UNITED KINGDOM
LAND
04 Sep 23. Alcon receives major order from Babcock for the provision of 70 Supacat Jackal vehicle braking systems. Alcon Components Ltd, the highly acclaimed UK-based brake and clutch company, has received a major order from Babcock, Supacat’s build partners, to supply 70 HMT vehicle braking systems. The order has been placed to enable the production of 70 new Jackal vehicles for UK MoD, a contract that was signed between UK Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and Supacat in February 2023. Alcon will commence production immediately and will be delivering components to Supacat and their build partners Babcock throughout the remainder of the build.
AIR
05 Sep 23. Inzpire’s Collective Training Division (CTD) has secured a two-year contract to deliver subject matter expertise support to 20 Squadron’s (Sqn) Qualified Weapons Instructor (Command & Control) Course (QWI (C2)) at RAF Boulmer. Synthetic and live training experts from across CTD will be providing specific command and control and battlespace management support and assisting with all phases of the QWI (C2) course including planning, creating courseware, building exercise scenarios and supporting the execution of live and synthetic training. In addition to QWI (C2) support, Inzpire’s experts on 20 Sqn will assist with the Combat Ready Operators Course (CROC), which teaches qualified operators from 19 and 20 Sqns how to provide advanced tactical air command and control and battle management, including tactical control of fighter aircraft in complex, heavily contested joint air operations scenarios. The CROC includes 20 Sqn’s capstone synthetic training event Exercise CERBERUS REVENGE, which prepares students to plan and control during major live flying exercises and global contingent operations.
EUROPE
LAND
05 Sep 23. Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT and TASE: ESLT) (“Elbit Systems” or the “Company”) announced today it was awarded two contracts by a European country, worth an aggregate amount of approximately $200m, to supply a C4I (Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence) solution to artillery battalions and a Hostile Fire Counter Attack (HFCA) solution. The contracts will be executed until 2026, with options for further extensions. The C4I solution will provide advanced C4I capabilities to four battalions of 155mm howitzers guns, including Elbit Systems’ SDR radios – the E-Lynx and TORCH-X Fire applications. The artillery C4I solution will allow the customer to effectively command its artillery battalions and increase operational effectiveness of its weapon systems, while the HFCA solution will allow the customer to detect enemy fire source and close the operational cycle by destroying the enemy fire source using Elbit Systems’ artillery C4I solution. These solutions will be integrated into the customer’s wider artillery C4I system, also provided by Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems will leverage the Company’s extensive worldwide experience of delivering C4I and communications solutions to artillery units and armed forces, while integrating various sensors that will increase operational effectiveness.
04 Sep 23. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress that the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria has requested to buy one hundred eighty-three (183) Stryker Family of Vehicles. The proposed sale would consist of: ninety (90) XM1296 Infantry Carrier Vehicles – Dragoon (ICVD); seventeen (17) M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicles (ICV); nine (9) M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicles (ESV); thirty-three (33) M1130 Command Vehicles (CV); twenty-four (24) M1133 Medical Evacuation Vehicles (MEV); ten (10) M1135 Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicles (NBCRV); five (5) Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) Light Equipment Transports (LET); five (5) Modular Catastrophic Recovery Systems (MCRS); two (2) M1120A4 HEMTT Load Handling Systems; five (5) M984A4 Wrecker HEMTTs; and one hundred seven (107) M240 Coaxial 7.62mm machine guns. Also included is support service equipment; M-153A4 Common Remote Operated Weapons Stations (CROWS); Forward Repair Systems (FRS); M2A1 .50 caliber machine guns; M6 smoke grenade launchers and associated spares; Harris radios; AN/VAS-5 Driver’s Vision Enhancer (DVE); DVE-Wide; communications equipment; RS6 (LW30) Remote Weapon Systems; TACFLIR 280 HDEP systems; Ranger R20SS Radar; ROVER6Si transceivers; spare parts; Basic Issue Items (BII), Components of End Items (COEI), Additional Authorized List (AAL); Special Tools and Test Equipment (STTE); technical manuals; OCONUS Deprocessing Service; OCONUS contractor provided training and Field Service Representatives (FSR); component assembly in-country; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated total cost is $1.5bn. The principal contractor will be General Dynamics Land Systems, Anniston, AL. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale. (Source: glstrade.com)
06 Sep 23. EuroTrophy GmbH announces that it has been awarded a contract from KNDS (KMW+NEXTER Defense Systems) for the Leopard 2 A8 programs for Germany and Norway. KNDS is the result of the association of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter, based in Germany and France and forming the European leader in Land Defense systems. The active protection system Trophy has been selected by KNDS as part of its new standard configuration defined as “Leopard 2 A8.” With this achievement, Trophy has become the most successful active protection system integrated on Western Main Battle Tanks including Leopard 2, Abrams M1 and Merkava IV, as well as lighter platforms such as the Namer APC and other wheeled and tracked IFVs. During February 2023, the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) had commissioned KNDS with the delivery of 54 Leopard 2 A8 Main Battle Tanks, all to be equipped with the Trophy active protection system. Furthermore, in May 2023, the Federal Acquisition Office of the German Armed Forces (BAAINBw) has signed a framework agreement with KMW for the delivery of up to 123 Leopard 2 in A8 standard configuration.
