SCS UK MoD training services contract extended

SCS will continue to provide training support to the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) Joint Forces Command (JFC) following the award of a 12-month extension to its existing contract.

The contract, valued at £2.6 million, will see the company support the JFC as it generates the new contingent capabilities identified under the 2012 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Under the extended contract, SCS will facilitate the reporting and standards of forces at readiness, the identification of capability gaps and the management of associated risk; as well as rehearsing the JFC’s various component organisations in their operational deployment campaign planning and execution, through a series of live and simulated exercises.

This will require the creation of the complex synthetic environment required to challenge around 1200 operational staff in six locations, for up to 12 days at a time, and will see the company draw on a sophisticated mix of technology, organisation, people and process.

Brigadier Dickie Haldenby, deputy director of joint warfare, said: ‘Britain’s Armed Forces remain one of a very small number in the world that are able to integrate a wide range of military capabilities effectively to form a coherent Joint Force.

'It is our ability to practise this that harnesses the potential of our highly professional people and some first-rate equipment, such that the Joint Force is able to have an effect much greater than the sum of its constituent parts. I am delighted that Joint Forces Command will continue to be supported by SCS’s Joint Warfare Support Team who have been at the core of this training for some 13 years. I look forward to continuing to work in partnership with them.’

Andy Thomis, chief executive of SCS’ parent company Cohort, said: ‘This contract is a welcome reaffirmation of SCS's position as the market leader for large-scale, joint operational training services, both in the UK and internationally. Despite the tight UK defence market the Group continues to make good progress exploring opportunities with both new and existing customers.’

SCS has supported the collective training of deployable headquarters for the JFC since 2000, winning four competitive rebids.