MOD extends vehicle contract with Coventry-based NP Aerospace

By Peter Davison

26 May 2023

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PMETS vehicles

The Ministry of Defence has extended its Protected Mobility Engineering and Technical Support vehicle contact (PMETS) with NP Aerospace to March 2026.

The £63 million contract covering more than 2,000 vehicles was awarded to NP Aerospace, global armour manufacturer and vehicle integrator via a competitive tender in March 2019.

Since then, as Engineering Authority for the fleet, and in partnership with vehicle OEMs and industry partners, NP Aerospace has worked on over 140 individual tasks that maintain, sustain and upgrade the vehicle fleet for use on operations.

According to David Petheram, Managing Director & Senior Vice President, NP Aerospace Vehicle Systems, Services & Spares, PMETS tasks range in scale and complexity from lighting systems, software enhancements and communication system upgrades, through to full scale re-engineering programmes.

He said: “Through PMETS we have introduced significant innovations into the fleet such as the Mastiff and Ridgback XC offroad platforms and hybrid demonstrator projects – both of which improve overall capabilities and operational vehicle performance.

"Working closely with industry partners, NP Aerospace is able to maximise through life capability and introduce new innovations that benefit the Armed Forces.”

NP Aerospace has worked on MOD vehicles for over 20 years, leading complex integrations. The platforms covered under the PMETS contract include Mastiff, Wolfhound, Ridgback, Buffalo, Choker, Foxhound, Jackal, Coyote and RODET.

Key partners include Atkins, HORIBA-Mira and ITS, vehicle OEMs General Dynamics and Supacat, and a variety of technology partners. The prime contracting model with NP Aerospace as engineering authority is fully scalable and can be applied to other platform types and global markets.

The PMETS contract is estimated to have generated in excess of 200 jobs in the UK supply chain, with the team at NP Aerospace providing oversight of all deliverables and managing all activities on the contracts, utilising highly experienced staff in a unique way across the variety of vehicles in the fleet.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.