§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence against what criteria proposals for his Department's forthcoming Successor Identification Friend or Foe programme will be assessed; and when he expects to make a decision on this project. [128256]
§ Mr. SpellarSuccessor Identification Friend or Foe (SIFF) is a complex programme, involving some 40 sea, land and air platform types with total equipment requirements likely to number in the order of 1,000 transponders and 600 interrogators; each set of equipment has to be functionally and physically integrated with the host platform.
Owing to the number and diversity of the platform types, it is not practical to adopt a single prime contractor strategy for management of the whole SIFF programme. As part of the deliverables from the Assessment Phase, "Demonstration and Manufacture" tenders have been submitted by two competing potential suppliers, BAE SYSTEMS and Raytheon Systems Ltd. for supply of equipment and integration with many of the platform types, and by individual platform design authorities for integration with the remainder of the platforms. Evaluation of these tenders is an extensive task, aimed at ensuring that the decision on the choice of equipment supplier and the phasing of the work to be undertaken by the platform design authorities is made on the best overall balance of operational and value-for-money grounds. All relevant assessment criteria, including commercial, technical, logistics, cost and programme management aspects, will be taken into account in this process and I hope that we will be in a position to announce a decision on the programme during the summer.