The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £5 million contract to Lockheed Martin UK Aeronautics for the provision of Importer and Exporter of Record arrangements under the F-35 Lightning II Global Asset Management (GAM) solution, according to a newly published contract award notice.
Due to the “changes in the current US contracting for GAM,” the UK must now establish its own Importer and Exporter of Record arrangements for F-35 logistics.
Under this two-year single-source contract, Lockheed Martin will create and operate a Public Customs Bonded Warehouse (CBW) at RAF Marham, Norfolk, where F-35 spare parts and consumables (the Joint Spares Pool) can be held in customs suspension.
As part of the “Customs Bonded Warehouse (CBW) workstream,” the contractor must maintain CBW authorisation under its own Economic Operator Registration Identity (EORI), manage duty records, and work with existing warehouse operators and nominated depositors.
Lockheed Martin will also act as the declarant for the import, export, and internal movement of F-35 materiel to, from, and within the UK on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. Known as the “Import/Export workstream,” this responsibility covers procedures such as Inward Processing, discharge to aircraft, and Military End Use, while ensuring compliance with UK and international export and trade control regimes.
The award notice cites technical reasons under Regulation 16(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for opting against a formal competitive tender. According to the notice, “it would be impractical for another company to deliver the services without access to proprietary information” held by Lockheed Martin as the F-35’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
The global F-35 programme—coordinated by the Joint Program Office in Washington, D.C.—relies on a shared pool of spare parts, necessitating integrated import/export management among participant nations.
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It already has s bonded warehouse
This is a really dull but hugely significant step forward in terms of management of the F-35 spares.
The logistics tail of the programme is so significant and has really hampered reactiveness and available of stores (and subsequently of operational airframes) when the jets are operating in the UK. It has also made us vulnerable to partner nations ‘poaching’ our stores in transit.
Really good news.