BiP Solutions was established in 1984 to facilitate business between the public and private sectors.

Defence Contracts Online

Through a 16-year partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) as official publishers of their contract information, BiP provides a range of defence-specific products and services to assist private sector businesses to successfully compete in the defence marketplace.

MOD Defence Contract Information Services

MOD Defence Contracts Online (DCO - www.contracts.mod.uk) is the official online source of UK Ministry of Defence contract opportunities, giving private sector suppliers access to all UK MOD contracts of all values, in one place. Access to MOD DCO is completely FREE and registered suppliers can search for contracts 24/7.

By registering for free and entering keywords/phrases into their unique supplier profile, registrants will also receive tailored daily email alerts directly to their inbox containing the latest UK MOD contracts that match their defence product and service offering.

The aim of the MOD Defence Contracts Online service is to guide organisations through some of the steps they will need to follow to sell to the UK Ministry of Defence, while providing a gateway to new contract opportunities for both large and small organisations wishing to compete for defence business, either directly as a prime contractor or indirectly as a sub-contractor.

To register your business today, visit www.contracts.mod.uk and follow the simple supplier registration process.

Defence Contracts Bulletin

Published in association with two key UK Ministry of Defence procurement agencies – Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) – MOD Defence Contracts Bulletin (MOD DCB) is read by organisations that are serious about engaging effectively with the UK MOD as a supplier, as well as by the UK MOD’s own buying community.

Through this fortnightly publication, readers gain access to a wealth of UK MOD contract opportunities and key defence market intelligence, including:

• All UK MOD contracts valued above £10,000;
• A unique insight into the UK MOD’s spending plans;
• The UK MOD’s ongoing and upcoming equipment projects;
• Future UK MOD requirements;
• UK MOD procurement policies;
• Key defence industry analysis and features;
• Exclusive interviews and commentary from key UK MOD and defence personnel.

Defence Contracts International

Defence Contracts International (DCI) is the premium source of information on defence contract opportunities and a world leader in providing key defence and security contracts in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

Our dedicated business intelligence research department search over 400 independent sources every day, and we receive direct feeds from the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and Fedcon to provide unrivalled defence contract information that keeps your business on top of what’s happening in global defence markets.

Defence is one of the world’s most lucrative industry sectors, with thousands of defence and security contracts published each year. With a DCI subscription, you can also enjoy direct access to contracts from other related sectors, such as:

• Homeland Security
• Humanitarian Aid
• Counter Terrorism
• Emergency Services
• Aerospace
• Aviation

Access to these further defence-related contract opportunities will undoubtedly allow you to further expand your business within existing and new defence marketplaces.

Other key benefits from having a DCI subscription include:

• Your own interactive dashboard, allowing you to flag contracts of interest and track opportunities for tendering;
• A unique supplier profile, tailored to your exact needs to ensure you receive only the most relevant opportunities;
• Daily email alerts containing the latest contracts published, along with live alerts for new contracts published throughout the day – keeping you at the forefront of new opportunities;
• Dedicated Account Management throughout your subscription year*, providing the best service possible and ensuring you receive maximum return from your investment;
• A gateway to further contract opportunities of a similar nature, from non-defence buyers.

DCI is ideal for organisations of all sizes, from SMEs seeking defence business opportunities in their own regional areas to major multinational players looking to capture as large a share as possible of the global defence market.

Annual subscriptions start from as little as £280 per year.

To find out more about how Defence Contracts International can help your business grow, simply visit www.dcicontracts.com today, or to speak with a Defence Business Growth Advisor call 0845 270 7092. We’re open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

*Our Account Management Team fully support subscriptions over the value of £500 only.

Defence Procurement Events and Exhibitions

BiP Solutions also delivers a range of defence-focused exhibitions and training events throughout the UK each year.

The Defence Procurement Research, Technology and Exportability 2013 exhibition is a one-day event that will showcase innovative defence procurement for buyers and suppliers.

Taking place on Wednesday 20 November 2013 at the University of the West of England Exhibition and Conference Centre, DPRTE 2013 will provide the buyer and supplier communities with a unique opportunity to interact across a single platform in order to enhance effective collaboration and competition in all areas of defence research and technology.

Delegates will discuss the future shape of the defence sector, as represented by:

• Defence Agencies
• Central Government
• Academic Institutions
• UK MOD Project Teams
• European Partners
• Prime Contractors
• 1st and 2nd Tier Sub-Contractors
• SMEs and Micro SMEs

Exhibiting suppliers will enjoy:

• Promoting their capabilities to over 1000 buyers as well as end users;
• Identifying opportunities to transfer technology into new markets;
• Exploring international markets;
• Identifying potential partners and funding opportunities;
• Engaging with academia to understand the latest technology concepts.

