AirTanker has been awarded a £170 million ($231 million) contract to modernise communication equipment aboard the Voyager tanker/transports it provides for use by the UK Royal Air Force (RAF).
The Voyager Operating System Evolution (VOSE) deal “will resolve military mission system obsolescence by embodying the Multifunction Information Distribution System and the Joint Tactical Radio System”, a 24 June contract notification states.
Covering “design, development, procurement, certification, embodiment and through-life support”, the award was negotiated on a sole-source basis due to an “absence of competition for technical reasons”. AirTanker is the UK Manufacturer Approved Organization Scheme holder for Airbus Defence & Space’s A330-220-based multi-role tanker transport, the announcement notes.
VOSE embodiments will be made on between 10 and 14 airframes, according to the contract announcement.
Delivered by AirTanker via a private finance initiative funding model, the RAF’s fleet of Voyagers are operated from the service’s Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire.
A core fleet of nine aircraft is provided for daily operations, with five others available to be recalled from commercial use if needed by the military. Data from aviation analytics company Cirium shows that the hose and drogue refuelling system-equipped KC2- and KC3-version tankers are aged between 10 and 16 years.
AirTanker secured the UK’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft contract in 2008, with its service provision to run for 27 years.
Further details of the VOSE activity have not been disclosed, but the RAF has previously expressed its interest in boosting the Voyager’s ability to connect and share data with other frontline assets. The service early this decade employed the widebody type during flight trials of its Nexus combat cloud technology.
