A new £18 million contract for work on the Royal Navy’s Long Range Radar (LRR) was announced by UK defense minister Harriett Baldwin as she visited BAE Systems’ Great Baddow site on November 23.
The contract will ensure the continued availability of Long Range Radar (LRR) equipment on the UK’s six Type 45 destroyers, including maintenance and repairs.
The work will sustain 11 highly-skilled jobs with BAE Systems in Chelmsford, as well as four in Portsmouth.
The Long Range Radar provides the Royal Navy with a detailed air surveillance picture of the battlespace, capable of automatically detecting and tracking hundreds of separate targets simultaneously at ranges of greater than 200 miles.
It is a key element of the Type 45 air defence capability and is also employed on the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
The new contract, which will run for the next five years, will cover support for the entire Type 45 fleet as well as one shore-based facility in Portsmouth.
“We are delighted to have been awarded this follow-on contract to support the Long Range Radars across the Royal Navy’s Type 45 Destroyer fleet, which will also enable us to explore further growth opportunities,” Les Gregory, product and training services director for BAE Systems said.