ARTIC Upgrade and ARTIC-Lite

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), part of the UK Ministry of Defence intends to award a Single Source Non-Qualifying Defence Contract valued at up to £250,000.00 (ex VAT) with Roke Manor Research Limited ("the Contractor") to carry out additional research and development services on the Argos Receiver Transmitter with Integrated Control (ARTIC), whereby the research requirement seeks to upgrade ARTIC (TUNDRA) and continue conducting research and development services enhancing the capability of ARTIC-Lite. The Contractor has successfully delivered an advanced Argos satellite tracking and locating beacon based on the ARTIC R2 chipset. Subsequently, Dstl have identified further research objectives including upgrade to the R3 chipset and development of ARTIC-Lite with focus on minimising size, weight and power (SWaP).

It is considered that this Contract can be placed using the Negotiated Procedure Without Prior Publication of a contract notice pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16(1)(c)) of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011) for the provision of Research and Development services not excluded under the Regulation 7(1)(l) R&D Exclusion.

The original contract with the Contractor has now been successfully completed. This proposed new contract will ensure continued access to research and development services which enable the Authority to fully benefit from the latest capabilities of the Argos Satellite System which provides a commercial, globally-reaching bearer system for transmitting short data messages over-the-horizon (OTH).