Civil Contingency Aircraft - Met Office

Following the Icelandic volcanic eruption in April 2010 the CAA determined that a dedicated aircraft capable of detecting volcanic ash (VA) in the atmosphere and measuring its concentration should be available to help inform the forecasting of the movement and dispersion of ash.

The Met Office in conjunction with a third party aircraft operator currently provides the resulting Civil Contingency Aircraft service on behalf of the CAA.

Whereby, the aircraft is equipped with specialist atmospheric monitoring equipment, to provide real-time information about the current location of ash, and its concentrations, to the Met Office atmospheric scientists and forecasters.

The Met Office is looking to engage the market to understand future operating options, and aircraft / UAV capabilities, by way of an expression of interest process, and a supplier open day on Thursday 19th September. To access the early market engagement exercise information, please visit; ; https://procontract.due-north.com/Opportunities/Index?tabName=opportunities&resetFilter=True, then from here, if you select the "Met Office" from the "Portals" drop down menu, you will find the Tender Opportunity listed as; Civil Contingency Aircraft - Met Office.

The output of this engagement exercise will be to gain an understanding of these operating options, and available aircraft capabilities, the affordability of these options, such that this can form part of the investment case for provision beyond the current contract.

The intention thereafter, is that the new contract will be formally tendered to select the future provider, albeit this process will depend on the overall affordability.

Due to the nature of instrumentation operated from the Civil Contingency Aircraft, the airframe would need to undergo conversion to deploy external sensors.

Hence the need to engage the market as early as possible.

In the first instance, please confirm your desire to attend the Supplier Day on the 19th September at Exeter Airport, by confirming names of attendees (maximum two attendees per organisation) by email to simon.denton@metoffice.gov.uk no later than 17:00hrs on Monday 16th September 2019. Further details of the event will be supplied by way of response.

Thereafter, supplier responses to the engagement exercise are required by 12:00 noon on Monday 7th October 2019.

Additional information:

In addition to the Market Engagement exercise, whereby, we are looking to obtain supplier responses (input) into the future Civil Contingency Aircraft provision / contract, we are holding a Supplier Day on the 19th September 2019 in Exeter. Should you wish to attend, please confirm names of attendees (maximum two attendees per organisation) by email to simon.denton@metoffice.gov.uk no later than 17:00hrs on Monday 16th September 2019. Further details of the event will be supplied by way of response.