Britain has signed a contract worth 552,238.88 pounds with Acoustic Technologies to supply a rapidly deployable air raid warning system for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, according to a contract details notice published on Monday.
The contract was signed on 3 September, with the notice giving contract dates running from 5 October 2026 to 4 October 2027. Under the Procurement Act 2023, a contract details notice must be published within 30 days of signature for contracts above the relevant threshold.
An earlier award notice, published on 13 August, had given the same figure for the requirement and described the contract as running for five years from 26 October, with the earliest signature date set at 25 August. The new notice, however, states that “the contract will be for 5 Years”, while its separate contract dates section covers only a single year.
The notice states: “There is a need to supplement the Air Raid Warning Sirens that are currently in place at RAF Akrotiri. The requirement is for Air Raid Warning Sirens that can cover the distance of RAF Akrotiri and Akrotiri Village for community warning.”
The system must provide “distinct alert tones (e.g., air raid/imminent threat and all-clear)” and “live and recorded voice announcement functionality”. It must also be “portable and operate independent of any fixed infrastructure installations”. The scope of work, as set out in the notice, covers “supply, commissioning, documentation, training, warranty, and through-life support activities required to deliver and sustain the capability”.
Acoustic Technologies, which trades as ATI Systems, is a US firm based in Boston, and is listed in the notice as a small or medium-sized enterprise. The contract was awarded through an open procedure, with two tenders received from small and medium-sized firms, according to the earlier award notice, and was run through British Forces Cyprus headquarters at Episkopi.
RAF Akrotiri
Akrotiri village lies within the base’s boundary, meaning the base authorities have a civilian population to warn as well as service personnel and their families. The base is about 100 miles from the Syrian coast and within reach of Lebanon, Israel and the wider Levant, closer to regional conflicts than any other permanent British base.
RAF Akrotiri served as the launch point for Typhoon strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria under Operation Shader, and for RAF sorties against Houthi targets in Yemen during 2024. It sits within the Western Sovereign Base Area on Cyprus’s south coast and is the RAF’s permanent operating base in the eastern Mediterranean, retained under the 1960 treaty that granted Cyprus independence.
(Information from UK Defence Journal)
