MOD to recommend to Security Council and Government that mobile 3D radar systems should be procured from Israel, UK or France

The SVK Ministry of Defence has completed the evaluation process of the bids for mobile 3D radar systems. Based on this, the MOD will recommend to the SVK Security Council and the SVK Government that a contract for delivery of 17 mobile 3D medium, short, and very short range radars should be concluded with one of the proposed countries – the State of Israel, the United Kingdom or the French Republic (ranked according to their total score). Before submitting the proposal to the Security Council and the Government, the Ministry of Defence will make this proposal subject to the interdepartmental consultation procedure, whereas parts of the document are classified.

The radar systems to be procured will be replacing the 24 serving or originally operational radars, which have since long exceeded their service life and some of them have already been phased out of service.

The submitted bids were evaluated by the MOD Tender Evaluation Panel (TEP), composed of 41 subject matter specialists in Defence, who took account of all evaluation criteria. Out of the total score (100%), the highest score of 35% was awarded for technical compliance, whereas each radar type was evaluated for technical elements separately. Pricing was allocated a score of 10%, logistics and maintenance costs during the entire service life of the radars a score of 25%, deliveries and training a score of 5% respectively. And, last but not least, the SVK defence industry’s role in the modernisation programme was given a score of 20%.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “Compared to the tender conducted by the previous MOD leadership, we set the evaluation criteria so as to deliver what used to be only talked about – cost effectiveness, transparency and last, but not least, support for the domestic defence industry. Never ever did I cast doubt on the capacity and quality of the bids, but I had doubts about the way they were evaluated and selected. While only 10% of the total score was originally allocated to the SVK defence industry’s role in the project, we doubled this figure. Similarly, the score for support to radars’ operation during their entire service life was increased two and a half times. And to ensure transparency to a maximum extent possible, all tender conditions and evaluation criteria were made public.”

Consultations with individual countries were more transparent too. The MOD received a total of 128 clarification questions and sent the answers to them to all participating countries. In the past, however, answers would not be forwarded to all participants, only to the country that sent the clarification question to the MOD, which may have resulted in an inconsistent approach to different bidders.

While the most advantageous price offer was €148,200,000, VAT included, the estimated contract value was €155,090,000, VAT included. Based on the offers made by individual governments, the delivery timeline for the radars is 2022-2026. The SVK Government is expected to announce the winning bidder in January 2021.