TYPHOON partnered support gets £10.9 MILLION BOOST

RAF Coningsby, UK – BAE Systems and The Defence Equipment and Support organisation have taken another significant step towards establishing a Partnered Through-life Availability Support solution for the Typhoon weapon system. Yesterday’s signing of a £10.9 million, two year contract will deliver a 50% increase in on-aircraft maintenance and upgrade capability at RAF Coningsby to meet the demands of the expanding Typhoon force, and will establish an initial BAE Systems maintenance presence on the RAF site.

This contract follows on from a Whole Aircraft Scheduled Maintenance and Upgrade contract signed at BAE Systems Warton site last November and supports the underlying principles behind the Government’s Defence Industrial Strategy by strengthening through-life support and ensuring continued sovereign capability.

Under the contract, the Typhoon Maintenance and Upgrade (TMU) facility at RAF Coningsby, will be jointly managed and manned by BAE Systems and the RAF, minimising aircraft down-time by conducting scheduled maintenance at the same time as ongoing aircraft upgrades. The contract builds on the proven principles of the Harrier ‘Joint Upgrade and Maintenance Programme’ and the Tornado ’Combined Maintenance Upgrade’ contracts and is part of the overall Defence Logistics Transformation Programme.

Delivery of this additional maintenance and upgrade capability will ensure that the Typhoon front line force is able to continue its build up without any backlog of scheduled maintenance.

The Typhoon Integrated Project Team Leader, Air Commodore Chris Bushell said: ’The signing of the Typhoon Maintenance and Upgrade contract for RAF Coningsby is a further significant step in the delivery of the Partnered Support solution for Typhoon. Development of the TMU capability has been an excellent example of the joint working between the Ministry of Defence and BAE Systems, with the partnered delivery team taking the capability from concept to contract in less than 10 months. As we mobilise the TMU operation, we will start to see the benefit of bringing RAF and BAE Systems maintenance expertise together to offer an effective through-life support solution for Typhoon’.

BAE Systems’ Support Programmes Director Typhoon, Martin Taylor said: ’The award of this contract is a key milestone for our Partnered Through-life Support solution for Typhoon. Typhoon Maintenance and Upgrade will be a key enabler for the RAF Typhoon Force as it prepares to meet its increasing operational commitments both at home and overseas’.

The RAF Coningsby operation will bring together the 84 RAF personnel currently employed on Typhoon maintenance with an additional 36 BAE Systems personnel on site, and a further 5 providing support from Warton. The two year learning phase contract will further develop and optimise the Typhoon maintenance and upgrade operation, with the aim of moving towards an availability service from 2009.