Published date: 3 March 2021

Last edited date: 9 March 2021

Closed early engagement


Closing date: 11 March 2021

Contract summary

Industry

  • Global navigation and positioning systems (GPS or equivalent) - 38112100

  • Research, testing and scientific technical simulator - 38970000

  • Anechoic chamber - 42992200

Location of contract

BS34 8JH

Procurement reference

tender_266940/930187

Published date

3 March 2021

Closing date

11 March 2021

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

RFI for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Simulator System.
The UK GNSS Project Office, part of Defence Equipment and Support, are seeking to understand the level of market interest, capability, likely timescales for delivery and estimated costs for the potential future requirement of delivery of a Simulator System to generate GNSS Radio Frequency (RF) signals. The information gathered from this RFI will help to inform the development of any future procurement process. No information provided in response to this RFI will be used in any way for the purpose of evaluating suppliers or their products in a future procurement process. This RFI and any information gathered from it is entirely without commitment.
Specifically we are interested in learning about;
1. 15 pseudolite system
2. 26 pseudolite system
3. 55 pseudolite system
Please see the attachment to this notice detailing the supporting technical information for this RFI.
Please respond to this RFI by 11 March 2021 09:00 hours detailing your capabilities in the aforementioned area/s and include likely timescales and rough costs to deliver the potential future requirement.

We may be in touch with suppliers regarding their proposed solutions shortly after the RFI closing date.

Further information:
- The requirements table in the attached document to this notice is not designed to specify or drive a particular architecture, it has been provided to show MOD's current thoughts but is not necessarily what will be included in a requirement for any future competition. In responding to this RFI, companies are encouraged to describe what they could deliver and point out any innovative solutions.

- The 3 different pseudolite budget points were picked under the assumption that Hardware was the key budget driver, rather than specific architecture (i.e. it is the physical generation of x outputs not whether they are feeding static or zonal pseudolites). However, the MOD study concluded that a minimum static system could be achieved using just 15 pseudolites, while a static plus system might require around 26 pseudolites and a full zonal system might be constructed using a maximum of 55 pseudolites; this led to these 3 particular budget points being selected. Obtaining budget information for these 3 points will allow the MOD to start to understand the spread of cost against capability.

- The GSG.7 requirement stems from the assumption that since even the minimum chamber configuration would provide hardware for 15 outputs, that a 7/8 output Wavefront simulator would be achievable by re-configuring the hardware (effectively re-plumbing at the output) along with an alternate Software load. If this assumption is incorrect it should be raised in your response to the RFI (with details) and any additional hardware/software/licenses required to achieve this requirement (even to the point of it being a completely separate system) along with associated budgetary costs provided (separately).

More information

Previous notice about this procurement

RFI for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Simulator System

  • Early engagement
  • Published 3 March 2021, last edited 8 March 2021

Attachments

Additional text

Supplementary attached document updated. 17:50 3rd March 2021.

Supplementary attached document updated to version 3. 14:14 5th March 2021.

Description has been amended to include additional text, the additional text can be seen under the "Further Information" header. 12:16 8th March 2021.


Supplementary attached document updated to version 4 to include the following text: "Independent of the architecture (zonal / static), each simulator pseudolite output would be required to provide the capability to broadcast signals of all constellations and frequencies listed in the requirements table simultaneously (i.e. each pseudolite will be multi-frequency / multi-constellation)". 16:35 9th March 2021.

About the buyer

Contact name

Thomas Shields

Address

MOD Abbey Wood, Spruce 2B
Bristol
BS34 8JH
England

Telephone

07812 461417

Email

Thomas.Shields101@mod.gov.uk