Raytheon to continue RAF Sentinel support
The Royal Air Force has awarded Raytheon UK a £131 million extension of its contract to manage support services for the Sentinel surveillance aircraft programme, to 2021.
Raytheon is actively engaged in developing and delivering multi-intelligence special mission aircraft platforms and ground-based command/control and dissemination solutions based on both tactical and strategic platforms, like Sentinel.
Raytheon will optimise the design, modification, configuration management and support aspects of Sentinel at RAF Waddington and at Raytheon's facility in Broughton, Wales.
"The Sentinel fleet is well-recognised for the outstanding contribution it has made to military and surveillance operations around the globe over the last nine years," said Richard Daniel, chief executive officer of Raytheon UK. "As well as creating new jobs in Broughton, the extension of the Sentinel fleet will support several hundred highly skilled jobs within Raytheon and its supply chain, while maintaining world leading expertise in the customer community."
Minister for Defence Procurement, Harriett Baldwin said: "Sentinel aircraft provide vital intelligence to our Armed Forces, giving them the ability to make decisions that helps keep Britain safe, including on current operations against Daesh.
"As part of our £178 billion equipment plan, this contract is supported by a Defence budget that will rise every year until the end of the decade, meeting the NATO commitment to spend 2% of GDP on Defence. This new support contract will sustain 160 jobs across the UK and demonstrates the very tangible benefits which Defence is bringing to the nation’s economy."
The new contract to provide support for the aircraft for the next five years is expected to sustain around 120 jobs at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire and 40 roles at Hawarden Airfield near Broughton, North Wales.
Chief Executive Officer of the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support organisation, Tony Douglas, said: "This support contract demonstrates how we are working collaboratively with industry to sustain UK jobs and to ensure our equipment remains fit for purpose and continues to meet the needs of our military customers.
"This contract was required to deliver on the decision in the 2015 SDSR to extend this key airborne surveillance platform, and I am delighted with the speed that the DE&S delivery team have worked with industry to negotiate this new contract, which is a testament to their drive, professionalism and delivery focus."
Raytheon UK, supported by the Welsh Government, has invested in a new hangar at Broughton to ensure that its Airborne ISR, for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, continues to provide end-to-end, design-to-flight-trials capability for improved operational availability. The new investment will allow Raytheon UK to undertake export work as well as to optimise Sentinel support, resulting in considerably reduced time and cost of 8C deep maintenance checks.
The full range of Raytheon's technical support for the Sentinel fleet includes fleet management, maintenance planning, maintenance service, technical and engineering services, obsolescence management, air vehicle integrity, supply and procurement service, training, design service and overarching service management.