Official UK procurement notice
Logistic Drone Swarm Experimentation
Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement description- This contract sees leading edge experimentation with BBSR to integrate their edge processing swarming software architecture onto Royal Marine experimental UAVs being employed as modular air vehicles for Find, Lift, Protect and Strike missions
CPV: Miscellaneous software package and computer systems · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Awarded
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 Mar 2021, 16:21 GMT
- Last source update
- 17 Mar 2021, 16:37 GMT
- Authority reference
701549389- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-005445- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0298dfFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons
- Published justification
The JHub team, part of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to award a 4-month contract from March 2021 to July 2021 (with a value of £625,000) to Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd (BBSR) to supply nine micro-computers and bespoke 'swarming' software and integrate them onto existing Royal Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which are used as logistic resupply vehicles.
It is considered that this contract can be awarded using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011 for technical reasons.
This is because BBSR's 'swarming' system is the only system considered to have the proven ability to a) connect with any existing UAV with minimal integration; and b) control multiple UAVs to operate autonomously in 'swarms'. BBSR is also the only company to have been granted permission from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct 'swarm' flights of up to 20 UAVs in UK airspace, which is required in order to conduct the necessary flight trials.
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd | £625,000 †same award published again · counted once | — | Awarded |
| Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd | £625,000 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Logistic Drone Swarm Experimentation · Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd
- Signed
- 17 Mar 2021
- Value
- £625,000
- Status
- active
Logistic Drone Swarm Experimentation · Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd
- Signed
- 5 Mar 2021
- Value
- £625,000
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids | — | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- MODReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
2 commercial parties on the notice- Blue Bear Systems ResearchAwarded supplier
- Blue Bear Systems ResearchAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.