705702451 - Programme NJORD Prior Information Notice (PIN)

The UK Government has set its ambition to deliver 50Gw of green energy by 2030 delivered by numerous offshore windfarms that shall be built and commissioned during a rolling programme of works from 2025 and beyond. The fleet of UK Air Defence (AD) Radars are installed strategically around the UK and provide the Recognised Air Picture (RAP) The UK Government has set its ambition to deliver 50Gw of green energy by 2030 delivered by numerous offshore windfarms that shall be built and commissioned during a rolling programme of works from 2025 and beyond. The fleet of UK Air Defence (AD) Radars are installed strategically around the UK and provide the Recognised Air Picture (RAP) enabling UK air defence system to identify non-cooperative targets within the UK area of interest, enabling the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) in support to National Security Objective 1 (NSO1).

Each of the future offshore windfarms will have a unique, detrimental impact upon the RAP as they will reduce the volume of air space that the AD radars can effectively survey,reducing the MOD’s ability to deliver its tasks under NSO1.

Programme NJORD (herein referred to as NJORD) has been established in response to a need for capabilities that will mitigate the negative impact introduced by offshore windfarms and maintain, the RAP at its full capability as established prior to the introduction of offshore windfarms. NJORD is an RAF programme with the procurement activity and contract management, through life for the capability / capabilities, being managed by the Air Defence and Electronic Warfare Systems (ADEWS) Delivery Team (DT) within Defence Equipment & Support as the RAF’s delivery agent. To achieve this, NJORD shall focus on ensuring the continued Primary Surveillance capability currently provided by the RAF’s air defence remote radar heads which would otherwise be degraded by offshore windfarms. The capability may be comprised of an asset or assets that mitigate individual windfarms or numerous assets that comprise a system of mitigations. The anticipated potential solutions for the procurement include but are not limited to the following.

• TAO 1 – Replace the current AD radar fleet.
• TAO 2 - Gap Fill Radar / Supplementary Radar.
• TAO 3 - Adjunct System / Modification to AD radar fleet.
• TAO 4 - Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)s.
• TAO 5 - Low orbit satellite technology.
• TAO 6 - Optical Trackers.

This further Market Interest Day is a briefing from the Authority to Industry, during which the Authority will describe the requirement and incremental delivery approach. The intention is to set up a framework for mitigation solutions that will be procured through a series of call-off competitions including trial demonstrations. We will invite Industry comments which will be documented and shared to those present at the event.

Should your Organisation wish to attend the further Market Interest Day please contact the following email address to register your interest: [email protected] so that we can engage with you regarding this event. Industry attendance will not be limited, as the event will be conducted over Microsoft Teams. Responses for attending are requested by 12th May 2023

Whilst this PIN is entirely focused on achieving NJORD, any subsequent framework that is established, may also be used for future AD Radar.

We look forward to hearing from you.