For more information on this unique and innovative showcase event, visit www.dprte.co.uk

Our Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) is the training arm of the business and delivers a Selling To Defence workshop in various UK locations.

The one-day workshop aims to inform delegates of the vision for the future of UK defence and the implications of the ongoing changes within UK MOD procurement, including the recently announced ten-year equipment spending plan, with the ultimate goal being to assist delegates in developing their strategy and defining processes to win business within the defence sector.

Topics covered include:

• Understanding the UK Procurement Regulations;
• Selling to Defence – the UK MOD’s Perspective;
• Defence and Security Exporting – Support for Small Businesses:
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Tendering

The event is fully supported by the UK MOD, with dedicated speakers from Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) as well as the UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO).

To find out more about the Selling To Defence workshop, as well as dates and venues, visit www.passprocurement.com/events

The company’s range of service offerings include; Business Winning & Proposal Generation, Project Mobilisation, Control & Delivery, Systems & Software Engineering, Supportability Engineering, Support Solution Design Service, Safety Engineering & Assurance, Training Analysis, Design & Delivery, Human Factors, Operations Analysis & Modelling and Cyber Security.

Persides

Persides is an established and growing force in the defence, security and energy markets offering high calibre services for a diverse client base.

It is increasingly difficult for an organisation to predict exactly the skills and capacity it needs to deliver its dynamic and evolving objectives. Persides offers high quality management and engineering services to supplement client capability and enhance performance where required. Services offered include;

• Business Winning & Proposal Generation
• Project Mobilisation, Control & Delivery
• Systems & Software Engineering
• Supportability Engineering - Integrated Logistic Support (ILS), Reliability & Maintainability
• Support Solution Design Service
• Safety Engineering & Assurance
• Training Analysis, Design & Delivery
• Human Factors
• Operations Analysis & Modelling, Whole-Life Cost (WLC), Life Cycle Cost (LCC)

Persides has built its reputation on the foundations of a core set of principles which align to an approach of delivering Value, Trust, Excellence in support of our Customers. Persides provides a multi-layered approach to the way it contracts its services. Understanding the constraints faced by our clients, whether they be finance or policy driven, Persides tailors its’ offering to counter these constraints and is always prepared to share risk and accountability.

Our Key Products and Services include:

Key Land Based Equipment Programmes

• CBRN  - DE&S /Industry

Persides staff have directly developed various ILS deliverables including the ILS Strategy, ILSP, SOW, Use Study for Man-Portable Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD), Lightweight Chemical Agent Detector (LCAD), Collective Protection Chemical Agent Monitor (COLPRO CAM), Integrated Biological Detection System (IBDS), Maritime Biological Detection System (MBDS) and the Aircrew Protection Equipment and Detection (APED) programme.

• WCSP – DE&S

Medium Armoured Tracks Team (MATT) Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) – R&M Analysis: Persides conducted an independent review to re-evaluate and verify current MoD reliability figures from the WCSP System Requirements Document (SRD) and develop a generic WCSP reliability model to inform potential future requirements.

• PECOC DE&S

Personal Equipment and Common Operational Clothing (PECOC) for the UK MOD Defence Clothing Integrated Project Team (DC IPT) – Persides were responsible for the development of the ILS deliverables in particular in the ILSP, Use Study and the SOW. The aim of this Use Study was to provide an overview of the PECOC programme and the current logistic management and sustainment of the existing Combat Soldier (CS) 95 system.

• FIST - Future Integrated Soldier Technology - Thales Land and Joint

Persides worked as a Future Integrated Soldier Technology (FIST) tier one partner within the Thales Prime Contract Management Office (PCMO) during the Assessment and Delivery phases of the core programme and numerous Urgent operational Requirements (UORs).  Persides was responsible for the definition and delivery of the Support Solution with a particular focus on implementation of Operational Availability-based solutions.
Persides has conducted ILS programmes, developing and delivering support solutions for a number of FIST procured equipment’s. In addition to our work within the PCMO, we have provided support to suppliers of equipment into the FIST programme including Vectronix-Wilcox, Shield and Qioptiq.

Services:
Business Winning and Proposal Generation

Persides has a proven track record of winning and delivering defence and security programmes on behalf of a range of suppliers from small businesses to large multi-national prime contractors. Our expertise in business capture, bid management and programme delivery will ensure that you set out with a winning strategy that ensures a high probability of winning tenders and subsequently delivering profitable programmes to cost, time and performance.

Whatever the stage of the acquisition lifecycle, Persides has vast experience across all domains of programme delivery. We will assist you in making your bid strong in every area, and ensure that your buyer has high confidence in your ability to meet and even exceed their expectations.

