The Maritime Strategic Capability Agreement (MSCA) Future Arrangement (FA

Concepts

• maritime strategic capability agreement
• msca
• bristol
• defence services
• maritime life support
• strategic capabilities
• future arrangement
• future submarine
• delivery of essential uk
• military electronic systems

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

Delivery of essential UK strategic capabilities to support the effective delivery of current and future submarine and surface platform design, manufacture and operation.

Total Quantity or Scope

Procurement for the provision of assured access to deep expertise, and the facilities required to support them, in hydrodynamics, maritime life support, structures & survivability and stealth materials in support of the UK Royal Navy.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 75220000 - Defence services
• 50660000 - Repair and maintenance services of military electronic systems
• 71320000 - Engineering design services
• 71600000 - Technical testing, analysis and consultancy services
• 79993000 - Building and facilities management services
• 80600000 - Training services in defence and security materials

Legal Justification

The Submarine Delivery Agency (the “Authority”), part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a contract to QinetiQ Limited (the “Contractor”) for the sustainment and support of the Maritime Strategic Capability Agreement (MSCA). This contract will be for a period of 10 years. This will be a new Qualifying Defence Contract (QDC) and will be compliant with the Defence Reform Act (DRA) and secondary legislation Single Source Contract Regulations (SSCR) 2014. An exemption from the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 (as amended) using regulation 7(1)(a), in conjunction with Regulation 6(3A)a, for security of national-eyes only information has been endorsed by the MoD Directorate of Security and Resilience. It is considered that this contract can be placed using the principles of the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice pursuant to Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 (as amended) on the basis that QinetiQ Limited is the only contractor capable of supplying the facilities and Suitably Qualified and Experienced Personnel (SQEP) needed to meet the Authority's requirements under this contract. The MSCA requirement has been determined to be, and must remain, a sovereign capability by the current UK Government meaning any potential contractor must meet this requirement with a capability within UK territory. The Restated Principles Agreement (RPA) was signed in July 2001 and transferred operations of the former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, which was a part of the MOD, to QinetiQ Limited. QinetiQ Limited are currently the only contractor with UK based facilities accredited to the required security requirements and with sufficient technical capability to fulfil the MSCA requirement in UK territory. If a different contractor were to be awarded the contract, these create a disproportionate technical difficulty for the Authority in maintaining and operating its maritime platforms including its Defence Objective of a Continual at Sea Detetterant (CASD). This is due to the necessity for an alternative contractor to undertake a significant investment in their existing capital estate across the whole of the UK to build and furnish dedicated facilities within the UK to meet the unique demands of the MSCA requirement. QinetiQ Limited have operated the facilities transferred to them under the RPA for 15 years and have developed extensive expertise, deeply integrated technical knowledge of the maritime platforms, and specialist tools to support the Authority with maintaining maritime platform capability through-life and CASD. Furthermore, the alternative contractor would be fully responsible for keeping the safety profile of multiple maritime platforms during this initial period to the expected standard, which creates an unacceptable risk to life for users of the maritime platforms in question given the disproportionate technical effort needed from the contractor to meet and maintain this operational requirement. Therefore, only QinetiQ Limited are currently able to meet the Authority’s requirement due to technical reasons.

Other Information

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