MOD awards contract for E-7 Wedgetail trainer support

The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £4.5 million contract to Plexsys Interface Products UK Ltd to deliver sustainment services for the E-7 Mission Crew Trainer at RAF Lossiemouth.

The three-year contract, with an option to extend for a further three years, ensures the RAF’s synthetic training capability remains uninterrupted as it transitions to the new E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft.

The Mission Crew Trainer is a key component of the RAF’s E-7 programme, offering advanced simulation for rear crew operations. According to the contract notice, the MOD selected Plexsys through a non-competitive route due to the company’s unique technical position: “Plexsys Interface Products UK Ltd are the only company to have access to the Mission Crew Trainer source code/data and other necessary technical information to enable it to meet the RAF’s synthetic training needs.”

Awarded by the E-7 Acquisition Project Team, the sustainment contract will support both the hardware and software elements of the trainer system. The MOD stressed that “it is critical that the Mission Crew Trainer device remains fully operational”, warning that introducing a new supplier “would pose a high risk to its critical functionality, thereby jeopardising the training of rear crew.”

The legal justification for bypassing open competition was laid out in the notice, which cites Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) of the UK Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. This clause allows direct awards where only one supplier is technically capable. “To be successful in maintaining the functionality of the equipment, the supplier must have suitable experience and detailed knowledge of the system including both hardware and software which is only available within Plexsys,” the MOD stated.

The training device in question supports the upcoming RAF fleet of E-7 Wedgetail aircraft, which are due to replace the E-3D Sentry as the UK’s primary airborne early warning platform. The Mission Crew Trainer is located at RAF Lossiemouth in North Eastern Scotland, which will also serve as the main operating base for the new aircraft.

Plexsys will be responsible for sustaining the system’s performance through software updates, hardware maintenance, and ensuring simulation fidelity meets operational needs. The MOD emphasised the criticality of the contract: “This contract has been awarded with an additional 3 option years,” and reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring readiness for the RAF’s next-generation airborne command and control capability.