Military Systems and Software Engineering

We have gained our wide engineering experience through participation in and management of multiple hardware, software and integration programmes where our staff have been fully committed to the delivery of innovative solutions in support of our customers. Our engineering capabilities include:

• Requirements and System Architecture development
• Software code development and verification
• Systems Integration
• Verification and Validation of both Hardware and Software programmes

Supportability Engineering

Persides has an extensive depth and breadth of capability and experience which enables the successful management and execution of Supportability Programmes. Our Supportability Engineering /ILS capability includes the following disciplines:

• Contractor Logistic Support
• Availability and capability contracting solutions
• Support Solution performance based modelling and simulation
• CONDO Management
• Supportability trade-off analysis
• Technical Documentation

 Support Solution Design Service

Persides has established a structured and proven approach to the design of support service solutions. The approach minimises likely exposure to potential risks and increases the likelihood of meeting contractual service and availability requirements. The approach combines service sector good practice techniques with Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). The activities within this approach are tailored to suit project specific needs and applied by Persides consultants working closely with client organisation personnel. Example activities include; Stakeholder Analysis & Management, Value Proposition, Requirements Analysis & Modelling, Behaviour & Functional Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative modelling, Structured Solution Design and Solution Test & Acceptance.

Safety Engineering and Assurance

Persides recognises that robust safety management is a demanding responsibility and dependent upon the application of sound analytical, creative and engineering skills, based on extensive technical and domain knowledge. Understandably, there is not one safety management approach that fits all situations and customers have very specific requirements to consider. Our safety specialists are suitably qualified, experienced and dynamic engineers with an unwavering focus on attention to detail and customer needs.

Our core safety knowledge and capabilities include:

• Def Stan 00-56 and 05-123, POSMS, JSP375, 418, 430, 454, 553, 602 and 815
• Independent Safety Advice and Audit
• Hazard identification, analysis and management using CassandraTM
• Safety Case construction and Safety Case Reporting

Human Factors and Training Analysis, Design and Delivery

Our Human Factors (HF) experts specialise in the application of UK MoD and US DoD HF standards such as Def-Stan 00-250 and Mil-Std-1472G, as well as the wider HF applicable standards such as Def-Stan 23-09 for Generic Vehicle Architecture.

We have applied our Training experience to develop a range of innovative tools to enhance the analysis and design process including an analysis methodology which evaluates the fidelity requirements of task characteristics, rather than of the tasks themselves. This innovative approach supports accurate quantification of low and high fidelity training options, increasing the cost-effectiveness of the selected training solution.

We meet the challenges of Training in today’s environment by providing:

• Expertise in Training Needs Analysis and Human Factors Integration
• Highly experienced Training design specialists
• Fully qualified and experienced Training instructors

Military Operations Analysis and Modelling

For any Defence or Commercial project, it is vital that a clear understanding is developed at an early stage of how costs will arise across the full system life-cycle, covering all Defence Lines of Development (DLoD). Persides has both the expertise and experience to quantify the variability and sensitivity associated with Whole-Life Cost (WLC) and Availability drivers, to determine potential risks of taking candidate solutions forward to maturity and in-service support, and delivering these key customer requirements. Exploitation of the Witness™ toolset enables dynamic process simulation providing a highly flexible and scalable capability for business process, cost and sensitivity analyses, including:

• Service based modelling techniques
• Operational Availability vs. cost
• Training regime effectiveness and cost vs. fielding and operational sustainment requirements
• Cost of production vs. capability fielding profiles
• Optimisation of support infrastructure solutions against affordability targets

Customers

Persides provides services to customer and industry organisations in the defence, security and energy markets. Example customers include; UK MoD, DE&S, Dstl, BAE Systems, Boeing, Thales, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Kelvin Hughes, General Dynamics, Vectronix Inc, Force Protection Europe, Jankel  Armouring and Selex ELSAG.

Personnel

Persides capabilities are delivered by a complementary blend of high calibre ex-Military, academic, professionally qualified and experienced personnel who are equipped with leading edge tools and processes. Persides employees are selected and tailored for specific roles based on their technical expertise, experience and personal skills. If you are interested in a career with Persides visit our careers pages www.persides.com/careers

Northrop Grumman’s heritage in unmanned ground systems began with the challenges encountered by UK MoD Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel in addressing the terrorist threat in the early 1970s.
From very simple beginnings, the first Wheelbarrow bomb disposal vehicles were developed and have evolved with advances in technology offering increased capability to the EOD operator. The Wheelbarrow has now developed to Mk9, and is regarded by EOD specialists’ world-wide as the most capable and reliable unmanned vehicle available.
Today multi layered solutions from detection and planning to response and destruction,  are designed to offer all EOD team users a modern, fast, reliable and effective solution to combat the latest threats associated with today’s modern IEDs.

