BATTLEFIELD INFORMATION SYSTEM · UK public procurement notice

Prototypes Development; Single Suppliers Intellectual Property Exclusive Rights; Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Defence Security Qualifying New Award; Defence Security Operational

Pursuant to the Procurement Act 2023 (“PA23”), the Authority percieves this contract award without prior publication legally compliant as this case meets all the below requirements:

a. PA23, S41, P2, (c); “Prototypes and developments”. This contract concerns the delivery of a highny niche, novel, service for the purpose of developing an incumbent system [REDACTED] to meet the needs of [REDACTED] as a newly procured Joint Fires effector. This service is being developed at the request of the Authority, who will retain its output for use with other OWE as they are developed through the Programme.

b. PA23, S41, P4 & P5; “Single Suppliers”. This contract concerns the enhancement of a sensitive and highly specialised system that allows the British Army to coordinate and control its suite of Land Joint Fires, of which OWE is a part.

The incumbent Supplier:

(1) [REDACTED]

(2) Owns the exclusive Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the system. The Authority does not consider there any timely or financially viable alternative(s) to the chosen system.

c. PA23, S41, P7; “Additional services”. This new contract concerns the supply of a highly niche specialised service from an existing supplier. Not using this Supplier would result in the Authority having to resource alternative software to communicate target information and fire orders to the OWE. This would be critically incompatible with current in-service systems, and would result in disproportionate technical difficulties and cognitive burden for the user by having to employ two different systems; [REDACTED]. Alternative software would also bring with it a new requirement for training and qualification on top of what is already in place for training on [REDACTED], further stretching finite resources.

d. PA23, S41, P13; “Urgency”. There is a threat to life for the deployed personnel and assets in [PARAGRAPH REDACTED].