Maritime patrol aircrafts

Tender description

The overarching requirement is to provide enhanced maritime domain awareness to support decision making and the tasking and coordination of operational assets. This requirement can be met by unmanned (UAV) platforms that are capable of detecting, identifying, and monitoring vessels within the UK area of interest, as part of a wider system incorporating aviation, maritime assets, and land-based capabilities. This requirement will need to be delivered via an enduring multi-airframe operational capability to meet the immediate law enforcement/SOLAS challenges in the Dover Strait; and, potentially, other law enforcement tasking in other locations in the future. The current service is based at Lydd Airport, Kent, but potential suppliers can operate from any location as long as the overall sortie duration remains The contract will be required for an initial period of 12 months with potential options to extend. Aerial surveillance is required as part of a wider ISTAR package to: identify all small boats in the Dover Strait to ensure that they are interdicted and triaged for SOLAS responses; collect evidential footage of criminality to support the criminal justice process; and to ensure that law enforcement activity can be conducted safely. This requirement can be met by a managed service utilising either manned or unmanned platforms that meet the following minimum criteria: 1) Must meet all regulatory requirements (CAA, OFCOM, etc) and if unmanned, be capable of flying BVLOS; 2) Must be capable of flying in the hours of darkness and in a range of meteorological conditions; 3) Must have at least two methods of reliably detecting vessels; 4) Must have the ability to record high-quality FMV to support criminal justice proceedings; 5) Must have the ability to move rapidly between tracks of interest (>100kmh); 6) A live FMV downlink to the multi-agency ops room in Dover Coastguard HQ; 7) A liaison officer in Dover Coastguard HQ to facilitate dynamic tasking; 8) Individual sorties should last at least 8 hours, with options to provide multiple single sorties if necessary (single task line) up to approximately 600 hours per annum; 9) Options for multiple concurrent sorties using multiple platforms with potentially up to three concurrent sorties in the AO to provide multiple evidential capture opportunities (multiple task line) up to an additional 300 hours per annum per platform.