Ireland – Radar – Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT) for the award of a contract for Phase 2 of the National Radar Upgrade

AirNav Ireland gives notice to rely on Article 32 (b)(ii) and (iii) of Directive 2014/24/EU and award a contract by way of the negotiated procedure without prior publication as the required services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator as competition is absent for technical reasons and the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights. AirNav Ireland intends to award a contract for Phase 2 of the National Radar Upgrade project to Thales LAS France SAS for a period of five years at an estimated value of €20,770,636.00 The National Radar Upgrade project is a capital infrastructure upgrade targeting eight radar sites. Phase 1 of the National Radar Upgrade project includes the upgrade of four radar sites. The contract for Phase 1 was awarded through the use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication to Thales LAS France SAS and commenced on 15 December 2022. Phase 2 of the National Radar Upgrade project will include the upgrade of the remaining four radar sites including the upgrade of three primary radars and four secondary radars at these sites and the replacement of selected mechanical radar components. Phase 2 is scheduled to commenced in 2025 with phased completion dates through to 2029. Thales LAS France SAS are the only economic operator that can supply the required services for Phase 2 of the National Radar Upgrade for the protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights: • The existing system hardware and software use patented Thales proprietary data which cannot be released by AirNav Ireland to any third party, and which will be not released by Thales to any third party; and • AirNav Ireland only hold the rights to operate the existing system. AirNav does not have the right to modify the system pursuant to the terms of the original radar delivery contract entered between AirNav Ireland and Thales. Thales LAS France SAS (“Thales”) are the only economic operator that can supply the required services for Phase 2 of the National Radar Upgrade for the following technical reasons: • The rotary joint specific characteristics (number of signal lines) of existing radars are incompatible with non-Thales solutions, in particular the incompatibility of the weather data stream with other manufacturers solutions; • The significant technical risk associated with integrating electrical bays from one manufacturer with the mechanical or energy bays of a different manufacturer; • The necessity to maintain a uniformity of the controls of the radar, in particular from a safety point of view between rotation control and emission control leading to the impossibility to integrate two different control designs together; • An increased risk in failing to achieve certification pursuant to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1768 and compliance with other mandated regulatory standards associated with the adoption of a new manufacturer who does not know the specificities of the site and the radar; • Notwithstanding Thales’ IPR and proprietary rights in the system, there would be significant familiarization time needed for another manufacturer to perform the upgrade of an existing Thales radar (where the new manufacturer has no knowledge of the existing systems); and • If a manufacturer other than Thales was selected to provide services for Phase 2, Thales would not be responsible for the safety, performance and malfunctioning of the existing radar system, they would not be able to support the existing radar system and would not be able to provide certification of the existing system for the purposes of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1768.