The Ministry of Defence intends to extend and combine two contracts with Marshall Land Systems covering the aircraft arrestor systems used at British and overseas military airfields, placing the work by direct award on the grounds that no other supplier could do it, the department stated in a transparency notice.
The notice, identifier 2026/S 000-091979, was published on 29 September and gives a contract value of £7.5 million excluding VAT, rising to £9 million with VAT included. The earliest date the contract can be signed is 4 December 2026, with estimated dates running from then to 5 December 2028 and two further one-year options that could carry it to December 2030.
Arrestor gear is what stops a fast jet running off the end of a runway when something goes wrong on landing or during an aborted take-off. According to the notice, the requirement covers a sustained and supported capability delivering a safe, effective and reliable means of preventing runway excursions, supporting the enabling of the Strategic Base, standing commitments and contingent capability in line with Defence Strategic Direction and the RAF Command Plan.
ACCOMM/00087 covers engineering and logistic support to Rotary Hydraulic Arrestor Gear and Portable Hydraulic Arrestor Gear in use in Britain and at overseas bases, while ACCOMM/00035 covers the Arrester Barrier. Both were competitively let, and the department intends to combine them into a single contract as part of a 24-month extension whose value for the extension period alone is put at £5.6 million excluding VAT.
The justification for going direct rests on obsolescence, and according to the notice, the Arrester Barrier System is obsolete and Marshall, as the incumbent, holds the technical understanding of it, the suitably qualified and experienced people, and access to the technical drawings and approved repair instructions from the original equipment manufacturer. A change of supplier, the department states, would deliver services both different from and incompatible with the existing ones, and the age of the equipment means only Marshall holds the necessary know-how and can supply compatible spares, so that going elsewhere would cause disproportionate technical difficulties in operating and maintaining the system.
The extension is being placed under Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, relying on the direct award justification at paragraph 7 of Schedule 5, which covers additional services from a single supplier, and the notice is published under the defence and security special regime.
Transparency notices of this type are required before a contracting authority makes a direct award, and exist so that the market can see the intention and the reasoning before the contract is signed rather than afterwards. They can also record a switch from an unsuccessful competitive procedure to a direct award, though nothing in this notice indicates that happened here.
Marshall Land Systems is based at Hangar 22 at Cambridge Airport and is recorded in the notice as not being a small or medium-sized enterprise, which sits oddly with the notice also flagging the requirement as particularly suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. Options attached to the contract cover spares, repairs and post design services, and the contracting authority is Defence Equipment and Support at Abbey Wood, with the requirement run by the Support Capabilities and Commodities Team within the National Armaments Director Group.
