The Ministry of Defence plans to award a contract worth up to GBP 17.5 million to Janes Group UK Limited for access to defence intelligence databases and analytical tools.
Defence Digital intends to establish a three-year Enterprise Agreement Lite with Janes covering software licences that provide access to the company’s open-source intelligence (OSINT) databases, taxonomies and analysis tools. The agreement will act as a mechanism through which licences can be purchased over the life of the contract.
According to the procurement notice, the contract is expected to run from March 2026 to March 2029 and will support defence users who rely on detailed open-source analysis of global military capabilities and equipment across air, land, sea and space domains.
The contract is being awarded through a direct award procedure. The Ministry of Defence said the decision was justified on the basis that Janes owns the intellectual property and proprietary databases underpinning the service and that there are no reasonable alternative suppliers providing equivalent coverage.
The notice stated that Janes provides what they described as the only comprehensive unclassified dataset of technical intelligence on global military equipment, alongside associated methodologies and classification systems used to organise and analyse defence data. Janes, headquartered in Croydon, publishes defence intelligence, analysis and databases used by governments, militaries and industry around the world.
There was a time when Janes would be asking the MoD for intel updates now it seems we will be paying Janes for the same updates, what a strange world we are living in!!!!
OSINT is a separate world these days, as so much can be found out without specialist assets. The number of people who collect information on their phones alone dwarfs the number of specialist resources MOD can afford to pay for except in tightly focused situations. Add to that commercial satellite feeds and ID tracking; OSINT soon grows to have a picture than rivals military intelligence in geographic coverage. It makes a lot of sense for MOD to seek out an up to date source that it can amalgamate with UK classified intel, five-eyes, etc. Also, OSINT is available to anyone, so it pays to understand the baseline of what an enemy might know about us.
Well, well, well.
£17.5M for a 3 year contract, approx £6M a year, so £500,000 a month, which is approx £16k a day. That is a lot of info 😃😃