Provision of CAA Technical Support to the Frequency Clearance Agreement(FCA)

Descriptions

The new CAA technical support contract will have a duration of 5 years with 2 years option. It is considered that this contract can be placed using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for technical reasons. The authority has an enduring obligation under the CAA licence agreement SACC/00073 to monitor and police the military use of all Link 16 transmissions within the UK borders, to ensure there is no interference with civil Link 16 transmissions. The CAA defines the acceptable levels of Link 16 transmissions that are permissible in the UK Flight Information Region (FIR). The agreement exists because Link 16 is an authorised user in the 960-1215 MHz Frequency Band that is allocated to civilian aeronautical navigation aids, and as such Link 16 is only permitted to operate on a tolerable interference basis.