Defence Equipment and Support has awarded Saab UK a contract valued at £1.6 billion excluding VAT to provide logistics support, supply, training and spares for the Giraffe 1X radar system.
Defence Equipment and Support has awarded Saab UK a contract valued at £1.6 billion excluding VAT covering support and additional supply requirements for the Giraffe 1X radar system, the UK Defence Journal understands.
The contract was signed on 2 July 2026 and disclosed in a Find a Tender notice published on 19 August. The requirement covers Contractor Logistics Support for Giraffe 1X, including supply, training, helpdesk services and spares support. The initial contract runs until 31 March 2027, with three one-year options allowing it to be extended to 31 March 2030.
The published value is £1.6 billion excluding VAT, rising to £1.8065 billion including VAT.
Giraffe 1X is part of Saab’s family of mobile radar systems and is designed to provide surveillance and warning against airborne threats. The procurement notice classifies the requirement as radar equipment and places particular emphasis on sustaining the system once deployed, including the provision and return of spares and support for equipment that becomes unserviceable.
The agreement also gives the Ministry of Defence the right to make additional purchases while the contract remains in force. The options listed in the notice cover further supply as well as training, helpdesk and spares support, meaning the arrangement extends beyond maintenance of equipment already in service.
The contract was awarded directly to Saab UK rather than through a competitive procurement. Defence Equipment and Support said this was justified on technical grounds because Saab is the manufacturer and design authority for the Giraffe 1X and holds the intellectual property and proprietary information required to support the system.
The procurement notice states that Saab holds the relevant drawings and specifications and that no licences have been granted to other organisations, including the Ministry of Defence, that would allow them to obtain and use the information required to support the radars. DE&S therefore concluded that Saab was the only supplier with the specific technical knowledge necessary to deliver the requirement.
The contract includes performance measures focused on the availability and movement of spares. These cover delivery of items held within deployed spares packs, provision of equipment not contained within those packs and the return of unserviceable components from the Ministry of Defence to the contractor. Performance against the measures is due to be reported every three months.
The scale of the published contract value is notable for a logistics support arrangement. The notice does not separate the £1.6 billion figure into expected expenditure on existing support requirements and potential additional purchases over the life of the agreement, although it explicitly provides for further equipment to be bought while the contract is active.
In related news, it looks like Giraffe 1X is being installed on XV Patrick Blackett with a new mast.
But how on earth can we possibly be spending over a billion on maintenance for 11 radar sets for a year? That has to be a typo.
The government site really does say £1,600,000,000.00 exc. VAT, that’s absolute nonsense.