detrimental impact and could result in an inability to utilise the Link 16 network across all platforms in the UK Flight Information Region (FIR). This would significantly curtail pan domain platform’s ability to train for operations. The Cyber Risk profile is Low. The reference for the Risk Assessment is: RAR-240620A07.