BAE Systems,
WARTON, England: BAE Systems has been awarded two contracts worth £119 million by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide additional support to current in-service Tornado and Harrier aircraft under a strategy known as CAPS (Commodity Availability Procurement Strategy).
Under CAPS, the current Tornado aircraft availability contract (known as ATTAC) has been amended to include an availability service to support key primary warning and defensive protection equipment for both the Tornado GR4 and Harrier fleets. This first availability service contract, worth £103.5 million, will see BAE Systems assume responsibility for the provision of spares and repairs, and technical, software and test equipment support for a range of EW equipment.
A second contract, with a value of £15.5 million, is to provide wheel, tyre and brake service across the Nimrod MR2, Harrier, Hawk and VC10 fleets.
Steve Millward, Tornado & Harrier Managing Director for BAE Systems said: “Currently key commodity items such as the EW equipment and other multi-aircraft items such as wheels and brakes are managed by individual IPTs within the MOD. Under the CAPS strategy BAE Systems will take responsibility for improving the in-service availability of frontline aircraft to ensure they are available when and where they are needed
“The development of the CAPS strategy and subsequent award of this contract for Tornado and Harrier is proof that the continued partnership between BAE Systems and the MOD on current availability contracts is working well.”
Group Captain Chris Daykin, the MOD Director for the CAPS programme, said: “CAPS will optimise existing aircraft availability contracts by removing MOD dependencies, gaining better value for money and assuring operational outputs. This is the achievement of a major milestone, and the first contractual result for CAPS.”
BAE Systems and the MOD continue to further develop the strategy to cover other commodity items that will support in-service aircraft.
BAE Systems is the premier global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With approximately 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £15.7 billion (US $31.4 billion) in 2007.