CUTLASS

• Improved range and video quality up to 1km with fully secured digital wireless communication
• Arm Speed, Terrain Mobility over x4 faster than other UGVs up to 12 (kph) Kerb climb 0.3 (m)
• Stair Climb 37°, Gap Cross 0.5 (m), Self-righting capability, Pitch and roll sensors along with Load cells provide auto stability system
• Tool rack with Automatic tool change for 8 tools/weapons no need to return to control point for new tools.
• 9 degrees of freedom modular arm – the most versatile capability in the world, can be exchanged for a heavy duty arm capable of lifting 100(kg) or handling large weapon shocks.
• All cameras are colour and come with lighting this combined with onboard microphone give superb situational awareness.
• Dedicated data channel for additional sensors (Ethernet speed), tested with multiple CBRN equipment deployment.
• Environmentally suitable for all climates. -15°C to +60°C dust/rain, vibration, shock certificated, fording depth 0.3(m)

Wheelbarrow Heritage

Today, at our facility in Coventry, we have created a centre of expertise for the systems design, integration and assembly of some of the most trusted unmanned ground vehicles. Our heritage has been built on providing the most capable and recognisable remote controlled bomb disposal platform the ‘Wheelbarrow’ to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

• Wireless hand controller; joystick vehicle control
• Improved range and video quality
• Dedicated data channel for additional sensors
• Low profile 3 fingered gripper with integral ceramic cutter
• Tested with multiple CBRN equipment deployment
• 7 weapon firing releases – offers a large variety of tool installation without the need to change mid-operation

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)

The capability of the Wheelbarrow platform and its unmatched performance has directly led to its international success and it is still in active service world-wide as the platform of dependable choice by the most demanding and dedicated EOD/Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (CIED) teams.

Recently, we launched the Wheelbarrow Mk9 as the latest platform with its combined strengths of speed, climbing, lift and payload capacity. This has been enhanced to improve the ease of operator use with digital command links, intuitive touch-screen controls and sensors for improved situational awareness.

F6 Series

• Dual mobility capability
• Manipulator arm with 7 degrees of freedom
• JAUS ( Joint Architecture for Unmanned System) software operating system
• Multi-mission tool/sensor mounts with plug and play capabilities
• Rotation: grip rotation – continuous 360°
• On screen graphics showing vehicle orientation, feedback from on-board sensors and errors and failures of joints

HD Series

• Grip rotation 360°
• Common, modular electronics with JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned System) compliant software
• Moulded front-drive range integrates microphone, speaker, drive camera, firing circuits and LED lighting
• Quick release lithium polymer battery
• New manipulator options with 6 degrees of freedom and quick release gripper/tool system

Titus

• New manipulator design with all internal components provides superior capability, in a quick release, versatile package
• State of the art diagnostics and troubleshooting including on-board diagnostics LCD screen
• Quick-release articulators provide unmatched stair climbing & mobility, or can be removed for narrow spaces.
• Quick release pan and tilt can be removed with a twist of the wrist for low clearance areas.
• Optional tazer and thermal imager
• Integrated 1W or 5W radio for clear audio and video
• Picatinny rails for sensor & payload attachment

ANDROS™ Unmanned Ground Vehicles

As part of Northrop Grumman, Remotec US Inc. manufacture the ANDROSTM range of EOD unmanned ground vehicles. Outside of the Americas, Remotec UK Ltd markets the latest developed ANDROSTM F6 Series Model no. CX ( also known as the F6B) and HD Model no. SEL.

The larger ANDROSTM F6B platform offers a dual mobility capability: quick release pneumatic wheels for rapid width reduction and patented articulating track to traverse rough terrain.

It has a manipulator arm with 7 degrees of freedom ensuring optimum dexterity and offers screen graphics showing vehicle orientation, feedback from on-board sensors and errors and failures of joints.

The medium sized ANDROSTM HD SEL model is a more compact and robust vehicle that can travel up to speeds of 8.4km/hr and has an extremely durable moulded front-drive range integrating a microphone, speaker, drive camera, firing circuits and LED  lighting.

Moving into CBRN and Integrated Solutions

It is has been our privilege to work and partner with the EOD/IED teams and to understand their complex mission objectives in a turbulent and evolving threat environment.  We can provide technical solutions from our increasing range of vehicles that can be configured according to the operational requirements of the user including EOD, ground surveillance, hazardous material (HazMat) and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) missions.  Furthermore we are now providing bespoke system solutions, integrating our unmanned ground vehicles with command and control systems, the TouchTable® collaborative environment and service support vehicles to produce a standalone mobile capability for locating, identifying and disarming explosive and other hazardous devices, collecting forensic evidence and carrying out criminological analyses.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.