UPGRADE AND SUPPORT OF SRS FUSION

The Royal Navy, part of the Ministry of Defence, intends to award a 2 year contract with a value of £183,000 to Strategic Robotic Systems (SRS) for the support and upgrade of the FUSION Remotely Operated Vehicle (Vehicle), which is used to carry out ordonnance disposal in ports and harbours.

In accordance with the provisions of The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 SI No. 2020/1319, this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) as amended (in particular by SI 2020/1319). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate. It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the PCR 2015 because competition is absent for technical reasons.

This is because SRS is the Original Equipment Manufacturer of the Vehicle. No other supplier would have the technical expertise, know-how and technical documentation (including in particular the source code for the Vehicle’s software) necessary to safely support and upgrade the Vehicle. A new supplier would need to reverse engineer the software, which would introduce unacceptable risk to the integrity of the Vehicle, its functionality and its operational effectiveness.