Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) has awarded Frazer-Nash Consultancy a new Naval Design Partnering (NDP) contract to establish and manage a framework for delivering technical design services for the Royal Navy.
The contract spans four years, with the option for a two-year extension, and follows on from a previous NDP contract which concluded in April 2024.
This NDP contract is aimed at facilitating concept design studies for future maritime capabilities, ensuring projects are well-researched and in line with the strategic vision for the Royal Navy.
According to Steve Conneely, NDP Team Leader, “The NDP will play a significant role in the concept design of maritime capabilities as part of the DE&S Gateway. We are delighted to have awarded this contract and look forward to working collaboratively as One Defence with the Royal Navy, the NDP Prime, and Framework Members.”
Key roles linked to the NDP programme will be created in Bristol, involving primarily UK companies within the framework membership, directly contributing to the UK’s defence industry.
Frazer-Nash Consultancy’s Operations Director, Nick Jones, highlighted the value of this collaboration, stating, “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract that will build on and strengthen our relationship with Defence Partners. We’re excited to contribute our expertise in naval technical design services to this collaborative endeavour as part of the One Defence team, providing the Royal Navy and wider defence with the support, knowledge, and capability they need to be successful in the future.”
The top image is assumed to be the current MoD placeholder for MRSS.
Main points:
Well dock
4x CIC on davits
Multiple Chinook flight deck with large hangar
Azipods
No obvious armament but apparently a fire control radar?
Evening SB, this is a very frustrating image. It would be good to get a more frontal, side on or birds eye of this. Looks can deceiving but it looks very underarmed. Maybe there are places for 57/49/30mm, Ancilia and CAMM.
Is this design what the MOD has ordered 3 of or is the other 3? It’s nothing like the Elliade BMT designs.
No designs have been ordered yet.
I think this is a placeholder just like the image of T83 that did the rounds, a means of encouraging thinking about the design without commitment to one doctrine or the other.
Odd that they have chosen to publicise it in such a minor contract notice.
Stuff must be going on behind the scenes following the collapse of Harland and Wolff. Perhaps a little publicity for MRSS is thought helpful to get things moving. This is the contract you might get if you buy in now…
*40mm
Hi Quentin, not evening here!
I think the no armament thing is deliberate
They probably haven’t decided on Phalanx and 30mm Vs 40mm, so don’t want to skew the offerings from the competitors one way or the other.
That nook on the side with sponson is very clearly a CIWS spot but nothing has been placed there.