OB1 Data Provision

Concepts

• satellite communications equipment
• salisbury
• objective of the current package of work
• ob1 data provision
• data provision
• research and development
• uk mod tasking
• single source
• sar
• exploitation

Location

Salisbury

Description

The objective of the current package of work is to obtain access to a supply of commercial spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data that is representative of that collected from a small SAR platform. The data provision will serve to de-risk and develop a UK MoD Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (TCPED) ground architecture and support validation of future operational workflows.

Total Quantity or Scope

The objective of the current package of work is to obtain access to a supply of commercial spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data that is representative of that collected from a small SAR platform. The data provision will serve to de-risk and develop a UK MoD Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (TCPED) ground architecture and support validation of future operational workflows. This is going to be single source to ICEYE.

Award Detail

Renewal Options

Additional data sets.

CPV Codes

• 32531000 - Satellite communications equipment
• 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

Indicators

• Options are available.
• Award on basis of price and quality.

Legal Justification

The Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Ob1 project intends to award a contract to ICEYE to purchase SAR imagery data. This SAR imagery data will be used to mature existing tools and develop new tools and techniques for SAR processing, define and test Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) architectures and define downstream solutions to support the end-to-end data flow for Ob1. The contract will be for up to eleven months from May 2022 until March 2023 with an estimated value of £350k. In accordance with the provisions of The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 SI No. 2020/1319, this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended (in particular by SI 2020/1319). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate. It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (in accordance with the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 32(b)(ii) of the PCR 2015 because competition is absent for technical reasons. Dstl require ICEYE high-resolution imagery (up to 0.2m) associated with a range of modes that closely reflect the modes of interest for the Ob1 Operational Capability Demonstrator (OCD) and for the cluster configuration that is intended for the Full Operating Capability (FOC). Dstl require an unclassified product so that there can be collaboration to innovate advanced imaging routines with UK academia and non-defence industrial firms. ICEYE is the only commercial SAR satellite provider who operate in a way to meet Dstl requirements. Dstl requires Common Phase History Data (CPHD) which is the only option that will allow interfacing with existing models and SAR image processors available to Dstl - this CPHD data structure is fundamental for imaging routines to work/perform smoothly. It is essential that the SAR imagery data is compatible with the existing hardware. Another government department have already awarded a contract for ICEYE hardware to be integrated with Dstl, and ICEYE is the only supplier who can provide suitable SAR data products that will be compatible with the ICEYE hardware. In addition, the data generated by ICEYE is representative of the type and format of data Dstl would expect to receive from the OBERON mission, making them the only suitable option for this data contract at an acceptable risk level. Finally, the Minerva HUB is on contract to deploy a Mission planning architecture that will have an operational life until 2024 when it is expected that Oberon will launch. The use of ICEYE hardware and data is required to test the interfaces between the mission and the HUB and is the only option to provide time critical test campaigns to align the common architecture to the mission and validate the Oberon PED architecture.