UK looks to buy new Type 23 CESM fit

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is looking to pursue the accelerated procurement of an off-the-shelf communications electronic support measures (CESM) system to provide Royal Navy (RN) Type 23 frigates with an enhanced electronic surveillance capability.

An invitation to tender (ITT) is set to emerge in late March. The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation's Joint Electronic Surveillance (JES) delivery team, which is managing the potential acquisition, has restricted expressions of interest to existing suppliers of CESM equipment to the RN.

Typically providing coverage of the HF, VHF and UHF frequency bands, CESM systems are employed to provide interception, direction finding and analysis of communications signals of interest, supporting both tactical indicators and warnings and strategic intelligence collection.

According to the DE&S, the nascent Type 23 CESM requirement calls for the supply, installation and in-service support of a mature integrated CESM solution. It adds that the candidate system must be at Technology Readiness Level 8 or above, suitable to meet appropriate RN platform installation standards and platform constraints, and ready for a system demonstration to the JES team in mid-2013 to support tender assessment.