MoD issues £225m air charter contracts

by Chris Graham

Sixty-eight contracts with a total value of nearly £400m were awarded to mainly British firms by the Ministry of Defence in August. The largest single contract, albeit shared by eight separate firms, was an MoD combined award issued by GB-Bristol for £225m for aircraft charter to move outsized and general cargo worldwide. These non-scheduled air transport services organised by Defence Supply Chain Operations & Movements (DSCOM) involve the whole charter of unscheduled civil cargo-carrying aircraft. The job is to transport general stores and loads that may be "dimensionally incompatible" with the capability of the existing military aircraft (ie too big). The movements are to be to and between main MoD operating locations worldwide and from other locations within mainland UK.

The eight successful firms are: Heavyweight Express (Derby), Chapman Freeborn Air Chartering Ltd (Crawley), Ruslan International Ltd (London Stansted), Skylink Aviation Inc (Toronto, Canada), DSV Air and Sea Ltd (Manchester), Diplomat Freight Service Ltd (London), Air Charter Service plc (Surbiton), and Air Partner plc (Crawley).

The largest MoD award to a single company, a 4-year contract for £40m, went to BOC Ltd of Manchester

for gas supply and support services. Awarded by GB Wimbourne for the Defence Fuels Group (DFG), Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), Wimbourne, thecontract involves: supply of a comprehensive range of industrial,  medical, refrigerant and specialist gases in cylinders and bulk to UK and some overseas locations; inspection, testing and servicing of MoD-owned gas cylinders, including disposal where appropriate; management of the MoD's strategic stock of controlled refrigerants and gases on a dedicated, contractor-owned site; provision of a UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited gas testing and analysis service, in particular for MoD aviation and diving breathing gases; provision of a fully
functioning computerised gas cylinder tracking system with the capability to monitor MoD assets on a worldwide basis.

Lockheed Martin UK of Farnborough has won a £22m MoD combined contract award for software package and information systems. Issued by GB-Bristol on behalf of ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance) Information Integration and Management (I3M), the total value of the contract is £22,167,251.

A £20m contract for the supply of batteries and associated spares has been awarded by GB-Telford to Saft Ltd of South Shields, Tyne & Wear. A four-year contract worth £10.9m for the testing and evaluation of military electronic systems has gone to Cobham Flight Inspection Ltd, Durham Tees Valley Airport near Darlington in County
Durham. Awarded by GB-Henlow on behalf of Air Defence & Air Traffic Systems (ADATS), DE&S at RAF Henlow, the total value of the contract is £10,906,000.

Two UK driving schools have been awarded contracts together worth over £10m for the Armed Forces Defence School of Transport (South). John's School of Motoring,
Edmonton, London, has a £8,358,340 contract for provision of Category B licence acquisition services, and B Safe Driver Training Ltd of Willington, County Durham, has a £2,121,200 contract for provision of Category B+E licence acquisition services.

WBL Services Ltd, Lymington, Hampshire has won a £5.5m contract to supply administrative services for business operations. The Army holds an agreement with the Skills Funding Agency of England (SFA) to provide a grant towards funding the delivery of apprenticeships and other work-based learning qualifications to soldiers as part of their continuing professional development. Using this, the Army has placed contracts to provide SFA-funded apprenticeships.

GB-Abbey Wood has placed a contract worth £5.1m for beacons with Active Electronics plc, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The total value of the contract is
£5,131,961. A £5m contract for scaffolding has been placed by GB-Bristol with Harsco Infrastrucure Services Ltd, Ipswich. The final value of the contract is £5,195,817.
GB-Bristol has awarded a contract worth £5m for weapons, ammunition and associated parts to Beechwood Equipment Ltd, Esher, Surrey, on behalf of the
Light Weapons, Photographic & Batteries Project Team, DE&S.

BAE Systems Surface Ships Support Ltd, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, has won a £4.9m contract from GB-Bristol for marine equipment. The estimated total value of the
contract is £ 4,944,001. Cleenol Group Ltd, Banbury, Oxfordshire, has gained a four-year, £4.5m contract for the provision of basic inorganic and organic chemicals, detergents, polishes and other janitorial chemicals, from GB-Bath.

GB-Bristol has issued an MOD Combined Contract Award for un-scheduled air transport services to Air Partners plc, Gatwick, worth £4,262,00. Another MoD Combined
Contract Award worth £4m issued by GB-Bristol for software support of Fire Control Battlefield Information System Application (FC BISA) and Fire Control Application
(FCA) has gone to Logica UK Ltd, Leatherhead, Surrey. Both FC BISA and FCA are bespoke safety related software applications used for the computation of indirect fire.

Bonds Foundry Co Ltd, Tow Law, Bishop Auckland, County Durham has been awarded a four-year contract by GB-Abbey Wood for the manufacture, repair and modification of anchors for HM ships and submarines, and for the manufacture, supply, repair and refurbishment, certification and provision of technical services in support of anchor assemblies fitted to HM ships, submarines and small craft. The anchorassemblies vary in size and weight from 9.5kg to 7,872kg, including low magnetic
anchors for delivery to various locations throughout the UK. The initial estimated total value of the contract is £1,470,000; the estimated total value of the contract is £4,944,001.

GB-Bristol has awarded a £2.4m contract for technical support services to RFD Beaufort Ltd, Birkenhead, Merseyside, on behalf of the Fast Air Support Team (FAST),
DE&S. A six-year contract for air-traffic control equipment has gone to STS Defence Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire. Awarded by GB-Henlow, the final value of the contract is
£2,015,521. A £3m contract from GB-Bath for the supply of miscellaneous chemicals has gone to RJ Holdsworth Ltd, t/a Eurochem, Malvern, Worcestershire. GB-Bath hasalso awarded a four-year contract worth £1.5m for basic inorganic and organic chemicals to Joseph Gleave & Son Ltd, Stretford, Manchester on behalf of Medical &
General Supplies (M&GS), DE&S,

GB-RAF Croughton has awarded an MOD combined contract for commissary repair to JohnGraham (Dromore) Ltd, t/a Graham Construction, Eaton Socon, St Neots,  Cambridgeshire The work includes expanding the existing commissary (supermarket) sales area to provide a new deli bakery and new floor space for refrigerated display cases, and the value of the contract is £1,598,693.

Lankhorst Recyled Products UK Ltd, Taporley, Cheshire, has gained a £1.4m contract from GB-Bristol for plastic products. The total final value of the contract is
£1,408,060. GB-Portsmouth has issued a £1.3m contract for repair and maintenanceservices of floating structures to BAE Systems Surface Ships Support Ltd  Portsmouth. The job entails a remedial structural refit of the C Lock West caisson at HM Naval Base Portsmouth to bring it back up to a full ten-year operational capability. The value of the contract is £1,301,675.

Davall Gears Ltd, Welham Green, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, has been awarded a £1m contract by GB-Abbey Wood for military vehicles and associated parts. The total final value of the contract is £1,042,000. A £1m contract for basic inorganic and organic chemicals on behalf of Medical & General Supplies (M&GS), has been awarded by GB-Bath to Brownell Ltd, Park Royal, London.