By Richard Scott
An industry team led by QinetiQ (Farnborough, UK) has been awarded an £80 million contract to deliver key electronic warfare (EW) mission data services and expertise to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Known as Project SOCIETAS, the program is designed to enable and sustain the UK’s sovereign EW enterprise by establishing a partnership between the Joint Electronic Warfare Operational Support Centre (JEWOSC) and industry. QinetiQ, leading Team Pegasus, was selected over a rival Leonardo-led consortium known as Team NOVUS.
Part of the UK’s Strategic Command, the MoD’s JEWOSC at RAF Waddington is the entity responsible for providing EW operational support, including mission data, intelligence and information, to UK joint forces, international partners and UK industry. Recognizing concerns over the long-term availability of suitably qualified civil service and military personnel, Project SOCIETAS (formerly the JEWOSC Operating Model Option Study) has been established to secure and enhance long-term defense access to specialist suitably qualified and experienced personnel (SQEP) to sustain delivery of EW mission data and related intelligence outputs. As well as sustaining delivery of EW mission data and related intelligence outputs to the UK joint force on an assured and enduring basis, the program will additionally build and maintain the UK sovereign mission data capability and support an increased UK contribution to Five Eyes Partners (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) on EW collaboration.
Core deliverables under Project SOCIETAS comprise the provision of sustainable SQEP to the JEWOSC; provision of training and training support to ensure that authority personnel have the competencies required by the JEWOSC; provision of continuous improvement, innovation and modernization to support enhancement of the JEWOSC output; and the provision of business development capability to support the sale of EW data and provision of SQEP to support secured EW sales. Additional objectives include support to the maintenance of the JEWOSC command and information services, and to increase resilience and capacity in the supply chain.
Team Pegasus brings together the collective expertise of QinetiQ, Inzpire, SRC UK and CGI. Other partners include Metrea, Northrop Grumman, Cranfield University, Mercury, the University of Lincoln and Warner McCall.
The initial six-year contract commenced in December 2022. Contract options provide for the contract to be extended out to a 10-year term.
