702596452 - Alternative Navigation - Data Merging

The aim of this procurement is to award two contracts within the budgetary envelope set out in the notice. The military relies heavily on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), but GNSS signals are vulnerable to interference. In addition, many environments in which our military operates (inside buildings, in urban canyons, under dense foliage, underwater, and underground) have limited or no GNSS signal availability. To solve this challenge, the Alt Nav programme seeks to provide GNSS-quality PNT to military users regardless of the operational environment. This involves the merging of data within the navigation system design to prolong the availability of the PNT solution from traditional and emerging sources. The Data Merging task is the subject of this competition.

The proposed contractor(s) shall attend project management meetings to discuss information inclusive of but not limited to progress on technology development, exploitation studies, lessons learnt, details of architecture. The proposed contractor(s) shall provide a technology demonstration proving maturation of data merging technology to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6 (TRL descriptions can be seen in additional text within this contract notice), followed by a technical report for contract completion. The project meetings, final report and demonstration will address the following themes: Theme 1 - Preparing for near-term exploitation of Alt Nav technologies on existing MoD applications; defining and solving the engineering orientated problems of real-life examples of Data Merging and Theme 2 - Reporting lessons learned from the first task into MoD's ongoing Data Fusion Research and Development activities. In the event that Data Source contractor(s) are not able to mature the Interface Control Documentation (ICD) on time - work with the Authority to select appropriate, industry standard ICDs and data fields e.g:

- Mil GPS - GPS ICD-153 (available from the UK GNSS PO) - Open Signal GNSS - NMEA-0183 - Inertial Measurement Unit - STANAG 4572 Open System Architecture Interface to enable simulator laboratory testing of integrated INS/GPS equipment (e.g. using SPIRENT's Sim INERTIAL simulation capability (or equivalent). - Alt Nav Data Source - The ASPN interfaces from SET-309 - Illustrative Alt Nav Data source - based on STANAG 4278 Method of Expressing Navigation Accuracies and Draft STANAG 5645 GNSS Receiver Sensor Host ICD.  - The MoD's emerging Assured PNT characteristics

Additional information: TRL Levels: TRL 1 Basic principles observed and reported. TRL 2 Technology concept and/or application formulated. TRL 3 Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof-of-concept. TRL 4 Technology basic validation in a laboratory environment. TRL 5 Technology basic validation in a relevant environment. TRL 6 Technology model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment. TRL 7 Technology prototype demonstration in an operational environment. TRL 8 Actual Technology completed and qualified through test and demonstration. TRL 9 Actual Technology qualified through successful mission operations.

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The performance of the contract is subject to Contractor being able to hold information up to SECRET and obtaining Facility Security Clearance (previously known as List-X). Personnel performing the contract will also require Security Check (SC) at Contract Award.