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Dstl Awards £350 million ASTRID contract to BAE Systems CORDA

Homeland May 28, 2020

A contract worth up to £350 million to provide cutting-edge analysis to underpin UK Defence and Security decision-making has been awarded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to BAE Systems CORDA.

Under the ASTRID (Analysis for Science and Technology Research in Defence) contract BAE Systems CORDA will use leading-edge techniques to provide analysis on critical strategy, policy and investment challenges for Dstl and MOD. This will demonstrate, for example, that investment decisions provide the best value for money or offer the most efficient or practical solution. This research can also be re-purposed and shared across other areas within government to solve similar challenges (subject to Intellectual Property rights), improving efficiency across the whole UK government.

BAE Systems CORDA will source and select the best supplier from its specialist supply chain to conduct analysis and inform decision-making. ASTRID will therefore help ensure, for example, that investment decisions provide the best value for money.

The contract will operate across five areas: strategy, policy and enterprise; capability and investment for platform and system level capabilities within current and future force structures; organisational structures, including back-office support, systems and processes; enabling services including modelling and data collection; and horizon scanning.

ASTRID will run for 5 years from April 2020 with options for a further 2 years. It replaces the ASC (Analysis Support Construct) framework contract, also managed by BAE Systems CORDA for Dstl. ASTRID is open to any customers across MOD and wider Government with in-scope requirements, and will build on the success of ASC, which delivered over 300 separate analysis activities for these customers.

Dstl Divisional Head Rob Solly commented: “The ASTRID contract will maintain the provision of high quality analysis to underpin decisions across MOD and our partners in wider Government. It will build on the successful collaborative approach of ASC, providing access to the best talent in the UK and overseas. We also aim to progressively and significantly exceed the MOD target of awarding 25% of the work to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) including non-traditional defence suppliers.”

Suzanne Harrison, Director BAE Systems CORDA, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to continue in our role as MOD’s partner of choice for analysis and decision support, and about continuing to work closely with partners across the supplier community. It has been fantastic under the ASC to see collaborative teams from across industry and government working to deliver essential support to defence and security decision-makers. Our approach to ASTRID will build on the many strengths of ASC, while bringing in new innovations to keep improving on the successes of the last 5 years.”

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Post written by: Matt Brown