The U.K. Ministry of Defence Feb. 6 announced it awarded Thales UK an initial six-month contract valued at about $7.8 million to undertake the Systems of Systems Integrator (SOSI) role on the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) program.
While the contract has been placed with Thales UK, SOSI is a joint team made up of Thales UK and Boeing [BA]. The contract was signed on Jan. 24 and follows the announcement of the Thales UK and Boeing team as the preferred bidder in October 2007 (Defense Daily, Oct. 8).
“The rapid downselect and now contract award for the FRES SOSI reflects not only MoD’s desire to inject pace into the program, but also our ability to work together effectively,” Alex Dorrian, CEO of Thales UK, said in a joint Thales UK-Boeing statement.
The FRES program will equip the U.K. armed forces with new medium weight armored vehicles.
The SOSI will be the through life partner to the MoD in delivering and supporting the FRES capability. The team will provide strong and independent support to the department, bringing world class program management and system of systems engineering skills to the program, the U.K. government statement said. The SOSI will support the MoD in implementing through life capability and technology management and assist in the development of the FRES alliance and its supply chain.
The SOSI team will be integrated into the MoD FRES project team to form an Integrated Customer Team that will manage the delivery of FRES.
The SOSI role is one of a number of competitions that will be conducted as part of the competitive acquisition strategy for FRES. The first was the utility vehicle (UV) design competition on which an announcement was made in November. An announcement of which one of the three competing designs will be selected to go forward to the next stage of the UV program will be made when the outcome of further work to fully understand the commercial implications of the UV designs has been considered.
The next significant step will be the selection of one or more UV Integrators to go forward to the next stage of that competition. Industry responses to a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire were received in November 2007 and are being assessed. An announcement on the UV Integrator competition is expected by the end of March. Further competitions will select the designs for other variants for roles such as reconnaissance, direct fire and engineering support.