Defence Equipment and Support intends to buy life rafts for the RAF’s E-7 Wedgetail from AEM Limited without competition, saying any delay would significantly set back the aircraft’s Airborne Mission System release to service, according to a transparency notice.
The UK5 transparency notice, published on 27 October, sets out an intended direct award worth about £220,000 and gives 6 November as the earliest date the contract can be signed. Justifying the urgency, it said: “There is an urgent need to procure and reconfigure the life rafts by November 2026. Any delay will result in a significant delay to the Airbourne Mission System release to service. Testing and acceptance of the life rafts has already been undertaken.”
The work covers nine life rafts for the E-7 platform at RAF Lossiemouth, the reconfiguration and recertification of three existing rafts, four rafts for training with a servicing cycle each quarter for 12 months, and an instruction manual. The contract is estimated to run to 28 February 2028.
The notice also cites intellectual property as grounds for the direct award, saying AEM “has exclusive rights within the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Original Equipment Manufacture to supply, maintain and service equipment.”
The first aircraft, WT001, arrived at Lossiemouth on 21 May and will complete test and evaluation at MOD Boscombe Down and Lossiemouth before formal transfer from Boeing UK to the RAF, after which 8 Squadron will operate it. The UK Defence Journal also reported that a second aircraft was due to begin test activities soon after arriving at Lossiemouth and a third was still being modified at STS Aviation in Birmingham.
Not exactly going to lose sleep over this but the optics don’t look great here as presented, using ‘urgency’ and avoidance of ‘delay’ as the excuse for awarding this contract seems odd considering how long they have had to realise they would need life rafts for the aircraft and thus study the best process to acquire them over the long delayed project. It simply sounds, right or wrongly, like they all walked into meetings with the assumption that someone else was sorting out the process only for when it was finally raised there was dead silence in the room as everyone simply stared at those around them. All it lacks is a Peter Sellers figure in the prime role of a remake of I’m Alright Jack.
I suspect it’s more down to it being a very small contract probably with one obvious supplier in place but they have to use the terminology to bypass the procurement process.