DefCon 4 Part 2 : Smaller defence contracts placed in April 2011

More MoD contracts for UK firms

By Chris Graham, Great North  News Services

A wide range of British-based companies won contracts under £1m from by the Ministry
of Defence in April. They include:

Engineering Solutions (Telford) Ltd: weapons, ammunition and associated parts for
LWPB (Light Weapons, Photography & Batteries), DE&S MoD Abbey Wood, Bristol, to
enable the further procurement of the GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun) riveting
kits in service with UK Armed Forces, currently supplied by the company. Contract
for three years; value £150,000.

Jason Petch Services Ltd, Woodford Green, London: business and management
consultancy and related services; external assistance for technical support to the
Independent Review of Single Source Pricing Regulations for the MoD's Central Top
Level Budget (CTLB-Com, C&C), Glasgow; value £208,971.

PACE Europe Ltd, Bletchley, Milton Keynes: soldering equipment, for MoD Abbey Wood,
London. The contract involves the supply of solder/desolder stations, associated
fume extraction units and consumables including solder wires and fluxes. There is
also a requirement for the production of an Equipment Safety and Environmental Case
and Camera Ready Literature for Army Equipment Support; value: £410,000.

Spie Matthew Hall Ltd, Glasgow: supply of nuclear alert sirens to East
Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire and Helensburgh & Lomond Region for the MoD at
Helensburgh. The contract is to manufacture and install a stand-alone Base Siren
System which would be appropriate and adequate to meet safety functional
requirements of alerting personnel in the Automatic Counter Measure Zone (ACMZ) in
the event of a nuclear accident. The new Base Siren System will consist of
Electronic Siren Assemblies (ESAs) configured in array, at three different locations
(determined by acoustic mapping) throughout the site. Each ESA will be mounted on
top of a nine metre Siren Support Column (SSC) and controlled via a Siren Local
Control Panel (SLCP) sited adjacent to the SSC. The SLCPs will be remotely
controlled via hardwired links from one of two Siren Master Control Panel (SMCPs)
This will deliver a simultaneous/synchronised attention-drawing audible alarm from
all ESAs; value: £244,720.

Marlow Ropes Ltd, Hailsham, East Sussex: supply of 1,000 Tow Rope Plastics FV2187598
for the Defence Support Group (DSG), MoD Donnington, Telford; value £698,690.

AGO Xray Ltd, Yeovil: X-ray equipment for the Defence Science & Technology
Laboratory (DSTL), Sevenoaks, Kent: value £116,789.

Burfield & Co (Gloves) Ltd, Martock, Somerset: gloves for Defence Clothing (DC),
DE&S Ensleigh, Bath. This is a four-year framework agreement for the supply of
Household Cavalry Gauntlet gloves for Officers and Ratings for approximately 200
pairs of two different variants of gloves per year; value £120,200.

Iscom Ltd, Daventry, Northants, has won a contract to supply scrap cars for LF Res
Commercial, C&C Andover. These second-hand transport vehicles are to be used for
training purposes at Kineton, Warwickshire. The vehicles must be supplied in a
visually serviceable condition and include all doors, windows, boot, bonnet,
internal fittings and include ignition keys, and be capable of being moved on four
wheels. The estimated quantities are 30-40 vehicles per month. The vehicles must be
delivered within a 48 hour notice period and collected within seven days of request.
The majority of vehicles will be returned with windows smashed and interior damage,
some will be returned with the roof and other body parts separated from main
structure; value £210,000.

Hutchinson, a company with a world-wide reach headquartered in Paris, has gained an
MoD contract for parts and accessories for vehicles and their engines from Defence
Support Group (DSG), DSG Support Group Building B15, Donnington, Telford; value
129,000 euros.

Jeppesen UK Ltd, Crawley, have won a contract to supply a ruggedized, lightweight,
helmet-mounted video recorder system made by DCS Systems Ltd, Cornwall, from the
Intelligence Collection Group, C&C Feltham, London borough of Hounslow. The system
provides aeronautical data to enable the crews of MOD aircraft to calculate the
parameters essential to effect safe operation from any designated runway in the
prevailing meteorological conditions, and provide access to airfield dimensional and
topographical data for planning safe operation from any designated runway; value
£655,553.

A contract to provide an appointed Independent Safety Advisor (ISA) to conduct an
assessment of the Sea King Helicopter Safety Case has been placed with GBP Atkins
Ltd, Almondsbury, Bristol, by the Sea King Project Team, DE&S Yeovil, Somerset;
value: £70,567.

An American company, Avion Manufacturing Inc, Wright City, Missouri, has won a
contract to upgrade & support the Universal Static Balance Fixtures & Virtual Master
Static Balance Fixtures Calibration services by MoD Huntingdon; value £93,000 to
£685,000.

A contract for full motion video equipment for helicopters has been awarded to
Primagraphics Ltd, T/A Curtiss Wright Controls Embedded Computing Units, Cookham
Dean, Berkshire by Sea King (SK), DE&S Yeovil, Somerset; value £199,761.

Analix Ltd, St Keyne, Liskeard, Cornwall has gained a contract to supply an
industry-specific software package, application of NATO Software Systems for
Sustainability Planning. The MoD uses NATO Allied Commands Resource Optimization
Software System (ACROSS) modules of NATO's Logistics Functional Area Services
(LogFAS), to generate the GBR stockpile requirement for Battle Decisive Munitions
(BDM) and Other Classes of Supply (OCS) as part of formal Defence Planning
Questionnaire (DPQ) response to NATO, as detailed in Stockpile Planning Guidance
(SPG); and to further develop the use of the ACROSS, and particularly the
Sustainment Planning Model (SPM), for national purposes as a strategic and
operational planning tool. There is also a requirement within the wider Defence
community for briefings and training courses on LogFAS/ACROSS, since this suite of
applications has been adopted by GBR to satisfy Operational Logistic Decision
Support requirements; value £100,000.

Analytik Ltd, Cambridge has won a contract from DSTL Porton Down, Salisbury, to
supply mass spectrometers. This instrument is a portable Long-Wave Infra-Red Camera
(LWIR) reflectometer/spectrometer (including spectrally calibrated illumination
source) to produce radiometrically calibrated output spectra for material surfaces;
value £66,760.

A contract for Dismounted Soldier Systems (DSS), weapons, ammunition and associated
parts, has been awarded to Qioptiq Ltd, St. Asaph, north-east Wales, by MoD Bristol.
The contract is to update, review and amend the suite of Army Equipment Support
Publications (AESPs) in support of Common Weapon Sights and Maxikite Mk2 Sights;
value £10,000 to £40,00.