Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) needs to ensure that all airworthiness issues are identified, reported and managed to meet Military Aviation Authority Regulatory requirements without which safe operations are compromised and in-service air systems would be grounded. DE&S is now seeking to procure an off the shelf tool to meet this requirement. The system needs be available 24/7 365 days a year with a system availability of at least 99.5% (for some 6,000 users both internal and external to the UK MoD providing access to historic airworthiness issues records, an audit trail of decisions and associated evidence and functionality to maintain oversight of progression, ownership and performance of airworthiness issues. The system needs to be aligned to the existing DE&S airworthiness issues processes to ensure compliance with Military Aviation Authority regulations and Air Environment policy and DE&S procedures. The system needs to be hosted in a secure environment with a secure connection to Defence Systems to enable access through MoD IT systems. The system needs to have the facility to store and access data.
The service provision needs to include:
access to the tool;
uploading of extant data records;
library with historical records;
end user training;
system administration support and training;
management information; and
technical support.
Background
DE&S performs a vital, bespoke and challenging role in the support of national security: it equips and supports the UK's Armed Forces for operations now and in future. In procuring and supporting new military equipment, commodities and services, supporting in-service equipment through life and managing global logistic operations, DE&S is responsible for delivering some of the most complex products and services in the world which covers some 14Bn per annum of the MOD's total third party spend with industry. DE&S employs a mix of civil servants and military personnel, plus contractor staff to perform specialist roles and its internal workforce of over 12,000 personnel (as at 1 April 2014) is deployed at over 150 locations in the UK and overseas. Air systems are supported across a number of DE&S Chief of Materiel, Operating Centre and Delivery Teams with the centre of excellence held in the CoM(AIR) DE&S Airworthiness Team (DAT).