SUPPORT FOR DEVNUSCOT AND RPT TRAINER

The Royal Navy (RN), part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a 17 month contract with a value of £1.1m to THALES UK Limited for the provision of support to the Nuclear Ship Control Trainer in Devonport, UK (DEVNUSCOT) and associated Role Performance Trainer (RPT) equipment to the RN. The contract is to supply Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel in order to run DevNUSCOT and the RPT, this includes design modification and replacement of complex trainer dependent systems such as servers, hydraulic and motion systems, user interfaces and the physical infrastructure of two different designs of trainer. In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 SI No.2019/697, this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (DSPCR 2011) as amended.  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 (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 for technical reasons. The T Class submarine had a Fleet Non-Operational Date (FNOD) of the 31st December 2021, however a decision by the RN has recently been made to extend the service of this T Class submarine until the 31st December 2023. The operational imperative to extend the T Class submarine has necessitated the extension of the training DEVNUSCOT simulator and associated RPT equipment for a further 17 months from the end of the current contract on the 31st July 2022. This is to maintain the integrity of the training pipeline to ensure the safety to operate and operational currency. This short term requirement can only be met by THALES UK Limited as they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of and Design Authority (DA) for this equipment. As the OEM and DA, only THALES UK Limited have the necessary SQEP, technical know-how and means to meet the requirement. The level of Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel required to support this trainer would not be possible to acquire without a full and detailed data pack which is not available to the Authority to use or pass on to third parties. In the absence of a Data Pack, other economic operators will not have the required engineering specifications or technical information that is necessary to understand and resolve complex IT/mechanical or software issues and therefore safely operate the trainer equipment making competitive tendering unsafe and untenable.