Fleet Helicopter Support Unit (FHSU)

Concepts

• support helicopters
• fleet helicopter support unit
• bristol
• search and rescue helicopters
• maritime support helicopter
• helicopters
• provision of the below indicative requirement
• competitiveness of solutions
• principal task
• maritime airborne search

Location

Description

Description/ Requirement: The Authority is issuing this RFI to understand the availability, capability, and competitiveness of solutions for the provision of the below indicative requirement. The anticipated contract length is approximately 5 years with a potential option to extend. Indicative Requirement - Fleet Helicopter Support Unit (FHSU) - The user requires a contracted crewed capability that can provide a medium-lift maritime Support Helicopter (SH) capability to support tasking by day and night and in all weather conditions within the Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) South Coast Exercise Areas (SCXAs) and wider UK Flight Information Region (FIR). In addition to the principal task of transporting personnel and/or freight to, from and between ships at sea in the SCXAs for FOST, a further two requirements are under consideration for inclusion within the future FHSU contract: Provision of land-based maritime airborne Search and Rescue (SAR) service for Maritime Counter Terrorism (MCT) Force Generation training. This would encompass supporting up to six (6) UK based exercises per year, each of up to one (1) week duration in two calendar blocks occurring in Spring and Autumn each year and requiring up to 24hrs flying per exercise. This requires an assured ability to search for and recover individual persons from the sea at night, with an additional emphasis on being able to deliver them rapidly to specialist medical care in a timely manner. A further emerging requirement may be to transport personnel and/or freight to the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) carrier and other UK based RN shipping based around an initial utilisation of circa 100hrs/yr. Both these additional requirements are to be confirmed by Final Business Case (FBC). Please see attachment to this notice for the full notice and question set. Note also Clarification Question No. 1 and answer in second attachment.

CPV Codes

• 35612300 - Support helicopters
• 35612500 - Search and rescue helicopters
• 60424120 - Hire of helicopters with crew

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.

Other Information

The Authority is seeking responses from companies that can provide information on their capacity and capability in respect of the above information required. If you are unable to answer a question, please respond with 'N/A' to signify that it has been reviewed. Information may be shared in relation to how the requirement was prepared and developed internally within the MOD. However, information resulting from any RFI marked 'Commercially Sensitive' by the respondent, will not be shared outside of the Authority. Note that due to the Authority's need to ensure equality of treatment for all potential bidders in any subsequent procurement, we may then decide not to use a supplier's response if that response is commercially sensitive and potentially distorts competition. By receiving this information, the MOD is not obligated to enter into contract and future procurement actions will be at MOD discretion. The Authority will not be liable to reimburse any costs incurred by any parties who respond to this notice. The Authority does not intend to provide any formal debriefs following receipt of responses. Furthermore, a response or non-response to this notice will not preclude involvement in future procurement activities for this requirement. n/a FHSU Request for Information - CQ 1.pdf