Foxhound Technical Demonstrator

*VOLUNTARY TRANSPARENCY NOTICE ONLY*

Army Commercial, part of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD), intends to award a twenty-four-month contract to General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited to produce up to three Foxhound (FHD) vehicle Technical Demonstrator Platforms (TDP) and associated technical publications. The content of these publications includes but are not limited to, information on manufacture, support, upgrade, trials, test and evaluation.

The TDPs will be used by the MoD to assess whether the current in-service FHD fleet could be modified to extend its use beyond the current Out of Service Date (2030). There is a Future Soldier FHD Land Fleet Requirement deficit and the TDPs will allow the MoD to understand whether new build FHDs could meet the extant FHD requirement. Furthermore, the TDPs will also be used to ascertain the suitability of the FHD as a vehicle that may be procured to replenish other military vehicles that were Gifted in Kind to Ukraine. In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate.

It is considered that this contract can be placed using the Negotiated Procedure Without Prior Publication of a Contract Notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) pursuant to Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the DSPCR 2011 (as amended) for Technical Reasons.

This is because General Dynamics UK Ltd are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Design Authority for the FHD platform, which has been in-service with the MoD since 2012 and supported by this supplier since then. As the OEM they are the only supplier with the necessary technical data and required skills and experience to build FHD TDPs.

It is our intention to award a contract in late 2024 for a period of 24 months.

This notice is not a request for expressions of interest so please do not apply to be invited to tender. This notice advises that the Authority has decided to negotiate a contract with the named supplier on a single source basis, and is published for reasons of transparency. If you are interested in becoming a sub-contractor for this requirement, you should apply directly to the supplier named above.

A Voluntary Transparency Notice has been submitted to Find a Tender via the DSP.