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In 2017, General Dynamics had initially secured a £ 395m Evolve-to-Open (EvO) contract to upgrade the British Armed Forces' Bowman tactical communication systems into a vendor-agnostic, open architecture. Bowman refers to the British Armed Forces primary tactical communications system in use since the early 2000s. It is considered outdated as it is hardware-centric and thus difficult to upgrade (non-reconfigurable via software). The EvO initiative had aimed at enabling multi-vendor participation across the ecosystem while delivering comprehensive system modernisation.
Nevertheless, in 2023, the UK MoD ended up cancelling the EvO contract with General Dynamics, owing to the project's excessive complexity, with costs exceeding £ 828m. EvO was a key upgrade phase of the broader Morpheus program, a £ 3.2bn initiative to replace Bowman with next-generation tactical communication and information systems. As a result, Bowman's operational lifespan was extended to 2031-35, but bereft of vital modernisation upgrades.
To argue that the EvO upgrade and Morpheus rollouts were very complex from the onset, is probably an understatement. To put it simply, the British MoD tried to implement a procurement approach where it would not be dependent on one single large supplier, but instead foster competition among multiple vendors, who would together contribute to Bowman’s architecture. One of the main rationales here was likely to save money.
Following these failures however, the UK MoD is getting serious with modernising tactical communication systems. In January 2026, a tender notice for renewing tactical communication systems for the British Armed Forces was published. The tender notice states that it establishes an open framework valued at some £ 8bn (excl. VAT), with the contract expected to run from June 2026 to June 2034. As the tender submission deadline is set for today, there now seems to be more urgency to replace Bowman with modern systems.
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