MBDA Wins Through-Life Maintenance of UK's Rapier SAMs

The previous GBP 36 million TRADERS contract with MBDA was signed in March 2004. In August 2005, however, the MoD's Land Guided Weapons Integrated Project Team (IPT) launched the Air Defence Availability Project (ADAPT) to provide support to Rapier systems in service on an availability basis, rather than paying for parts and labor. This has been a persistent feature of British defense sustainment contracts, one that larger countries like the USA have been slow to recognize and adopt.

The new ADAPT agreement will sustain Rapier FSC until the system's eventual out-of-service date in 2020, and the UK MoD estimates savings of GBP 175 million (about $355 million) in whole-life costs over that period – but does not divulge the contract's total value. Approaches adopted to make this example of "future contracting for availability" mutually beneficial to the MOD and MBDA include contract incentives; a joint management team; contractor and Interated Product Team support co-located at a centre of excellence; fleet management; a 'one stop shop' for support to training aids; the use of sponsored reserves; and a first-to-fourth line maintenance policy on operations. MoD release.