Commercially Supported Shipping (CSS) Future In-Service Support (FISS) - Through Life Support Requirement

DESCRIPTION AS ADVERTISED ON DEFENCE CONTRACTS ONLINE IN 02/06/2016 The in-service support packages available are: RFA WAVE KNIGHT, RFA WAVE RULER, RFA FORT AUSTIN, RFA FORT ROSALIE, RFA FORT VICTORIA (Lot 1) - Estimated value £320M over ten (10) year contract duration; RFA LYME BAY, RFA MOUNTS BAY, RFA CARDIGAN BAY, RFA ARGUS, HMS SCOTT (Lot 2) - Estimated value £275M over ten (10) year contract duration; and / or RFA TIDESPRING, RFA TIDERACE , RFA TIDESURGE, RFA TIDEFORCE (Lot 3) - Estimated value £345M over ten (10) year contract duration, which will include but not be limited to: worldwide engineering support; rectification of Operational Defects; and the planning, management and implementation of maintenance periods. Maintenance periods may include, but not be limited to: Refit Periods; Docking Periods; Contractor Support Periods; Annual Certification Periods; and Assisted Maintenance Periods. - The successful bidder will also be required to provide design, planning, implementation and technical services for the various update, upgrade and / or modification packages along with the global supply and transport of spares.

A joint team (the Authority and the successful bidder) will be co-located at the successful bidder's premises and work collaboratively with other CSS support. It is envisioned that there will be one (1) joint support team per Lot.

The contract will be for ten (10) years, with a value for money exercise commencing at the three and a half (3.5) year point. The Authority will have the option, at its sole discretion, to break the contract at the five (5) year point if it believes value for money is not being achieved.

Years one (1) to five (5) will be firm price i.e. not subject to variation, and years six (6) to ten (10) will be fixed price, subject to the price index / indices stated in the contract. The justification for the proposed framework duration is that RFA and OSV vessels require a refit period every five (5) years, and a ten (10) year framework will allow for two (2) refit periods within one contractual agreement which will provide benefits to both the successful bidder and Authority through learning for experience.

Planning a refit period requires eighteen (18) months, and a seven (7) year contract period would risk interruption to the planning or delivery of a second refit period. Certification is required at a docking every five (5) years so a ten (10) year framework would afford full certification twice preventing the risk of uncertified and therefore unusable vessels in the fleet.

This is therefore deemed as exceptional circumstances. No work whatsoever is guaranteed under any resulting framework agreement or contract and there is no guarantee that any framework agreement or contract will be put in place in relation to this notice.

No compensation etc. will be paid if a tender or resulting framework agreement is withdrawn for any reason. Additional information: Published is the Invitation to Negotiated sent to 6 bidders at the end of May. Several annexes of the Tender documentation have not been pulished, due to the contents being classified as sensitive due to their commercial or technical contents.