BAE Systems has been awarded a four-year £42 million contract from the UK Ministry of Defence for the support of the Command Support Air Transport (CSAT) fleet of four BAe 146 jetliners operated by 32 (The Royal) Squadron from RAF Northolt in West London.
The contract commenced on March 1, 2018 and runs until 2022. There are options in the contract for extensions of one or two years. If the two-year extension is taken up, the contract value will increase to £60 million.
The BAE Systems Regional Aircraft team joined with Serco to win the contract through a competitive tender process. The BAE Systems-led team will deliver a 20% increase in aircraft availability for a reduced operational cost.
The new agreement – known as the BAe 146 In-Service Support Availability Contract – is an availability-based contract which includes maintenance of airframe, engines, avionics and electrical, provision of spares and total supply chain management, the management of Government Furnished Assets, and interior aircraft cleaning and maintenance.
Serco, which had provided support at RAF Northolt for over 20 years, will be responsible for all maintenance aspects of the contract, including airframe, engines, avionics and electrical, and interior aircraft cleaning and maintenance. Through its experienced resource at RAF Northolt, Serco will also provide a pool of sponsored reserves to support the aircraft when deployed on operations outside the UK.
Under the availability element of the contract the BAE Systems-led team will ensure delivery of three out of the four aircraft to be available for tasking at 0700 hours on weekdays and two of the four aircraft available at 0700 hours at weekends.
The BAe 146 fleet consists of two BAe 146-100s – originally delivered in 1986 to The Queen’s Flight at RAF Benson – and designated in RAF service as the BAe 146 CC Mk2, along with two BAe 146-200QC (Quick Change) variants with a large freight door in the rear fuselage. BAE Systems converted the latter aircraft and delivered them to the RAF in 2013 when they were designated as the BAe 146 C Mk3.
