The Projects team from the international law firm Gowling WLG with support from cross-firm expertise, has supported the Ministry of Defence on its 11-year £695 million investment to provide in-service support to the RAF's fleet of Hawk T2 training aircraft and the Hawk T1 jets flown by the Red Arrows.

For the past 2 and a half years, the firm's Projects and Infrastructure team has supported Project Hawk, a Category A project for the Ministry of Defence.

Negotiated in a single source environment with BAES under the Single Source Contract Regulations 2014, the Hawk Integrated Support Solution contract relates to the delivery of essential support to the Hawk T1 and T2 aircraft fleet, which are flown by the Red Arrows, and is the fast jet trainer for the UK Armed Forces (associated with UK MFTS) and aggregates the core contracts into a prime contract.

Partner Elizabeth Williams led the legal team which included Helena Eyles, Adam Bolton, Emma Kensett and Dan O'Donnell.  With additional specialist support from Dominic Richardson, Patrick Arben, Kate Robards, Ben Stansfield and Vince Gregor.

Commenting, Elizabeth said:

"It has been both exciting and insightful to be able to bring our longstanding advice to such a worthwhile and long-term Ministry of Defence project."

Hawk Delivery Team Leader, Gp Capt Mark Clulo said:

"Gowling WLG have been the External Legal Advisors on the Hawk Integrated Support Solution contract since the beginning and have provided excellent specialist legal support to the project team, working alongside us to ensure that the Ministry of Defence have been able to deliver this 11 year deal for the UK Armed Forces."