The Aurora Engineering Partnership (EDP) – comprising QinetiQ, AtkinsRéalis and BMT – has been awarded a new GBP 13 million (EUR 15.3 million) contract by the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation to provide specialist maritime combat systems, Aurora EDP announced on 12 February 2024.
The new four-year contract will provide the combat systems teams in DE&S Ship Acquisition Naval Ship Delivery Group (NSDG) with essential engineering outputs. QinetiQ will lead the work, which includes expertise from BMT and the wider Aurora Provider Network.
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 programmes. Building on the signing of the first joint Type 26 and Type 31 contract with Aurora EDP in early 2020, the Warship Combat System Support Service (WC3S) has been working alongside these new-build frigate programmes since 2014. The announcement comes as the ship build programmes progress through manufacturing phases, with Royal Navy (RN) entry into service for the frigates 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.
Meanwhile, on 5 February 2024 Aurora EDP announced it had been awarded a new five-year contract by DE&S to ensure that necessary systems and equipment, including maintenance and spares, are available when and where they are required to meet Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary operational demand.
This new contract will support DE&S Ships Domain through the Master Record Data Centre (MRDC): the Ministry of Defence’s core facility for ship information configuration services for the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary surface ship fleet.
Following a rigorous competition process run by the Aurora QinetiQ team, Babcock will continue operation of the MRDC with a core configuration team based at Babcock’s Lakeside facility in Portsmouth. Project delivery will also be supported by key data interrogation expertise from EDP provider Allan Webb Ltd, which also brings strong supply chain relationships to support the service.
EDP is the default route for the procurement of engineering services for DE&S and is available to other UK Ministry of Defence departments and agencies. EDP is a collaboration between DE&S and Aurora EDP.
