Explosives. Contract awarded. VTN published November 2019.

Procurement of and support to, Mini DRFD (CREPON) from/by the OEM MAS Zengrange Ltd. Support will mainly consist of inspection and repair activities but may also include training, obsolescence and other safety areas of support. The procurement of Mini DRFD forms the main part of the contract (in terms of value). It is envisaged that around 50 % of the contract value will be through the tasking mechanism in the contract (for procurement and support), based on agreed rates/costs.

The special projects explosive ordnance disposal and search (SPEOD&S) delivery team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (‘MOD’), has awarded a contract to MAS Zengrange Ltd (MASZ), for the purchase of 66 additional mini-demolition remote firing devices (Mini-DRFD/CREPON and CREPON 2) with options to purchase up to 110 more together with provision of through-life in service support to the authority’s existing and additional fleet of CREPON (including CREPON 2) for up to 7.5 years (March 2027). The maximum approximate value of the contract including all exercisable options is GBP 4.8 million.

This contract was awarded using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28 (1) (e) of the Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16 (1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons. To acquire goods which had different technical characteristics would have resulted in incompatibility with the authority’s existing CREPON AND CREPON 2 weapons firing devices and disproportionate technical difficulties in the operation and maintenance between the existing devices and the new devices creating an unacceptable operator safety risk for the authority. In addition MASZ are the only supplier with the specific know-how and data to provide in-depth support to the devices to ensure specified performance of the devices. Furthermore the authority did not and does not have the necessary rights to release any relevant technical data for the purpose of competitive tendering of the additional devices or any consumable spares or any in-service support of the devices and neither has any licence been granted by MASZ to any third party necessary to do the same.