Contract Award Notice. Update of the APS

Concepts

• bristol
• towed artillery
• aps
• update
• the aps
• updating
• l118
• the lg l118
• the obsolesce
• obsolesce

Location

Bristol

Description

Update of the APS

Total Quantity or Scope

Updating of the obsolesce for the APS for the LG L118

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 35322300 - Towed artillery

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

The LINAPS is a self-contained gun mounted navigation, pointing and weapon management system. It is integral to the performance and operational effectiveness of the Light Gun. Both physical and software components of the APS have suffered from obsolescence issues since it entered service in 1999. The APS is reliant on the additional information fed directly to it by the MVR. As the OEM for the APS, Leonardo is the only supplier with the technical expertise in relation to the system and the bespoke diagnostic software required to perform the equipment support services. The detailed work undertaken to maintain the APS is broken down into the component parts and addressed below: 1. The INU internal GPS, gyro and operating boards must be upgraded. As component parts of the wider INU system, Leonardo, the OEM, hold the technical configuration information and expertise for the internal repair and upgrade of the system. This is sub-assembly repair, and therefore the OEM is the only provider able to upgrade the system without causing wider system failure. 2. The LDCU requires a hardware and software upgrade to run windows 10 for security accreditation and to resolve major issues to functionality. The upgraded LDCU must be compatible with the Laser Inertial Navigation Artillery Pointing System (LINAPS), a bespoke diagnostic software. This is a product created by Leonardo and is the critical integration piece to ensure the APS and Light Gun remain operational. Leonardo has a proven track record of completing these upgrades for the light gun in use by New Zealand and Canada. All the above sit within the APS, and therefore must be integrated with each other to maintain functionality of the system. As the OEM, Leonardo possesses the specific integration technical knowledge to conduct this work. 3. Though a separate piece of equipment, the MVR works directly with the APS Subsystems to provide data to the user. If MVR is not integrated with the wider APS, Light Gun will have significant loss of operational capability. The MVR is integral to the proper function of the APS. The MVR feeds information directly into the APS and is therefore equally reliant on the same integration with the LINAPS software as the sub-components of the APS to meet operational capability. There remains a very high technical risk to lack of integration of the MVR with LINAPS as the diagnostic system is bespoke and is owned and operated by Leonardo as the OEM. Should the MVR not be integrated correctly then the Light Gun can not meet full operational capability. This has a direct impact on the user should the gun be required on future operations. It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons. This is because LMW is the designer and Original Equipment Manufacturer of the APS and the only supplier with the technical expertise in relation to the system and the bespoke diagnostic software required to perform the equipment support services.