The key is 'These are TRL 0-3 activities'. (Technology Readiness Levels, although I was taught they started at 1, not 0). Thus, the contract is confined to;
TRL1 - Scientific research begins to be evaluated for military applications.
TRL2 - Invention begins. Once basic principles are observed, practical applications can be postulated.
TRL3 - Analytical and laboratory study to validate predictions of separate (unintegrated) and/or unrepresentative components.
So, the implication is that none of this has been carried out, or that previous studies have been rejected. None of this is down to DE&S, and much of it not even MoD. The Secretary of State is advised separately; for example, by the Defence Scientific Advisory Council. DSAC reports are not readily available to anyone in DE&S, and are not released under FOI. However, QinetiQ are given copies, so BAeS will be wise to partner with them. Part of the self-licking lollipop MPN11 so rightly mentions. Thus, the DSAC may already have reported on the preferred solution, but DE&S will often have to proceed in ignorance and disappear off at a tangent.
I don't disagree with the decision to keep this within the UK at the moment, but I'd expect BAeS to quickly produce a Road Map showing where other nations are. This needs close oversight by MoD, because the inclination is to get MoD to let a huge and lengthy contract to develop something that is already available. There are many examples, one of the best known being the reason why the soldiers at Kajaki Dam didn't have proper comms.