• Aviation services business 2Excel to deliver training for airborne intelligence missions, alongside JD2E, for the Ministry of Defence.
  • The company has also announced it will overhaul a commercial airliner under contract to Leonardo, in latest work on the Tempest aircraft programme.
  • Contracts build on 2Excel’s already extensive specialist aviation flight and engineering work, which includes current Maritime and Coastguard Agency search and rescue contract.

17 September 2021. 2Excel, the employee-owned aviation services business, has announced two contracts in defence training and innovation, bolstering the company’s reputation as a go-to provider of solutions to highly-complex aviation challenges.

The company – which conducts work in defence and security, engineering, and disaster response – has signed a three year contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to train servicemen for airborne intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance operations.

The work, delivered alongside JD2E, will begin next January, with each course undertaken involving three weeks of live flying out of 2Excel’s Doncaster-Sheffield Airport base.

2Excel has also agreed with a contract with defence company Leonardo, to support the Tempest programme.

Using the innovative and highly-skilled engineering team, 2Excel will completely overhaul a commercial airliner – set to be named ‘Excalibur’ – turning it into a flying laboratory for air combat technology testing. Phase 2 of the project will see 2Excel design and build the flight test bed based on a Boeing 757 airliner.

Unveiled at DSEI, Excalibur will allow scientists and engineers to test state-of-the-art technology, including sensors and communications equipment. It will also allow the UK and international partners to use real-world settings to de-risk new proprietary technology, as well as test the latter stages of development for the complex systems set to underpin the Tempest aircraft.

A 2Excel spokesperson said: “At 2Excel we’re proud of our highly-skilled team’s ability to do difficult things well; these contracts underline industry and Government’s faith in our ability to do so too.

“Through these partnerships, we’re boosting our presence in defence technology and training, continuing to deliver highly-specialised solutions to complex issues. It will also see us continue delivering operations and training expertise for the UK Government.”

2Excel has a proud legacy of delivering work for the UK Government, having provided operational training work, including the current Maritime and Coastguard Agency Search and Rescue contract.

The contract with the Ministry of Defence will boost 2Excel’s operations in the Doncaster-Sheffield region, bringing further high-skilled jobs to the local economy and providing another example of how 2Excel’s UK operations are levelling-up the regions they’re placed in.

This adds to 2Excel’s already significant contributions through its work to local economies across the UK, with more than 400 people employed by the company at their bases in Sywell, Sheffield and Lasham – alongside the thousands who rely on 2Excel’s business in their supply chains.