SCYLLA 2A Interim

Procurement description

This contract will cover the activities required to resolve key issues identified during the previous trial carried out by the supplier, and prepare the hardware for any future trials should the authority decide to proceed. This contract is for 6 months to resolve outstanding issues from the previous trials, and expertise from Trials 1A and 1B are required to resolve this. Any work for future trials will include pre-market engagement and if any potential suppliers are identified then a competition will be held.

Submarine Delivery Agency

L3Harris MAPPS Ltd

Procedure type

Direct award

Description of how these justifications apply

L3Harris have already delivered trials 1A and 1B, and are therefore the only supplier with the ability to resolve the outstanding snagging issues and ensure the US Navy and UK Navy SAFECAP are aligned. This requirement is also required for in year delivery, therefore current SQEP’d personnel are required to be able to deliver this in this short timeframe, with experience of the 1A and 1B trials. Currently this work has already been proven in the US, therefore, this single source award exploits the efforts made by the US Navy in this area. The capability must be interoperable and interchangeable with the US Navy and therefore must use the same AUV, with that in mind we will continue with L3Harris for the following reasons:

1. To continue the journey of development for the main scoping of delivery of the 2A trial, capitalising on lessons learned from L3 Harris from the first set of trials, as subject matter experts to date and their familiarity with Astute class submarines.

2. L3 Harris and Department of Defence (DoD) currently hold the IPR rights to necessary core components of Phase 2 of Scylla. Due to these IPR restrictions sourcing an alternative solution or an alternative supplier would result in loss of compatibility, operational delays and increased costs, adversely impacting the successful delivery of this project. In addition this could also prevent interoperability with the DoD system, where we currently benefit from their efforts on the programme and cohesive relationship under the AUKUS Pillar II programme; which could have a political impact if any IPR restrictions were to be circumvented .

Direct award justification

Single suppliers intellectual property exclusive rights

Is this procurement under a special regime?

Defence and security