In-service support and software licences for the Orcus system

The issue of this Voluntary Transparency Notice (VTN) will commence the start of a 10 day standstill period, which will end on the 30th of June 2024 at 09:00am, to provide opportunity to challenge this award decision. The Joint Sensors and Engagement Networks Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence ("the Authority"), intends to award a contract for a period of three years with two option years costed and one option year uncosted (total contract term six years) to Leonardo UK LTD ("Leonardo") for the continued in-service support and provision of software licences for the Counter Uncrewed Air System (C-UAS) Orcus System. The total estimated value of the contract is £40,000,000 (Ex VAT). The Authority considers that the award of this proposed contract can be made directly to Leonardo because competition is absent for technical reasons. Leonardo is the Original Equipment Manufacturer and Design Authority for the integrated C-UAS Orcus system and the only supplier with the required technology to provide a C-UAS system that meets the Authority's specific requirements. This is in part due to the algorithms and other software that are proprietary to Leonardo and in which they have Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) resulting from significant Private Venture investment prior to the start of the C-UAS project. As such, Leonardo holds the knowledge and expertise of the Authority's current fielded in-service Orcus capability and developmental history of the system over its lifetime. Consequently, only Leonardo have the necessary technical knowledge and expertise, design data and technical documentation, executive files, and software source code to carry out the required in-service support. Further, only Leonardo can provide the necessary software licences needed in order to deliver the Authority's requirements and maintain the current Orcus capability. Further details can be found within the project Opportunity Listing in the Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) at https://contr