BAE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA SUBMITS BATTLESPACE COMMUNICATIONS BID
29 Apr 04. BAE Systems Australia has submitted its proposal for the Australian Defence Force (ADF)’s Battlespace Communications Programme JP2072. BAE Systems is bidding as a vendor independent Prime Systems Integrator (PSI) that will be able to source the most appropriate value-for-money equipment and systems unencumbered by any existing agreements or arrangements.
The competitors for JP2072 are GD Canada partnered with ADI and Tenix; Raytheon partnered with Northrop Grumman, Ericsson and Kongsberg and IBM who are thought to be bidding alone.
“BAE Systems has successfully delivered more than ninety percent of the existing ADF tactical mobile communications capability through Projects Raven, Wagtail and Parakeet. Through those programmes, we have developed and maintained a highly skilled engineering base in mobile military communications” said Jim McDowell, Chief Executive, BAE Systems Australia.
“The Australian Government’s initiative in establishing an indigenous mobile military communications capability through investment in previous tactical communications programmes (Raven, Wagtail and Parakeet) was money well spent and our offer represents a substantial dividend on the investment”.
“Our approach will upgrade the existing capability and provide a migration path to a future Defence communications vision” he said.
BAE Systems Australia’s PSI strategy takes advantage of the Commonwealth’s forward looking contracting model that will allow much higher Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) participation than was possible under previous arrangements. It proposes a situation where SMEs will have unprecedented visibility of and access to opportunities under the project. SMEs have not had to choose winners before the competition and have not had to expend bid funds to secure a position for the future. A web based JP2072 information and opportunity portal that will allow interested parties to engage in the programme with a minimum of bureaucracy has been proposed.