Project BOSKER

A Contract has been awarded for industry to design/enhance, develop & manufacture the Next Generation Chemical Detection Chemical Sense capability for airborne hazards, (including vapour and aerosol) & deposited hazards (including liquids and solids) known as 'Project BOSKER'.

This procurement is exempt from the Defence & Security Public Contract Regulations on Grounds of National Security & is 'Secret 5 Eyes Only'. Only Suppliers from within UK, US, Canada, Australia & New Zealand may apply. However this does not stop companies with foreign ownership from applying if they have a UK registered business or subsidiary.

Suppliers should have the ability & technology to meet the following high-level user needs:

• Timely indication of toxic chemicals airborne in vapour & aerosol physical states, & then alert personnel to chemical threats within local areas.
• Develop person worn capability for Hazard Warning (HW) & Residual Hazard Warning (RHW) for military personnel and potentially through modularisation of the person worn capability provide a hand-held capability to provide Hazard Location (HL) & Contamination of Assessment to military personnel.
• Develop a base sense capability for HW & RHW to military personnel.
• Provide chemical threat presumptive identification & the amount of hazard present allowing this data to report the event to Commaders. This information will support integrated warning, increase situational awareness, and improve battlefield management.
• Obtain both a high level of chemical sensitivity & minimise the potential for false alarms (both false positive & false negative) to provide the user with confidence in their equipment.
• Deliver an integrated aerosol & vapour sense capability.
• Both the equipments are required to be network enabled.

Suppliers need to hold List X status prior to contract award.

The contract period is 5 years +1 +1 +1 +1 option years & include the following:

• a.Demonstration Phase to develop a prototype to be approved by the Authority, in conjunction with Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) testing, that meets the requirement prior to during Y1 of the contract.
• b.Manufacture, supply, & delivery of specified chemical sensing equipment.
• c.Repair and Spares support for the remainder of the contract covering procurement of the full systems, part piece spares and component level spares.
• d.Technical support which includes, but not limited to, updates to technical documentation and responding to technical queries from the users via CBRN DT Operations Manager (OM).
• e.Provision of training equipment and/or training packages as agreed with the Authority.

In Service Support (ISS) to be a range of specialised DIM & sense equipment likely to require consumable items & may have servicing, repair & calibration requirements