In service support for REMUS Unmanned Underwater Vehicle systems

The SALMO (Salvage and Marine Operations) Delivery Delivery Team, part of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (The Authority) intends to award a three (3) year contract to HII Unmanned Systems Inc, for a new follow on support contract with an estimated value of £8,000,000 (Ex VAT). This contract shall provide in-service support to the REMUS 100 systems, and there will be an exercisable option to also support the REMUS 300 systems. There is a current contract between the Authority and HII Unmanned Systems Inc, for the continued support of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) consisting of REMUS 100 and 600 systems, which has been in place since 2021. REMUS systems are military use versions of commercially available UUVs, which are remotely operated shallow water hydrographical seabed mapping systems, and were developed and manufactured by HII Unmanned Systems Inc. HII Unmanned Systems Inc retain all IPR and technical knowledge for all REMUS systems, which is strictly enforced by the US Department of Defence meaning all repairs and maintenance of the systems needs to be done by HII as they are the only suitably qualified and experienced contractor that can safely maintain, re-calibrate and re-program existing systems to ensure it is safe to use. This includes sole ownership and all rights in all technical and business information, test reports, ideas, designs, maintenance information and materials pertaining to the deliverables, trademarks, copyrights or processes, and other assembly, production, marketing or sales information. It is considered that this contract can be awarded to HII Unmanned Systems Inc, using the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice pursuant to Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 for exclusive and technical reasons.