The UK's Maritime and Coast Guard Agency (MCA) is looking for a new data center.

In a tender, the MCA has put out the call for a provider "capable of providing and maintaining" a data center for "Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)."

LRIT is a mandatory global satellite-based system that requires ships to automatically transmit their identity and position every six hours.

The data center is necessary to ensure the UK meets its obligations under the SOLAS convention - the international guidelines for the "Safety of Life at Sea" that were established in response to the Titanic disaster.

According to the tender, the data center will need to be ready from July 1, 2026, to receive position data from UK-flagged vessels.

Data will need to be able to integrate with the MCA's Maritime Domain Awareness Platform as a GIS layer. The provider will also need to migrate legacy position data from the previous LRIT data center.

The contract is valued at around £1.5 million ($1.98m) including VAT. Interested parties have until May 5, 2026, to apply.

Where the data center will need to be located has not been shared, though the MCA is based in Southampton, a port city on the UK's south coast.

Details about the MCA's current data center footprint are not publicly shared.

Telent, which has provided a mission-critical communications network for the coast guard, notes that its network, including full-fiber and microwave technology, connects 163 remote radio sites and transmits between "the national data centers." Neither the number of facilities nor the locations was specified.