GB-Bristol: Procurement of winch bridles

The C17 Command Support and Airborne Equipment Project Team (C17CSAE PT), as part of UK Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), intends to place a Contract with Rud Chains Ltd for the procurement of Winch Bridles to support the UK fleet of C-17 aircraft. The potential contract will be placed for a twelve month period from December 2019 at a total value of approximately £11,000.00 ex VAT. The requirement is for a quantity of nine bespoke C-17A cargo winch towing bridle systems that were developed for the C-17 Aircraft by Rud Chains Ltd in 2012. Necessary through life inspections, storage and maintenance of this equipment will be carried out by RAF personnel at RAF Brize Norton. It is considered that this Contract can be placed single source with Rud Chains Ltd, due to the total value being under the legal thresholds for competition in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. Upon conducting market research there also appeared to be a lack of other suppliers that could provide the specific type of winch bridle needed to meet safety standards for use on the C-17 aircraft following a unit investigation that ruled out the use of chains to make up a towing bridle system. This bespoke piece of equipment has been trialled and cleared for use on the C-17 aircraft and it is considered that the cost of trialling and approving equipment provided by an alternative supplier would be disproportionate to the value of the requirement/contract. The Cyber Risk Level of the requirement is N/A, as defined in Def Stan 05-138. Cyber Security Assessment ReferenceRAR-8VBEA9AG.