Project Corvus - Procurement of an Uncrewed Air System to support the Army Land Tactical Deep Find 24-hr Persistent Surveillance RequirementDeep Find

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Description

Project Corvus - Procurement of an Uncrewed Air System capabiity to support the Army Land Tactical Deep Find 24-hr Persistent Surveillance Requirement

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

Previous Notices references: 2025/S 000-024998 (UK1 Notice) 2025/S 000-027744 (UK2 Notice) 2025/S 000-041060 (UK3 Notice) 2025/S 000-044898 (UK4 Notice) Description: On 31st July 2025 Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), now National Armaments Director Group, published a UK 4 Tender Notice (Notice Identifier: 2025/S 000-044898) on the Find a Tender Service (FTS) Platform to inform the market that it intended to run a procurement for Project CORVUS under the competitive flexible procedure of the Procurement Act 2023. The Authority subsequently issued the Project Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) and invited 18 Bidders to respond to an Invitation to Tender (ITT). By the ITT closing date (13th February 2026) 8 Bidders had submitted a response to the ITT, however none of these responses were suitable. The Authority is therefore following the process as set out in the Procurement Act of 2023, Section 43. Section 43 of the Procurement Act 2023 permits a contracting authority, in certain circumstances, to switch from a competitive tendering procedure to a direct award. The Authority has considered the statutory conditions for reliance on section 43 and has concluded that they are satisfied in this case. In particular, the Authority considers that no suitable tender was received under the Procurement, as none of the tenders received satisfied the Authority’s mandatory requirements when assessed by reference to the stated assessment methodology. The Authority has also concluded that a further competitive tendering procedure would not be possible in the circumstances, for operational reasons. The Authority therefore considers that a direct award under section 43 is justified and compliant with the Procurement Act 2023. As a result, and following the process in section 43(5), the Authority intends to award the Contract to Tekever Ltd as the only bidder in the Procurement to pass Stage 1 (Tender Board and Completeness Check), Stage 2 (Affordability Check), and Stage 3 (PASS/FAIL Tender Criteria) Question PF02 (Ability to Deliver Task Line 1) and also to submit detailed evidence supporting all of its technical responses. Tekever Ltd are not an “Excludable” or “Excluded” supplier in accordance with the Act. The Authority’s current intentions are subject to the following conditions: i) That the terms of the CORVUS Contract are agreed with Tekever Ltd and not significantly altered from the terms that were circulated with the advertised competitive flexible procedure; ii) The Ministry of Defence’s governance and approvals processes being met; iii) The Authority reserve the right to abandon or terminate the direct award process at any stage prior to contract award. If the Authority does not proceed to award, it will publish a Procurement Termination Notice pursuant to section 55 of the Procurement Act 2023. iv) If the Authority does intend to proceed to award, the Authority will publish a UK6: Contract Award Notice (CAN) prior to signing the CORVUS contract in order to instigate the formal standstill period. This notice is for transparency purposes and does not constitute a formal standstill period being initiated. However, by way of summary: The Army are seeking to replace the Watchkeeper system with a new Uncrewed Air System (UAS) to deliver the Land Tactical Deep Find (LTDF) 24hr persistent surveillance requirement; under the title Project CORVUS. Project CORVUS is a CAT B procurement that was launched in order to procure a new UAS to meet the Army’s LTDF requirement. The Customer initially requires 2 x Task Lines, each able to provide 24 hours of persistent surveillance. The CORVUS capability will require to be supported for 5 years from Minimum Deployable Capability. There will be Contractual Options included to increase the number of Task Lines and extended years of support should the capability prove its cost effectiveness. The estimated Contract Value below is based on the Value of the 5-Year Core Contract (£136,370,354), plus the additional Options for equipment and extensions to the Contract. These are as per the advertised maximum thresholds in the DEFFORM 47 and subsequent clarification documents. The estimated date the contract will be signed (subject to approvals): 31 August 2026, however this may be subject to change.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **