AT ANY moment of the day, a vast high-tech security and safety system is used to identify every one of the thousands of aircraft that are in the skies above the United Kingdom. It tracks their movements against filed flight plans and sifts through real-time data to pinpoint suspicious activity.

Originally designed and implemented by IBM staff in the UK, the Air Surveillance Command & Control System (UCCS) - described as "vital to the defence of the UK homeland" - is now undergoing extensive planning to continue development of the "search and find" programme.

In a typical year, the surveillance system will monitor as many as two million aircraft movements. Recently, IBM and the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) department of the Ministry of Defence signed a five-year, 23 million pounds strategic agreement for IBM to manage the UCCS programme.

As a result of the advanced air command and control system, Royal Air Force aerospace battle managers at two interlinked centres - RAF Boulmer in Northumberland and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire - are able to scramble Tornado or Typhoon fighters to intercept any aircraft that enters Nato and national airspace without authorisation, or any plane acting suspiciously.

"Continued support and development of the UCCS system remains vital to the defence of the UK homeland," said Air Commodore Mark Wordley, Air Officer Battlespace Management at HQ Air Command. "Furthermore, the UCCS system supports key training activities essential for the preparation of joint forces deploying to operational theatres."

The new agreement continues the existing relationship and covers the support for all hardware, software, training, help-desk and on-site assistance to meet the most demanding requirements specified by the RAF.

Graham Richards, project manager of the Air Command & Control Systems Integrated Project Team, added: "For both ourselves and IBM it was an impressive achievement to complete such a large and complex project to the satisfaction of users, within budget and on schedule."

IBM will also be responsible for upgrading the system. In plan are extensions to take new types of data feeds from commercial air-traffic-control centres.

Future enhancements will exploit advances in radar and data-link technologies to enable information from aircraft in flight to be transmitted and incorporated into the system. IBM's innovative use of commercial off-the-shelf technology in a front-line defence system won it the 2007 Technology award from Management Consultants Association.

"Safety and performance are paramount to Royal Air Force operations and have therefore been a significant factor in this contract award," said IBM Global Business Services' manager Paul Hubbard. "For example, IBM's ability to take data feeds from a variety of interconnected systems and analyse them in real time has reduced manual intervention by the aerospace battle managers by 75 per cent."

Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) equips and supports the UK's armed forces for current and future operations. With a budget of 13 billion pounds, its headquarters are located in Bristol, west England, with other sites placed across the UK and overseas. DE&S acquires and supports through-life, equipment and services ranging from ships, aircraft, vehicles and weapons, to information systems and satellite communications.

DE&S is recruiting more than 170 apprentices across the UK over the next two years to undertake a three-year advanced apprenticeship in engineering. This will give school leavers interested in supporting the UK's armed forces on the front line the opportunity to work on some of the most advanced military equipment projects.

The apprentice scheme is designed to train people for engineering posts at the Bristol headquarters and across other DE&S sites where the business demands. On completion they will fill engineering management roles liaising with the military users and commercial suppliers of equipment managed by DE&S teams.