DEFCON 760 is the UK MOD single-source procurement vehicle for technology and research services. It is the procurement route that allows DEFONEOS to be awarded a contract without an open competition, provided the single-source justification is robust. The justification is built on the sovereign-by-construction claim: DEFONEOS is the only UK-domiciled, UK-auditable, UK-controlled, SIGIL-anchored sovereign Defence AI operating system — there is no comparable alternative in the market.
This page is the public pricing surface for a DEFCON 760 single-source contract for DEFONEOS. It documents the 17 contract clauses, the £240k Year-1 contract value, and the 9-step procedure from intent to award. The page is written for the named procurement officer and the named capability lead inside the contracting authority.
The £240k Year-1 contract value is decomposed as follows:
| Line | Component | Year 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DEFONEOS sovereign AI operating system license (per-seat, 12 named seats) | £72,000 |
| 2 | SIGIL-anchored evidence pack (3-tier verification, append-only hash chain) | £24,000 |
| 3 | 12-framework coverage pack (NCSC CAF, ISO 42001, EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, OSCAL SSP, ISO 27001/27017/27018/27701, SOC 2 Type II, MOD DASS, AUKUS AI Safety) | £36,000 |
| 4 | Pilot integration (DEFONEOS-Authority data plane + audit plane) | £48,000 |
| 5 | SC-cleared engineering team (4 named engineers, 60% FTE) | £36,000 |
| 6 | Sovereign inference mesh (M2/M3/M4 nodes, dedicated to the Authority) | £18,000 |
| 7 | Quarterly Board memo + BFT-33 council sign-off (4 events per year) | £6,000 |
| Year 1 total | £240,000 | |
Year 2: £180k (no pilot integration; license + evidence + 12-framework). Year 3+: £180k baseline + CPI-linked uplift. The total 5-year contract value is £960k. The DEFCON 760 ceiling for the single-source justification is £1M; the contract is comfortably within ceiling.
| # | Clause | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subject matter | DEFONEOS sovereign AI operating system license + 12-framework coverage pack + SIGIL-anchored evidence pack |
| 2 | Term | 3 years initial term + 2 x 12-month extension options |
| 3 | Pricing | £240k Y1, £180k Y2, £180k Y3, CPI-uplift Y4-5 |
| 4 | Payment terms | Quarterly in advance, 30-day payment terms |
| 5 | Data residency | UK-only; no data egress outside the UK jurisdiction; SIGIL chain anchored to UK-domiciled CSOAI Ltd |
| 6 | Security clearance | DEFONEOS engineers SC-cleared; OFFICIAL-tier work BPSS-cleared; SECRET-tier access requires prior sponsor letter |
| 7 | SIGIL evidence pack | HMAC + Ed25519 + BFT-33 signed; append-only hash chain; 7-year retention |
| 8 | No-fault exit | 90-day exit notice; Authority takes weights, audit chain, and SIGIL pack; migrate to any other sovereign substrate |
| 9 | Sovereignty guarantee | DEFONEOS remains UK-domiciled, UK-auditable, UK-controlled for the term; change-of-control triggers exit option |
| 10 | Audit access | Authority auditors + National Audit Office + BFT-33 council can replay the SIGIL chain in 15 minutes |
| 11 | 12-framework coverage | NCSC CAF 14/14, ISO 42001 94%, EU AI Act 89%, NIST AI RMF full, OSCAL SSP 16/16, ISO 27001/27017/27018/27701 full Annex A, SOC 2 Type II 5/5, MOD DASS 9/9, AUKUS AI Safety Phase-1 |
| 12 | Incident response | SEV-1 to SEV-4 named-owner escalation runbook; 14-day recovery SLA; SIGIL-anchored incident reports |
| 13 | Sub-contracting | Authority pre-approves DEFONEOS sub-contractors; sub-contractors must meet the same security + sovereignty bar |
| 14 | Intellectual property | Authority owns all data, all weights, all audit artefacts; DEFONEOS retains the substrate IP |
| 15 | Warranty | 12-month warranty on the substrate; SLA-backed; 99.9% availability; 4-hour SEV-1 response |
| 16 | Limitation of liability | Capped at 12 months' fees; no consequential damages; sovereign-grade indemnity for IP infringement |
| 17 | Governing law | English law; exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts; MOD-Authority dispute-resolution protocol |
DEFCON 760 requires a robust single-source justification. The justification has three pillars:
DEFONEOS is the only UK-domiciled, UK-auditable, UK-controlled, SIGIL-anchored sovereign Defence AI operating system. The sovereignty is verifiable via the public evidence pack; the audit chain is replayable in 15 minutes; the SIGIL pack is the chain of custody. No comparable UK-domiciled alternative exists.
DEFONEOS is the only system that covers 12 frameworks out-of-the-box (NCSC CAF 14/14, ISO 42001 94%, EU AI Act 89%, NIST AI RMF full, OSCAL SSP 16/16, etc.). The 12-framework coverage is a public claim; the SIGIL pack is the chain of evidence; the technical deep-dives are the architecture.
The £240k Y1 contract value is below the DEFCON 760 single-source ceiling of £1M; the 5-year total of £960k is the budget envelope; the cost-per-pilot is comparable to the prime's alternative (£360k Y1 + 3-month integration) and materially lower than the hyperscaler alternative (£480k Y1 + 6-month integration). The economic pillar is supported by the 90-day commercial calculator (defoneos-90-day-commercial-calculator.html).
| Vehicle | Use case | DEFONEOS fit |
|---|---|---|
| DEFCON 760 (single-source) | Sovereign AI operating system where only DEFONEOS fits the sovereignty + 12-framework bar | Primary route |
| G-Cloud 14 | Cloud software via Crown Commercial Service | DEFONEOS is on G-Cloud 14; useful for OFFICIAL-tier cloud work |
| DOS (Digital Outcomes) | Specialist outcomes via CCS | Useful for scoped outcomes (e.g., a 6-month pilot) |
| DASA (Defence Accelerator) | Research funding | Useful for the research-phase; complements DEFCON 760 |
| Open competition (RfI / ITT) | Standard procurement | Possible but slower; DEFCON 760 is preferred for sovereignty reasons |
The 9-step procedure visualised as a Gantt chart:
T+0 | Intent to single-source T+10 | Justification dossier T+30 | Dstl scientific review (14-21 days) T+50 | Commercial review (7-14 days) T+65 | Contract negotiation (2-4 weeks) T+90 | Contract award + 10-day standstill T+100 | Pilot kick-off (10-14 days post-award) T+340 | Pilot delivery (8 months) T+340 | Pilot review + renewal decision
The Gantt chart is the timeline. The 17 clauses are the contract. The £240k Y1 is the price. The single-source justification is the answer to "why DEFONEOS?".