2nd April 2008
By Steve Evans
Computer Business Review (CBR) (Web)

A partnership of Mastek, a subcontractor to Thales UK, Fujitsu Services and Flyware has won a GBP27m, 10-year contract to supply services to Air Movement Operations Capability at the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The partnership has developed Swift2Move, software that aims to meet the MOD's requirement of scheduling and managing global air movements of troops and cargo that will be deployed over the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII), a secure military network.

The companies hope that the new software will improve process efficiency, automation and information governance at the MoD. They also claim that this is a world first as no other project has invested in providing a military-targeted product for this domain. The project involved the design and development of a system that aims to handle complex military logistics and defence asset management.

Steve Latchem, vice president of Milaero Operations for Mastek UK said: "In providing very specialist technologies with Thales for the MoD we will be delivering a truly evolutionary solution capability to the MoD to support their global movement operations for years to come."

Milaero is a combination of military, defence and aerospace, and it is a sector that the companies claim is rapidly evolving and they hope this contract win will leave the partnership well placed in the market.

Robert Pye, vice president, business development and strategy at Thales said: "This agreement... will allow both companies to exploit the extensive opportunities that exist in the global defence market for innovative solutions to expeditionary military deployment."