In the past year, the Ministry of Defence has spent almost £15m across three different contracts to source additional personnel to support the Royal Navy's transformation programme.

Newly published procurement information reveals that defence and security firm BAE Systems has been tasked with providing "SQEP support" - which stands for suitably qualified and experience personnel - to the Nelson programme, a scheme which launched three years ago to drive digital transformation across the Navy.

The contracts through which it will deliver this support have progressively grown in size, with the first one - worth £1.8m - running from 20 December 2019 to 31 March 2021. 

A further SQEP deal, with a value of £6.2m, came into effect on 22 May of this year. It expires on 30 April 2022. 

Another contract, worth £6.6m, was signed last week and runs for 12 months.

All the deals, which add up to a collective worth of £14.6m, were awarded as call-off contracts via lot two of the Electronic Warfare and Cyber framework - which is dedicated to cybersecurity software and security modelling products and services. 

BAE is the primary supplier on this lot, supported by fellow defence company Leonardo.

The Nelson programme has three specified objectives: "to make the Royal Navy’s data coherent and accessible; to enable the rapid development and deployment of intelligent applications; to grow a culture of digital delivery".

The centralised scheme sets out digital and data standards, helps direct transformation across the Navy, and provides technological support where needed.