Official UK procurement notice
Project Beehive – USV (Unmanned Surface Vessel) and GCS (Ground Control System) Procurement
Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Royal Navy requires A fleet of 20 Uncrewed Surface Vessel orUSVs for SURFLOT, these platforms will be utilised for training, Tactic Development, Warfare Development, Capability Development, and operations in the UK Are of Responsibility and beyond. This project is to be a spiral development, with the initial platform requirement of USV’s to be TRL 4/5, with open architecture for future development, this capability is key to maintaining operational relevance against peer threats. The Hybrid Navy transition will require development and testing of new technologies and whilst much of this work will be conducted by Navy Development, Disruptive capabilities, and technology officer, the SURFLOT Fleet of USVs will act as test beds to provide Learning from experience. Engineering support for OEM integration of spiral capabilities will be considered as part of the bid process. Works of this Project will have a focus on the South, South west regions.
- How the procedure runs: This procurement will be ran as a two stage process. Stage 1 will be used to assess supplier capability. Stage 2 will be used to asses Maturity of proposed solutions of those who pass the required criteria at Stage 1. Suppliers meeting the criteria at Stage 1 will proceed to Stage 2. Commercial X Dynamic Market ocds-h6vhtk-054901
CPV: Amphibious crafts and ships
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1AwardedPublished value£10,250,000
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (2)
- Technical: 70%
- Commercial: 30%
Published award criteria (2)
- Technical: Stage 1 of this procurement will be against a pass/fail criteria. Stage 2 will use Technical and Commercial to assess a suppliers overall solution. The 70% Technical and 30% Commercial weightings shown here will apply to Stage 2 of this tender only. Stage 2 will comprise a set of Technical Questions based on the requirements in order to test various aspects of the bidders proposed solution. These will be evaluated in accordance with the scoring matrices to be circulated with Stage 2 of this procurement.
- Commercial: Stage 1 of this procurement will be against a pass/fail criteria. Stage 2 will use Technical and Commercial to assess a suppliers overall solution. The 70% Technical and 30% Commercial weightings shown here will apply to Stage 2 of this tender only. At Stage 2 bidders will be required to submit as part of their tender a pricing proposal, which will be evaluated by the Authority in accordance with the process set out in the Stage 2 ITT.
- Price carries 30 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Defence & security
- Commercial structure
- Call-off under a framework
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 Nov 2025, 17:03 GMT
- Last source update
- 10 Mar 2026, 15:05 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 16 Feb 2026
- Authority reference
1- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-082960- Latest notice
- Contract award notice (UK6)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05db5cFind a Tender
- How it runs
This procurement will be ran as a two stage process. Stage 1 will be used to assess supplier capability. Stage 2 will be used to asses Maturity of proposed solutions of those who pass the required criteria at Stage 1.
Suppliers meeting the criteria at Stage 1 will proceed to Stage 2.
Commercial X Dynamic Market ocds-h6vhtk-054901
- Call-off under framework Commercial X Dynamic Market
How it was run
Official notice- Requests to participate (first stage)
- 13 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Submission deadline
- 13 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Defence Sourcing Portal - contracts.mod.uk ↗
Timeline
5 Nov 2025 → 20 Mar 2026 · 10 dates- Planning notice published352 days ago5 Nov 2025, 17:03 GMT
- Next notice expected346 days ago10 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
- Market engagement346 days ago10 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
This Project will be placed using Commercial X’s Dynamic
market, using the competitive flexible procedure, suppliers must
on board onboard to proceed with this project.
Please ensure that you onboard to the Commercial X Dynamic Market to participate.
- Tender notice published312 days ago15 Dec 2025, 14:38 GMT
- Submission deadline282 days ago13 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts249 days ago16 Feb 2026
- Award decision expected by248 days ago16 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Assessment summaries sent232 days ago5 Mar 2026
- Latest notice published227 days ago10 Mar 2026, 15:05 GMT
- Standstill ends216 days ago20 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT
Notice history
8 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 5 Nov 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published5 Nov 2025, 17:03 GMTUK2
- Tender notice published15 Dec 2025, 14:38 GMTUK4
- Published value updated to £10,250,00015 Dec 2025, 14:38 GMTwas £8,333,333
- Status changed to active15 Dec 2025, 14:38 GMT
- Procurement method changed15 Dec 2025, 14:38 GMT
- Contract award notice published10 Mar 2026, 15:05 GMTUK6
- Status changed to complete10 Mar 2026, 15:05 GMT
- Contract signature expected23 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMTscheduled
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| kraken Works LtdPj Beehive23 Mar 2026 – 31 Mar 2027 | £10,250,000 | 5 Mar 2026standstill to 20 Mar 2026 | Standstill |
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12final-stage tenders | 1 | 0 | — |
Who bid
- did not winOcean Infitiy · South East England
- did not winSOLACE COMMUNICATIONS LTD · South West England
- did not winSALTERNS MARINA LIMITED · South West England
- did not winBAE SYSTEMS SURFACE SHIPS LIMITED · South East England
- did not winM SUBS LIMITED · South West England
- did not winSIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION MISSION SYSTEMS UK, LTD · Greater London
- did not winL3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES UK LIMITED · Greater London
- did not winSYOS AEROSPACE UK LIMITED · South East England
- did not winUTEK
- did not winBond Solutions LLC
- did not winKongsberg · South West England
- wonkraken Works Ltd · South East England
Bidders as named on the Procurement Act 2023 award notice. “Won” means the bidder holds an award on this notice.
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
12 commercial parties on the notice · 1 awarded- BAE SYSTEMS SURFACE SHIPS LIMITEDBidder / tenderer
- Bond Solutions LLCBidder / tenderer
- KongsbergBidder / tenderer
- L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES UK LIMITEDBidder / tenderer
- M SUBS LIMITEDBidder / tenderer
- Ocean InfitiyBidder / tenderer
- SALTERNS MARINA LIMITEDBidder / tenderer
- SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION MISSION SYSTEMS UK, LTDBidder / tenderer
- SOLACE COMMUNICATIONS LTDBidder / tenderer
- SYOS AEROSPACE UK LIMITEDBidder / tenderer
Show 2 more suppliers
- UTEKBidder / tenderer
- kraken Works LtdAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (4)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Bidding documents and specificationsAccess: Further documents including ITT, SOR and Response template to Stage 1 will be released via the Defence Sourcing Portal https://contracts.mod.uk/
Notices published for this procedure
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender