IBM has won a new £60 million ($79 million) contract to provide the Royal Air Force’s Air Command and Control System (ACCS). IBM last updated the system, which enables controllers to detect and manage the response to potentially hostile aircraft approaching UK airspace, in 2007.

Paul Hubbard, associate partner, IBM Global Business Services, UK and Ireland, said: “The new system will introduce new data sources and a tactical datalink so information can be transmitted, replayed, and received via radio waves or cable. The upgrades will continue improving the rapid exchange of real-time command and control information and speed and accuracy of decision making."

The MoD named the update Project Guardian. It required the winning bidder to show that data and information could be fused, logically presented, easily manipulated, and quickly disseminated. Radar track data should be exchanged with NATO command sites in Europe. Most of these sites are converting to the Thales/Raytheon Air Command and Control System, which was an alternative to IBM’s offer.