Final phase of MoD comms project underway

Terminals will be used for communications

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded £540m to the ATLAS Consortium to improve communications in the armed forces.

The contract is the last phase of the £7.1bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) scheme, and is for the installation of the final 42,000 of a total 142,000 computer terminals at 2,000 sites worldwide.

This final batch of terminals, mainly intended for RAF sites, will be rolled out by the end of this year.

Defence minister Quentin Davies said in a statement today: "DII Increment 3a will provide a further 42,000 computer terminals operating in the restricted and secret domains at the remaining MOD permanent sites, replacing outdated legacy IT systems with improved capability to meet the current and future threats to the UK and its allies."

The terminals will be used for all types of communications and services, with over 250 ministry of defence applications already accessible on them, including the Joint Personnel Administration HR system.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report in 2008 criticised the slow rollout of terminals, saying that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was contracted to have 62,800 DII terminals in place at permanent sites by the end of July 2007. As of April 2008, just 29,000 had been delivered.

After the report, the Atlas consortium adjusted its delivery date for DII by 18 months.

The MoD now says the scheme is on track to deliver estimated benefits to the Department in excess of £1.6bn over the 10 years of the contract.

The ATLAS consortium is led by HP Enterprise Services and includes tier-one partner Fujitsu and partners EADS Defence and Security Systems, General Dynamics, and Logica.