USA
LAND
06 Sep 23. MilDef has, in the third quarter, closed a series of contracts on the US defense market regarding cutting edge rugged IT for digitalization of the U.S. Army, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), United States Marine Corps (USMC), and U.S. Navy. The United States defense market is the largest defense market in the world, the defense budget equals almost 50 percent of all countries defense budgets combined.
AIR
07 Sep 23. U.S. Navy awards RTX and Elbit Systems of America a $16m contract for improved F/A-18 pilot helmet mounted display systems. Collins Elbit Vision Systems (CEVS) – a joint venture between Collins Aerospace, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, and Elbit Systems of America – has been awarded a contract by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for development, engineering, logistics and test support of the Improved Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System used in Block III F/A-18E/F and E/A-18G aircraft. With this award, CEVS is formally introducing the Zero-G Helmet Mounted Display System+ (HMDS+)™.
06 Sep 23. Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today announced that Inmarsat Government, now part of Viasat, was awarded a Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) Satellite-Based Services (SBS) contract by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) on behalf of the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC). Inmarsat Government is one of 16 companies selected for the $900 m ceiling, 10-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. As the United States and its mission partners become increasingly reliant on space-based capabilities for national security, it is critical to have resilient constellations that include satellites in geostationary (GEO) and non-geostationary orbits (NGSO). Proliferated LEO (pLEO) constellations are part of a Department of Defense (DoD) strategy to provide additional resilience for satellite communications (SATCOM), remote sensing and other capabilities by diversifying orbits. Under this contract, Viasat plans to leverage small satellite technology, reduced costs and increased launch service competition, facilitating the ability for pLEO constellations to provide persistent, global coverage with reduced transmission latency. The company will provide a suite of fully-managed pLEO satellite-based services and capabilities, to include space relay services, supplemented by GEO and NGSO satellites, supporting all domains – space, air, land, maritime and cyber. Viasat will aim to achieve this with a reliable, resilient low latency global pLEO offering that flexibly supports the needs of combatant commands, defense agencies, other federal government organizations and international coalition partners. It will provide a comprehensive managed end-to-end SATCOM solution via a multi-band, multi-orbit constellation of satellites. Furthermore, its new, hyper-intelligent software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) is designed to orchestrate and provide priority routing across mixed networks, enabling an automated primary, alternate, contingency and emergency (PACE) solution to deliver the flexibility and responsiveness required to meet customers’ needs today and in the future.
REST OF THE WORLD
LAND
04 Sep 23. Allen-Vanguard deepens its ECM support to Somalia with an 18-month contract extension for its Field Service Representative (FSR) Team. Allen-Vanguard, a global leader in providing customized solutions for defeating Radio Frequency (RF) based terrorist and extremist threats, has a long-established relationship of providing vital ECM and counter explosive threat support to Security Forces across Somalia. This support has recently been increased with the provision of additional ECM hardware to the region and the formal 18-month extension of the in-country Field Service Representative (FSR) team based in Mogadishu. Allen-Vanguard will be at DSEi 23 on stand H2-820 to discuss all their RF dominance solutions.
05 Sep 23. Spectra Group break into Asia with SlingShot sales to the Indonesian Army. Spectra Group, the specialist provider of secure voice, data and satellite communications systems is very pleased to announce that it has broken into the Asian Defence market by securing a significant order of their award-winning SlingShot satellite communications system for the Indonesian Army via its partner PT Mora Armamen Perkasa. Spectra Group will be at DSEi23 to discuss all their communication solutions on Stand H6-150. Spectra Group and Mora Armamen have been in detailed discussions with specialist and regular forces of the Indonesian Army for some time, and this first purchase will equip KOSTRAD with Manpacks, vehicle fits and SlingShot Tactical Operations Centre systems (STOCS) plus a 2-year contract for the Inmarsat L-TAC service. With minimal training, this simple communication enhancement will revolutionise their tactical and strategic communication reach, enabling rapid reaction to a myriad of security scenarios on a global footprint.
SEA
07 Sep 23. The Government of Canada – as set out by Canadian Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau during the NATO Summit in Latvia – has awarded to Thales Canada and Thales Australia in joint venture an ISS contract for MWAV. This contract will ensure the fleet remains operationally fit and includes the flexibility to increase or reduce the number of vessels serviced in response to the RCN’s ever changing operational needs, including Operation REASSURANCE, Canada’s largest overseas mission to NATO assurance and deterrence in Central and Eastern Europe. It includes an initial service period of five years for up to $450 m CAD (approx. €305 m) with additional one-year options to extend services for up to nineteen years in total. Thales also provides ISS to Canada’s Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) and Joint Support Ships (JSS), known as AJISS. Thales thus becomes the leading ISS provider to the RCN, entrusted to ensure mission-readiness and availability of 26 classes and more than 100 vessels.