14 June 2018

RAF Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire Moors is one of three radar sites in the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. The other two are in Alaska and Greenland. Photo: Open Government Licence v3.0.

The Ministry of Defence is to invest up to £80m in an Air Command and Control System (ACCS).  

Known as Project Guardian, the system will support the continued early detection and rapid response to potential hostile or suspect aircraft that pose a threat to our sovereignty. 

This project will see the current systems at RAF bases in the UK and Falkland Islands replaced with the new technology. 

It will be led by IBM Services in the UK under a deal worth around £60m that could potentially rise to almost £80m.  

The ACCS is the computer system that takes in data to generate the ‘Recognised Air Picture’ – a dynamic, real time depiction of aircraft in the flight information region, with each aircraft being identified as friendly or hostile.

The MoD says Project Guardian will deliver several new capabilities to improve communication and interoperability between UK, NATO and coalition aircraft. 

Paul Hubbard, associate partner with IBM Global Business Services UK and Ireland, adds: "Having access to real time data from a wide range of sources is vital. The new system will introduce new data sources and a tactical data link so information can be transmitted, replayed and received via radio waves or cable.”