Defence seeks partner for $10M mobile scanner upgrade

The Department of Defence has launched a tender request seeking a partner to upgrade its fleet of mobile devices for its supply chain management. 

The agency is seeking to update its Portable Data Entry Terminals (PDET) fleet, which comprises of around 3,000 devices that are used as scanners at the end of Australian Defence's supply chain. 

According to tender documents, the scanners are used extensively by Defence for a number of logistics information systems. The current fleet of PDET operates on a Windows operating system that will no longer be supported, the tender added. 

Worth up to $10 million, the contract is expected to start at the beginning of December and will be for a period of three years with a three-year extension available. 

"The Commonwealth has a need to re-platform the PDET capability through sourcing and delivering a new mobile device that meets all of the requirements for security and architectural specifications, operating system and connectivity to the Defence Protected Network," tender documents said.

"As a result of market research and end user requirement identification activities, the new hand-held devices (HHD) for the Defence Logistics Environment will need to meet a number of key specifications and requirements." 

Alongside the hardware, the partner will also need to provide maintenance services on the HHD including repair and replacement.  

Prospective partners have until 16 November 2021 to respond to the request for tender.

The Department recently also launched a request for proposal (RFP) to find technology and research partners to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. 

The agency will offer up to six participants grants of up to $100,000 to develop a literature survey and proposal for the first phase specifically concerning ‘patterns in noisy and dynamic data’. 

It also is seeking quantum solutions to integrate into the Army’s land operations by hosting a competition next year.