MOD Pipeline Development & Implementation

UK MOD is planning to tender for the creation of an experimental software Development Pipeline (DP) early calendar year 2024 via Dstl R-Cloud (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/r-cloud). Key research questions include: - The extent to which assurance evidence (e.g. that associated with qualification and certification within the air domain) can be automatically generated. - The extent to which traceability can be maintained throughout the development lifecycle. - The extent to which meaningful metrics can be automatically collected, analysed and reported (e.g. to support continuous improvement of software development processes). - The extent to which cyber resilience can be increased, including the potential for using multiple independent tools that perform the same, or similar, roles. - The extent to which flexibility can be embodied in the pipeline, including changing individual tools within the pipeline and changes to overarching pipeline automation tooling. - The extent to which an operationally-implemented pipeline may be supported over multi-decade timeframes. The DP should cover the full software development lifecycle from requirements, through design, implementation, testing and integration, to acceptance. In particular, it is not merely a Continuous Integration/Continuous Development pipeline. The DP will be hosted on MOD infrastructure and unrestricted communication to the Internet should not be assumed. The DP is required to be agile and flexible to support: 1. Different programming languages i.e. C, Ada, Rust, Python etc. 2. Different development and testing paradigms i.e. Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), manually generated software, fuzzing, fault injection, integration to synthetic environments. 3. Different criticalities of software i.e. Prototype, Mission and Safety Critical and Secure by Design (SbyD). UK MOD is interested in tender responses from organisations wishing to help create and operate the pipeline. It is also interested in tender responses from individual tool vendors that wish to form part of the pipeline. Bids from consortia that integrate these two approaches are also of interest. The DP should provide flexibility to enable MOD to integrate tools separately and independently from the DP research lead. Suppliers will be shortlisted to participate using the R-Cloud Taxonomy, including the Safety Engineering, Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering skills within the Robotics & Autonomous Systems and AI and Data Science Capabilities and the Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering skills within the Air Systems Capability. Please consider applying for these and any other capability areas in R-Cloud that suit your organisation to access upcoming opportunities.

Additional information: It is anticipated that this requirement will be competed via the Dstl R-Cloud (Ministry of Defence (MOD) dynamic gateway for contracting science and technology research).

In order to participate, potential suppliers will be required to both apply and be approved to join R-Cloud prior to the start of the competition. To apply to R-Cloud, and be notified of both this specific competition and other R-Cloud research opportunities, please visit the R-Cloud Portal (www.rcloud.dstl.gov.uk). The terms and conditions which apply to contracts awarded via R-Cloud are accessible in the Portal, and you will be required to accept those terms as part of your application. Strictly, only those suppliers who are successfully approved to R-Cloud prior to the date of the project publication (planned for late Jan 2024) will be eligible to be invited to the competition. Interested parties are therefore encouraged to submit any application to join R-Cloud at their earliest opportunity.

Before submitting an application to join R-Cloud, you can check if your organisation is already registered on R-Cloud by visiting www.rcloud.dstl.gov.uk/capability-area/suppliers. Further guidance is also available at www.gov.uk/guidance/r-cloud

Please Note: This notice is issued as an "Early Engagement" and announces our intention to potentially run a competition in future. This is not issued as a formal contract notice and is not inviting expressions of interest. If you are interested in participating in any future call, please apply to R-Cloud as set out above.