Procurement and Installation of Integrated UHF SATCOM & EFMTE 4.2 Baseline Equipment

The Defence Digital Networks Commercial - Strategic Services (Radios) team, part of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to award an 11 year contract to STS Defence Limited for the procurement and installation of Integrated UHF SATCOM & EFMTE 4.2 baseline equipment (which consist of bespoke integrated satellite communications equipment) for the Royal Navy's T26 fleet (Ships 2 to 8).

This equipment will meet the Fleet User Requirement Document, such that the user shall be able to provide a communications service to support Information Exchange Requirements (IER) for simultaneous voice and data. Capable of supporting DAMA, FM, High Performance Waveform (HPW) and Integrated Waveform (IW) data services within 25KHz channel. It shall have the ability (i) for one antenna to access two different satellites operating on different waveforms and different frequencies simultaneously; and (ii) to interface the modems used by the Royal Navy Fleet and also the radios used by embarked forces through the same single antennae.

In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate.

It is considered that this contract can be placed using the Negotiated Procedure Without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) pursuant to Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 (as amended) for Technical Reasons. This is because only the STS Defence Ltd's satellite communication equipment will meet the MoD's requirements, including meeting the installation and Set-To-Work (STW) rigid programmatic timescales for a BAE Systems ship in build across the T26 Class of Ships. In addition, it is only STS Defence Ltd, as the original equipment manufacturer, that has the technical ability and know-how to supply & install this equipment into the T26 Fleet. If an attempt was made to procure and install third party supplier equipment, then this would result in a disproportionate time and cost impact on the MoD and ultimately an unacceptable gap in capability for the Royal Navy.

*UPDATE* This procurement will no longer proceed as advertised within this Contracts Finder Notice, instead a new advert will follow in due course for a revised requirement.