Ricardo is one of three leading defence companies that have formed an exclusive partnership to bid for the continued support and upgrade of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Mastiff, Ridgback and Wolfhound fleet of Protected Patrol Vehicles (the Mastiff family of vehicles).

The three companies - Morgan Advanced Materials, Ricardo and Ultra Electronics - are all UK-based and owned, with their technology development in the UK. Their combined expertise, experience and history of innovation provides an outstanding option to support and enhance the unique capabilities of the Mastiff family of vehicles for the foreseeable future.

“Ricardo is extremely pleased to be joining forces with Morgan and Ultra in what represents a highly effective and all-British partnership, drawing together world-class engineering capabilities and extensive experience in military vehicle design, development, manufacture and overhaul,” commented Ricardo UK managing director Martin Fausset.

Morgan Advanced Materials’ Composites and Defence Systems business (formerly NP Aerospace) has world-leading expertise in specialised armour technologies. It designed, developed and integrated UK-specific, specialised armour protection and electronic systems into the entire Mastiff family of vehicles from base platforms purchased from the USA. Morgan also implemented and operated the spares support processes, including configuration management, stocking and supply chain management, which kept the fleets running during combat operations.

Ricardo is renowned for its automotive engineering expertise and was responsible for the initial design, development and engineering of the Foxhound vehicles, manufacturing all 376 units ordered to date. Ricardo was prime contractor on the Vixen and RWMIK+ upgrade programmes and has also undertaken a project for the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) to identify improvements to the fuel efficiency of Mastiff vehicles.

Ultra Electronics is an international pioneer in vehicle information and power systems and has worked extensively on behalf of customers including the MoD, US Department of Defense and leading Tier 1 suppliers into the defence sector. Ultra is currently under contract to provide multiple electronic systems for the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme and Scout SV development. It is the only Tier 2 supplier involved in all aspects of Generic Vehicle Systems Architecture (GVSA), Generic Soldier Architecture (GSA) and Generic Base Architecture (GBA).

The three businesses are complementary in their technological capabilities, maintain critical competencies in-house and have the financial backing of substantial parent companies. This has enabled them to demonstrate remarkable agility and innovation in meeting demanding requirements for protecting UK soldiers over the last decade. This collaboration creates an agile partnership which maintains that capability in the UK and offers the possibility of optimising electronic and power system synergies between vehicle, future soldier and base systems.

The MoD will shortly award contracts for Post Design Service, Coherence and future upgrade work. Morgan will lead the group and is bidding as prime contractor.

Ricardo
29.11.2013