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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

Carrier Strike Airborne Early Warning Initial Market Engagement

Ministry of Defence · Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

Tender information last checkedLast checked 29 Sept 2026, 23:57.

Opportunity overview

The Royal Navy employs an airborne surveillance system that operates from the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers to provide the Carrier Strike Group (comprised of the aircraft carrier, support vessels, escort frigates and escort destroyers) with sufficient warning of air and surface threats to allow for effective counter threat action. To sustain the capability, MOD is exploring potential future solutions, that will underpin the defence and security of the UK in the future, and as such is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to industry. The objective of the RFI is to understand the capacity and capability of the industrial base to support this capability requirement. The implementation options in the RFI are not prescribed, so we are interested in views from all interested parties on the best possible solution. Please respond by completing the Microsoft Form in the link below by 17:00 on the 6th May 2025. Link to RFI response form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=7WB3vlNZS0iuldChbfoJ5a6aZaFlrNdKrj-sA8pUVe1UMTU1WE42RDIwWkJHM1NTVTg4T1lKUUI5Sy4u Please send any queries about this market engagement exercise to: dean.cordwell102@mod.gov.uk. Where relevant and appropriate, this market engagement event may be followed by further engagement exercise which will be notified through normal channels (e.g. Defence Sourcing Portal, Find a Tender) For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not informing the market of an imminent procurement. All costs pertaining to the completion of this response are to be borne by the responders. Please note, procurement dates and values in this notice are subject to governance and should not be viewed as a firm commitment. This RFI is purely to gain market knowledge and is not the launch of a new procurement. Pricing and timelines will be refined through market engagement, at this stage a cost of between £500,000,000 and £1,500,000,000 and a contract start date of between May 2026 and May 2027, with an introduction into service of 2030-20235 is estimated.

Classification

  • CPV35611600 — Maritime patrol aircrafts

Lots

  • Lot 1Value not stated

Documents and notices

Published notice details

Additional information from the published procurement release. Fields appear only when supplied by the source; check the original notice and tender documents before acting.

Scope, procedure and submissions

Id
ocds-h6vhtk-04ff4e
Status
planning
Above Threshold
Yes
Main Procurement Category
goods

Amendments

Entry 1
Id
016248-2025
Description
Further to our request to submit any clarifications questions see below clarification questions and answers: CQ 1 Question: 1a. CQ – What are the requirements of the platform? (Range, Endurance, Weight, Fuel type, Airspace Restriction, DAS, Altitude…etc) 1b. CQ – What are the sensor requirements? (in terms of EO/IR &/or Radar) 1c. CQ – What are to parameters of the sensor that you would like to achieve? (Radar detection range, EO/IR sensor range, GMTI Range) CQ1 Answer: The authority expects that the potential solutions could vary greatly with regards to combinations of numbers of platforms, endurance, and sensor performance and do not wish to specify those at present. The key is “sufficient time to enact counter-threat measures” as detailed in the opening statement of the RFI. At this early stage, you have the freedom to propose systems/solutions that is able to maximise this time persistently unbounded by system parameters imposed by The Authority. CQ2 Question: Would a platform need to be registered on the UK Military Airc raft Register to meet the requirement for a demonstration? CQ2 Response: The RN is currently undertaking broad market engagement. At this stage, platforms do not need to be registered with the military aviation authority. Decisions on how any future demonstrations may take place will be made on the results of this market engagement.

Legal basis

Id
2023/54
Scheme
UKPGA

Communication

Future Notice Date
1 Jan 2026, 23:59

Special regime

defenceSecurity

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Status
planning

Contract period

Ends
1 May 2032, 23:59
Starts
1 Jan 2027, 00:00

Items and delivery

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Delivery locations

Entry 1
Region
UK
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 2
Region
UK
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 3
Region
UK
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom

Additional Classifications

Entry 1
Id
35611600
Scheme
CPV
Description
Maritime patrol aircrafts

Planning and budget

Documents

Entry 1
Id
013840-2025
Format
text/html
Notice Type
UK2
Description
Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
Document Type
marketEngagementNotice
Published
9 Apr 2025, 09:42
Entry 2
Id
013860-2025
Format
text/html
Notice Type
UK2
Description
Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
Document Type
marketEngagementNotice
Published
9 Apr 2025, 10:12
Entry 3
Id
016248-2025
Format
text/html
Notice Type
UK2
Description
Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
Document Type
marketEngagementNotice
Published
22 Apr 2025, 14:06

Milestones

Entry 1
Id
engagement
Type
engagement
Status
scheduled
Due
6 May 2025, 23:59
Description
Please respond by completing the Microsoft Form in the link below by 17:00 on the 6th May 2025. Link to RFI response form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=7WB3vlNZS0iuldChbfoJ5a6aZaFlrNdKrj-sA8pUVe1UMTU1WE42RDIwWkJHM1NTVTg4T1lKUUI5Sy4u

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Id
GB-PPON-PHVX-4316-ZVGZ
Name
Ministry of Defence

Roles

buyer

Address

Region
UKJ31
Country
GB
Locality
Portsmouth
Postal Code
PO2 8BY
Country Name
United Kingdom
Street Address
NCHQ

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Id
publicAuthorityCentralGovernment
Scheme
UK_CA_TYPE
Description
Public authority - central government

Identifier

Id
PHVX-4316-ZVGZ
Scheme
GB-PPON

Contact

Name
Dean Cordwell

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · Portsmouth · UKJ31 · PO2 8BY · United Kingdom
  • Delivery location · UK · United Kingdom

Notice and amendment history

1 published notice version reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

1 VERSION
  1. ocds-h6vhtk-04ff4e-2025-04-22T14:06:02+01:00Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender ·