The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has restructured its plant management and maintenance, consolidating three previous contracts with a single supplier, in a project it calls Miter.
AmeyBriggs has been chosen as the preferred supplier to deliver Miter under a contract worth £240m over seven years.
Vehicles in the Miter fleet include excavators, dozers, cranes and forklift trucks and meet the MoD’s need for earthmoving, construction and mechanical handling capabilities.
AmeyBriggs is a new joint venture between Spanish-owned Amey plc and US-owned Briggs Defence. Briggs Defence is part of Briggs Equipment, the distributor of Yale and Hyster lift trucks.
The previous Defence Mechanical Handling Equipment (DMHE), Protected Engineering Equipment and C-vehicle Capability contracts now form part of the new consolidated Miter contract, looking after plant machinery for the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force both at home and overseas.
Previously, this combined activity consisted of approximately 4,600 pieces of equipment at approximately 300 locations in 14 countries. Miter is expected to be broadly similar although there may be scope for rationalisation and efficiencies.
Around 180 staff will be transferred into AmeyBriggs.
Both Amey and Briggs have experience within the defence sector. Briggs Defence has been providing the UK's armed forces with equipment and engineering support since 1997.
Amey worked on the previous generation of this contract through its ALC joint venture with Babcock.
Amey also delivers the MoD's four regional prime contracts and the national housing prime facilities management (FM) contracts, providing a range of military infrastructure and housing services on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), along with FM services to the MoD's Whitehall offices.
Briggs Defence managing director Gary Clements said: "We are delighted that the MoD has recognised the value of the Amey and Briggs Defence proposition, in particular our ability to deliver high levels of service and maintain flexibility in supporting an end-to-end capability. We look forward to maximising our respective expertise and working with top UK equipment manufacturers to provide innovative solutions through a whole force approach that meets the complex needs of our armed forces."
Amey divisional managing director Craig McGilvray said: "Our joint venture with Briggs Defence has an unrivalled breadth of knowledge and experience that makes us uniquely placed to deliver this contract for the MoD, but critically where the operational and training needs of serving personnel are put first.”
The services brought together under Miter were previously delivered through the following three contracts:
- CVehicles – Comprises of engineering, construction and plant equipment to enable manoeuvre, construction, logistics, force protection engineering and life support. Provided under a private finance initiative contract ending in 2021, whereby the current equipment fleet is owned by the contractor and loaned to the MoD on demand.
- Protected Plant – Engineering plant protected against a range of blast and ballistic threats. The small protected construction plant fleet is owned by the MoD and supported by industry under a contract also ending in 2021.
- Defence Mechanical Handling Equipment (DMHE) – Commercial off-the-shelf mechanical handling equipment leased by the MoD, contract ending in 2020.
Major General Simon Hamilton, army director support, said: “I’m particularly enthusiastic about Project Miter. We have taken three previous overlapping mechanisms for provision of Mechanical Handling Equipment, Construction and Protected Plant and melded them into one to achieve efficiencies.
“Moreover, we have designed-in contractual innovation and flexibility by integrating a fleet of military, leased and hired equipment; this means we only pay for what we need when we need it, but can scale-up quickly as necessary; we will also benefit from emerging technologies as they develop. Importantly, MITER embraces a whole force approach, presenting opportunities for enhancing the skills of both regular and reserve personnel.”
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