Awarded without open competition
Awarded without open competition. The buyer went directly to one or a few suppliers instead of advertising the contract. Procurement rules allow this only in specific cases, such as extreme urgency, when only one supplier can do the work, or for call-offs from an existing framework.
Key facts
- Buyer
- Ministry of Defence · Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
- Supplier
- Thales UK
- Value
- £9,820,902
- Procedure
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Sector
- IT services · Data network management services (CPV 72315200)
- Region
- South West
- Official notice
- 075553-2026 on Find a Tender
- Timeline
-
- Contract date7 Aug 2026
- Published10 Aug 2026Published 3 days after the contract date
Description
The United Kingdom (UK) Defence has an enduring requirement to manage and monitor all Link 16 activity within the UK and support up to 2 deployed operations. The NMS allows the Network Management operators to monitor network activity and modify the network architecture to provide optimal Link 16 network operating conditions. NMS also monitors all Link 16 activity to ensure compliance with the MOD/Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) UK Frequency Clearance Agreement (FCA). The current equipment set up is unique and the software installed on the equipment is owned and supported by the Contractor. As the OEM with proprietary rights for the software that is installed on the equipment, support can only be provided by Thales UK Limited, as only they hold the technical information, tools and expertise required. In the immediate term changing the system would have a potentially detrimental impact and could result in an inability to utilise the Link 16 network across all platforms in the UK Flight I…
About the supplier
Thales UK: every public contract they have won, plus their Companies House record (company 00868273).