Fire-extinguisher agents. The Air Commodities Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a contract to Kidde Graviner for a Spares Inclusive Repair including Post Design Services requirement for the support of Fire Suppression, Nuclear Biological Chemical and Inflation Equipment for a maximum period of 4 years commencing 1.1.2014.

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 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations (DSPCR) of 2011). This is because Kidde Graviner are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Component Design Organisation for the equipment, and, bespoke tooling, test equipment and technical document sets are only available to Kidde Graviner. Also, given the airworthiness regulations of the Military Airworthiness Authority (MAA) it would not be possible to ensure that another economic operator could be sufficiently qualified, within the time-frame, to undertake the requirement. This would then result in the Authority being unable to fulfil safety requirements that must be adhered to, in order to ensure the safe operation of the associated aircraft within an Airworthy environment. Achieving the required airworthiness standards required in this case, is an extremely complex process, and would mean that the enabling of another economic operator to be able to complete this work would invite substantial risks to the safety and interoperability of parts on multiple aircraft/airborne equipments required for the safe operations of the relevant aircraft.