Land Ground Based Air Defence (Land GBAD) Programme - Lead System Integrator (LSI)

Introduction

The Authority is inviting responses from industry for market engagement about a 'Lead System Integrator' (LSI) Role for Land GBAD.

Land GBAD (Ground Based Air Defence)

The Land GBAD Programme was established in response to Army's requirement for a fully integrated Air Defence system of systems. This will be an enduring capability that will be delivered through incremental capability uplifts over the next 10 years. The Single Statement of User Need (SSUN) for Land GBAD is:

'Land-GBAD must provide sufficient, effective capability to warn, inform, deter and defeat selected air threats (including aircraft, missiles, munitions, and UAS), in order to prevent adversary interference from the air inhibiting Joint Force freedom of manoeuvre. Land-GBAD will provide lethal and non-lethal defeat mechanisms and minimise the risk it presents to friendly and neutral air users. It will be deployable on multi-domain operations, integrated, scalable up to divisional level, and in joint and multi-national operations to Protect, Engage, Constrain and Fight.'

Capabilities to be delivered and enhanced by the Land GBAD programme include

• Short-Range Air Defence (SHORAD);
• Medium-Range Air Defence (MRAD);
• Specialist Counter Uncrewed Air Systems (S-CUAS) for SHORAD and MRAD; and
• All Arms Counter Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (All Arms C-sUAS).

The capabilities which make up the Land GBAD System of Systems (SOS) will be incrementally procured and delivered through a number of related contracts over a 10-year period, these will require a high level of integration and SOS testing. Land GBAD will also consider novel weapons, where they are effective and sufficiently mature.

Lead System Integrator Role

Integration is a critical enabler for the Land GBAD Programme. The programmes requirements promote and require good integration, interoperability and use of open standards. Because of the scale of the integration required for Land GBAD, the Authority has identified a Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) role is required. The LSI will provide support to the Authority to manage technical and programme aspects relating to Systems of Systems integration and testing. The LSI roles and responsibilities will include:

• Co-ordination and management of programme aspects and stakeholders.
• Developing and maintaining Land GBAD architectures, to support technical and programme development.
• SOS requirements management, and subordinate system requirements management, including change control.
• SOS technical planning and plan development.
• Defining and agreeing SoS interfaces.
• Planning and conducting SoS trials.
• Monitoring and managing system integration progress at SoS level, identifying steps from one-to-one system component integration to complete SoS integration.
• SoS issues management and resolution.

The LSI role intended to utilise industries' Systems Integration expertise, facilities and tools to leverage the delivery of the Land-GBAD requirement.

The following general conditions should be noted

• The purpose of this Preliminary Market Engagement is for the Authority to gather information for the approach and procurement strategy for the Lead System Integrator.
• The Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (PMEN) does not formally signify the beginning of a procurement process and does not constitute commitment to undertake a procurement exercise. But shall help inform the development of the requirement and contracting strategy only.
• All costs associated with producing a response and participating in the in-person meetings are the sole responsibility of the respondent.
• The team will manage the process in an open and transparent manner, ensuring that participation or non-participation in the Preliminary Market Engagement will not give advantages or disadvantages to any supplier, nor impact their eligibility for future procurement processes.
• All information provided by respondents shall be treated as commercially sensitive and not shared with any third parties.
• Announcements will also be published on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) / Find a Tender (FTS)