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December 2024 | technology report | Military Training
by Giles Ebbutt
Three of the bidding consortia have dropped out of the competition to become Strategic Training Partner for the British Army Collective Training Service.
Above: ACTS will explore new technologies that deliver innovative training programmes to inform force development. (Photo: Sgt R Weideman, RLC/UK MOD Crown copyright 2022)
Shephard has learned that three of the seven consortia bidding to become the Strategic Training Partner (STP) for the £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) British Army Collective Training Service (ACTS) have withdrawn from the competition, two of them barely a year after announcing their participation.
According to the tender notice published in August 2023, the STP will “jointly develop and implement the ACTS”.
The seven consortia, which all passed the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) stage of the process, were: Team Paladin, led by QinetiQ; Omnia Training, led by Raytheon UK; teams led by Leonardo and Elbit Systems UK, respectively; Team Crucible, led by Babcock; Alliance, led by Lockheed Martin UK; and a Northrop Grumman UK/Serco team. It is the last three who have now withdrawn.
The competition has three phases, with the PQQ followed a two-stage Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) process, with the bidders downselected to two for the second stage.
ITN 1 submissions are due in mid-November 2024. Their assessment is likely to be completed and the two successful bidders downselected for ITN 2 by early February 2025. This stage will last 20 weeks, so following assessment of these submissions and final negotiations, the contract award will likely be in early 2026.
“The ACTS will exploit new technologies and digitalisation to deliver training which drives innovation and exploits data, empowers and stimulates the training audience and better informs force development,” the tender notice stated. “It will better prepare the army… for future complex operations and help to achieve greater productivity in training.”
The STP will be jointly responsible with the Army for governance within the ACTS, and will be responsible for most aspects of direction, analysis, design, delivery, development and validation of the system. This will include scheduling and booking of resources and facilities, holistic logistics service, and support and advice on facilities improvement. It will also involve the provision of audiences, actors, adversaries and enemies (A3E), specialist trainers, instrumentation, simulation and emulation, and an observation and review service.
Lockheed Martin UK launched the Alliance partnership (Turner and Townsend, Ravenswood Technologies UK, Cubic Defence UK, 4GD, KX and Splunk) in June 2023 and promoted the team strongly at subsequent events.
When contacted for comment, it said: “Lockheed Martin and Alliance have withdrawn from the ACTS STP competition due to being unable to see a way to negotiate to a position that was going to be beneficial for the customer and or the Alliance Partnership, and in the spirit of collaboration and openness gracefully agreed with the authority to withdraw on that basis.”
Babcock, which launched Team Crucible (Jacobs, Accenture, CAE and McKinsey & Co) with considerable fanfare at DSEI in September 2023, declined to comment, and Northrop Grumman had not responded to Shephard at the time of writing.
A senior officer closely involved with the programme told Shephard that the Army was unconcerned about the withdrawals and is confident that there is a robust competition in progress. He said that the ACTS is fundamental to the future of Army collective training, the funding for the programme is in place and secure, and getting the STP selection right would be key.
Next article below > Australia and Singapore open expanded training area in Queensland
december 2024 | technology report | Military Training
by Chen Chuanren
Australia and Singapore have expanded Queensland’s Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA), adding advanced facilities and technologies to support larger, longer joint military exercises under their ongoing strategic partnership.
Above: The Wolfhound UGV and a PR X-100 UAV. (Photo: Singapore Ministry of Defence)
The defence ministries of Australia and Singapore have officiated the expansion of Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia, which enables both militaries to conduct larger exercises with new elements.
The enlargement of the training district has fallen under the 2015 Singapore-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) which saw both countries co-investing in the project.
The Australian Department of Defence acquired 110,000 hectares of land in central Queensland and a further 310,000 hectares in northern Queensland for the development, which covers combined air-land ranges, a new camp that accommodation for up to 2,000 personnel and two urban operations live fire facilities, the first of their type in Australia.
The expansion will enable the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to increase the scale and duration of its Exercise Wallaby wargame from 45 days to nine weeks a year to support 6,600 personnel.
As the project matures, it will be able to support 14,000 SAF troops for 18 weeks.
In the latest iteration, the SAF tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) teaming concept, where a PR X-100 UAV is transported by the Wolfhound UGV. The 1.5-ton electric wheeled carrier and communications relay device can provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in an urban warfare setting.
The UAVs can also provide a 5G network for those on the battlefield requiring connectivity and information-sharing services.
