Army next generation deployable edge, computation, and storage capability

Procurement reference

DDAI024A

Procurement description

The Authority has identified a short-term requirement for hardware that is essential to support the success of upcoming military exercises.

This contract shall provide a secure, field‑deployable, edge compute and data storage capability to support Corps and Divisional‑level headquarters in degraded, disconnected and denied environments. The requirement enables the hosting of workloads at SECRET and underpins readiness and deterrence activity in support of NATO and UK operations.

This requirement supports the Army’s need to generate a next‑generation capability that can: 1) operate at SECRET, 2) integrate with the Hyperscale Cloud Solution (HCS), and 3) host mission‑critical decision support and targeting workloads in contested environments. This contract is required to enable credible readiness and deterrence demonstrations that support in de‑risking future delivery decisions through controlled deployment, testing and evaluation of a secure edge architecture.

The capability must:

• Function entirely offline in DDIL environments with no dependencies on other cloud regions or installations for setup or operation.

• Provide access to low-latency AI models for local processing of text, video and translation.

• Provide native kubernetes support to enable ease of migration, deployment and management of cloud-native applications.

• Provide fleet management capabilities.

• Provide a consistent experience to other environments and de-risk the migration of cloud applications from Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) Air Gapped (AG) to the edge; and,

• Provide an architectural identical platform to the HCS to de-risk future platform migrations.

The Authority is seeking nine (9) Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) edge devices (“Products”). The further requirements of these devices are considered sensitive in nature.

The supply of GDC devices is delivered by British Telecommunications plc (BT). They are the sole authorised reseller of the specific devices.

Ministry of Defence

BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

Procedure type

Direct award

Description of how these justifications apply

PA23 – S5, P2 (“Prototype and Development”). This contract is for the supply of highly technical and specialist goods. The outcome of this contract will be used to test the suitability of the goods / devices, to ascertain the further viability of incorporated them into the wider architecture. The activity is undertaken to inform future delivery decisions and does not constitute full scale rollout, or any further comittment.

PA23 – S5, P6, (a) (“Single Supplier – Technical Reasons”). Due to unavoidable technical facts, only a particular Supplier may provide the required goods. BT is the sole, UK-authorised, provider able to supply and integrate with appliances at SECRET whilst delivering seamless integration with the HCS. No reasonable alternative exist that can meet the requirement without unacceptable risk(s) to schedule, safety or delivery outcomes.

PA23 – S5, P20, (“Defence and Security”). The contract is a Defence Authority Contract and must be awarded directly to enhance operational capability, readiness, safety and security of the armed forces. The requirement involves sensitive systems, classified infrastructure and access to SECRET level environments. Further, the requirement has been kept to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and not a full-scale roll out.

Direct award justification

Prototypes development

Is this procurement under a special regime?

Defence and security