Section one: Contracting authority/entity
one.1) Name, addresses and contact point(s)
Ministry of Defence
Abbey Wood, Filton
Bristol
BS34 8JH
Contact
Garry Ogborne
For the attention of
Mr Garry Ogborne
Email(s)
Country
United Kingdom
Internet address(es)
General address of the contracting authority/entity
one.2) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
one.3) Main activity
Defence
one.4) Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities:
No
Section two: Object of the contract
two.1) Description
two.1.1) Title attributed to the contract
MHC Autonomy Software Integration & Support
two.1.2) Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance
Services
Service category No 3: Defence services, military defence services and civil defence services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance
Edinburgh
NUTS code
- UKM75 - Edinburgh, City of
two.1.4) Short description of the contract or purchase(s)
The Mine Hunting Capability Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), has awarded a contract to Seebyte Limited for the support and continued development of software based upon Seebyte’s suite of software.
two.1.5) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Section four: Procedure
Type of procedure
Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
Justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice
1) Justification for the choice of the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice
The works/goods/services can be provided only by a particular tenderer for reasons that are:
technical
The Mine Hunting Capability Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), has awarded a contract to Seebyte Limited for the support and continued development of software based upon Seebyte’s suite of proprietary, privately developed software for which Seebyte Limited holds the background IP - namely: NEPTUNE, SeeTrack & CoPilot. This suite of software enables autonomy behaviours for Unmanned Vehicles to work collaboratively and effectively for the purpose of Maritime Mine Countermeasures. Through the three software products listed, the software enables features such as; Low-Level mission planning, Autonomous missions by vehicles and Mine Threat Identification and classification. The contract shall be for an initial period of 25-months, with Options to extend the contract duration by a further two 12-month periods, giving a maximum possible contract duration of 49-months. The maximum total value of the contract is not estimated to exceed £2m for the entire 49-month period.
In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate.
It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 (as amended) for Technical Reasons. This requirement is for the continued support and development of Seebyte’s suite of proprietary software which was privately developed by Seebyte. This software is widely used in different applications by the Royal Navy and works collectively and collaboratively to optimise the operation and effectiveness of its autonomous underwater vehicles. This requirement is a direct continuation of the same services previously procured by the MoD under the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s Science & Technology (S&T) programme. Ensuring contractual cover to facilitate the continuing support and evolutionary development of this software is critical to maintaining the Royal Navy’s existing capability. Given the history to the development of this software by Seebyte Limited for the Royal Navy there is no other reasonable alternative software in the market that would meet the MoD’s continuing requirements.
For operational reasons the Royal Navy systems which incorporates the Seebyte Limited software need to be able to interoperate with similar systems used by UK Allies, all of whom use the Seebyte Limited software. Royal Navy systems with third party software would not meet these requirements and would create significant interoperability issues which would result in a degraded capability.
Only Seebyte Limited have the technical knowledge, expertise and underlying source code necessary to meet this continuing support and development requirement. This technical knowledge and expertise has been gained in part through the previous role Seebyte has undertaken in developing the software for the Royal Navy’s purposes.
four.2) Award criteria
four.2.2) Information about electronic auction
An electronic auction has been used: no
four.3) Administrative information
four.3.1) File reference number attributed by the contracting authority
701558388
four.3.2) Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract
Voluntary ex ante transparency notice
Notice number: 2021/S 000-024375 of 30 September 2021
Section five: Award of contract
Contract No
701558388
five.1) Date of contract award decision
16 March 2022
five.2) Information about offers
Number of offers received
1
Number of offers received by electronic means
1
five.3) Name and address of economic operator in favour of whom the contract award decision has been taken
SeeByte Ltd
Orchard Brae House, 30 Queensferry Road
Edinburgh
EH4 2HS
Country
United Kingdom
five.4) Information on value of contract
Initial estimated total value of the contract
Value: £2,000,000
Excluding VAT
Total final value of the contract
Value: £2,000,000
Excluding VAT
If annual or monthly value
Number of years: 2
five.5) Information about subcontracting
The contract is likely to be sub-contracted: No
Section six: Complementary information
six.1) Information about European Union funds
The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
six.3) Procedures for appeal
six.3.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures
Ministry of Defence, DE&S, Mine Hunting Capability Team
Abbey Wood, Filton
BS34 8JH
Email(s)
Country
United Kingdom