The Defence Technology Exploitation Programme (DTEP) is being jointly supported by Invest Northern Ireland (INI) and the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial strategy (BEIS), and is being run in Northern Ireland, serving as a pilot for the new UK-wide DTEP, the Defence sector’s proposed equivalent to NATEP.
CCP Gransden will be collaborating with Thales and Ulster University to replace an existing metallic canister with an advanced composite canister in a specialist defence product.
This project builds on Thales, Ulster University, and CCP Gransden’s history of collaboration on defence canister technology. In 2015, all three parties worked in a NIACE (Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre, technology hub) filament winding project, leading to further development on the Thales Starstreak canister. After delivering positive results, CCP Gransden was in 2018 awarded the full production contract for Thales’ Starstreak canisters.
Thales also sponsored CCP Gransden to achieve the ADS SC21 Bronze award, (with CCP Gransden currently at Silver [2021], on track for Gold-level). The Starstreak canister production involves a tight tolerance assembly of over 50 components. CCP Gransden have to-date produced 100% of the Starstreak canisters on-time, with 100% quality. Notably, Thales have recently secured a £98.4-million contract to maintain the British Army and Royal Marines’ Very Short-Range Air Defence capability until 2026. Collaborative working with a range of trusted firms saved 30% on the expected value of that contract.