Aurora Engineering Partnership awarded £13m contract by Defence Equipment and Support to provide specialist maritime combat systems.
This new four-year contract award will provide the combat systems teams in DE&S Ship Acquisition Naval Ship Delivery Group (NSDG) with essential engineering outputs. QinetiQ will lead this work, which includes expertise from BMT and the wider Aurora Provider Network.
According to a news release:
“The new contract will provide a renewal of subject matter expert (SME) support across all aspects of the combat system acquisition and integration in Type 26 and Type 31 new build Frigate ship programmes. Building on the signing of the first joint Type 26 & Type 31 contract with Aurora EDP in early 2020, the Warship Combat System Support Service (WC3S) has been working alongside these new build Frigate ship programmes since 2014. The announcement comes as the ship build programmes progress through manufacture phases, with Royal Navy (RN) entry into service planned from 2026 onwards.
The provision of this SME expertise includes sourcing combat systems related Government Furnished Information (GFI) and supporting dockyard delivery of combat systems Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). Working closely with DE&S to ensure equipment meets current environmental, legal and shock specifications, Aurora EDP will also be responsible for liaising and managing the delivery of the GFE into Portsdown Technology Park. This will enable the de-risking of integration of combat systems equipment and in-service capability growth.
The service delivers recognised benefits to the customer, including flexibility to allow rapid re-prioritisation of outputs across the acquisition portfolio and significantly reduced cost through opportunity mapping across the two complex warship programmes. Furthermore, this enterprise approach sustains a dedicated allocation of scarce SQEP to manage delivery risk dynamically across outputs, as the platforms approach the technical hurdles of acceptance and service entry.”
Capt Shaun Riordan RN, T26 Combat Systems Team Leader and WC3S Phase 3 lead said:
“The success of the programme to date is predicated on promoting the best outcome focussed behaviours. This is not a transactional programme; NSDG very much considers the Warship Combat System Support Service (WC3S) as part of the core MOD team critical to delivering these capable platforms into service with the Royal Navy. It is a significant achievement for DE&S to secure these QinetiQ-led combat systems expertise forged from the across the Enterprise for a further 4 years”.
Stu Hider, QinetiQ Programme Director Maritime commented:
“We are extremely pleased to be continuing our support to the DE&S Ships and wider Royal Navy through the EDP Warship Combat System Support Service. Recognising the importance of a smooth and timely Frigates Transition, the team is working collaboratively and finding increasingly efficient and effective ways to support T26, T31 and future acquisition programmes in de-risking entry into service with the required capability at the right time.”
When I saw the Picture, I immediately assumed it was a T45 Roll call in Pompey !
Seriously though can someone please translate all those words into something that this simple old duffer can make sense of ?
Oh and, I think I saw a T45 emerging from somewhere earlier, She’s now tied alongside the Fountain Road Jetty….. Only caught a glimpse on the Web Cam but I don’t thing any T45’s arrived this morning….. Any Ideas ?
I’m thinking it might be Daring…. If so this is great news.
Unless I’m mistaken, I think they’re saying that there aren’t many people who have experience at delivering combat systems equipment (by which I’m assuming they mean computer systems, work stations, potentially sensors, comms interface stuff etc. That expertise seems to be held by Qinetiq, and so MOD have given them a load of money to keep those experts on the tab to support the integration of those systems into T26 and T31.
Oh….. well, that certainly makes sense then…… Thanks mate
Why they needed to be quite so obtuse about it, I’m not really sure- it’s hardly controversial stuff. I guess it comes from a culture where, if you make everything a secret, then you don’t have to work hard to keep the cock ups secret.
More obfuscating language for the nomenklatura (Gov and private) carve their dominion…
I think this is saying there aren’t enough qualified civil servants in DE&S so it’s necessary to pay for external support or it wouldn’t be possible to understand what the manufacturers are doing.
Given that the Type 31 is supposed to have an unalterable contract in order to ensure prompt delivery, how does this team handle rapid re-prioritisation of outputs across the acquisition portfolio? Creating post-delivery capability inserts is valuable, but as it won’t happen for several years is it necessarily rapid? The Type 26 would do well to fix its priorities until post-delivery too.
Of course I may have misunderstood what’s happening here. Like Frank said, it would help to have communications to the general public written in English.
Generally I agree with you, although I read the jargon as the expertise being below (what I’d think of as) civil servant level. More technical and project delivery-related.
Given that there’s lots of talk about GFI and GFE and the scarcity of SQEP (Suitably Qualified and Experienced Person), I’m guessing that these bods may have experience already in the T23 and T45 upgrades and they’re wanting to spread that into the T26 and T31 programmes too.
Your point about the re-prioritisation stuff, I kind of read that as re-prioritisation between the two ship-building programmes, rather than a change in scope on one or other of them; that if there are some integration problems with T31 (for example), they can pull more guys across onto it. Or if they urgently need focus on a T26 so it’s in the water to match an out-of-service for a TAS T23. It’s easier to do that if you have one contract covering both, rather than separate contracts for each vessel programme. But maybe I’m being optimistic!
Ok I will take their word for it. Can someone copy this into an AI chat and ask for a simple description
I copied the article and this is its Reply
Aurora Engineering Partnership has been given a £13 million contract by Defence Equipment and Support to provide specialized maritime combat systems. This four-year contract renewal involves QinetiQ leading the effort, with expertise from BMT and the wider Aurora Provider Network. The contract aims to support combat system acquisition and integration in Type 26 and Type 31 new build Frigate ship programs, ensuring the Royal Navy receives capable platforms by 2026. The focus is on providing subject matter expert support, sourcing combat systems information, and managing the delivery of equipment to de-risk integration and enhance in-service capability growth. The collaborative effort aims to efficiently support naval ship programs and reduce costs through strategic planning.
Cheers… that’s a lot easier to understand.
I see everyone is asking for a translation into English.
Am I right to understand this as someone is being paid £13m to supply an Airfix model of an Aegis computer?