Provision of Range Extension Equipment for Project Expanse

Location

United Kingdom

Description

Procurement of 6 x ASGARD power generation capability to support consistent, continuous charging of the DDS capability during Exercises and Operations. Total contract value £699,625.44. This contract was directly awarded under Framework RM6116 NS3 Lot 1C

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 32571000 - Communications infrastructure

Indicators

Legal Justification

The TacSys Service Executive (SE) within Defence Digital (DD), part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), have placed with Radiocoms Systems Ltd a 3-month contract for the Provision of Range Extension Equipment to the Dismounted Data System (DDS) for Project Expanse. It was considered that this contract can be placed using a Direct Award Procedure pursuant to Schedule 5, Paras 6 & 7 of the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) due to the absence of reasonable alternatives to the good required as well as supply of repeat goods. 4 Light Brigade Combat Team (4LBCT), in support of NATO commitments for the Forward Land Force – Estonia (FLF-E), operate, at readiness, a dismounted situational awareness capability known as the Dismounted Data System (DDS) which was procured and delivered for 2 Battle Groups under Project ASGARD. As this capability remains in use post-ASGARD, Project EXPANSE is the requirement to procure more-of-the-same DDS equipment to meet the total scaling (5 Battle Groups) requirement for 4LBCT. This team now require a larger power generation capability to support increased range for the system during exercises and operations. The supplier has already provided the same goods for Project ASGARD before, and due to the short timeframe for delivery of the contract goods and the inability to test and standardise similar goods for the existing DDS within that timeframe, a decision was made to directly award a contract to Radiocoms Systems Ltd for more-of-the-same COTS items. Due to the above reasons the requirement will continue as a single source requirement.