CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF

EUROPE

LAND

11 Oct07. Patria and Duro Dakovic Special Vehicles as Consortium partners and the Croatian Ministry of Defence signed an agreement covering 84 Patria AMV 8×8 vehicles to the Croatian Army. The vehicles will be manufactured in Finland and Croatia. The value of the agreement is approximately EUR112m. Deliveries are scheduled to start before the end of 2008 and all deliveries to be completed by the end of 2012.

12 Oct 07. The defence technology arm of Rheinmetall AG of Düsseldorf has recently booked orders worth over €80m for military vehicle electronics and NBC reconnaissance equipment. Of this amount, some €60m relates to orders for electronic assemblies for the German-Dutch Boxer. Thus, as part of the consortium tasked with producing this new all-wheel-drive wheeled armoured vehicle, Rheinmetall now also assumes responsibility for manufacturing and supplying the electronics for all variants of the vehicle. The order encompasses the complete controller area network (CAN) bus system as well as other high-end components.

AIR

17 Oct 07. Contract finalized on Gripen’s future. Saab will upgrade 31 Swedish Gripen aircraft to the latest standard. The contract with FMV, the Swedish Defence Material Administration, is worth SEK 3.9bn, also covering a demonstrator programme for Gripen’s future development. The contract, which was signed today, follows decisions taken earlier this year by the government and the parliament based on a proposal by the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces. Of the total value, approximately SEK 3bn is a new order for Saab, while the rest consists of investments that had previously been agreed to.

USA

LAND

16 Oct 07. iRobot Corp. received a delivery order totalling $8.8m from the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), on behalf of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. This order for 40 iRobot(r) PackBot(r) robots, plus spare parts and equipment, brings total orders to date from PEO STRI to $45m. iRobot expects to complete delivery by the end of June 2008. PEO STRI placed this order for a range of iRobot systems, including PackBot with ICx Fido Kit as well as the Army’s first orders for the PackBot 510 robot and more than 300 new high-performance radios that will be retrofitted onto existing iRobot PackBots in theater. These radios increase the operational range and flexibility of the PackBot systems to achieve mission success in a wider range of tactical environments than previously possible. The robots will ship with iRobot’s new game-style hand controllers for faster training and easier operation in the field. (Source: ASD Network)

16 Oct 07. Under a $45.5m contract for sensor fusion and advanced networking technology, the Department of Defense (DoD) is purchasing the Raytheon Solipsys Tactical Component Network (TCN(r)) technology. This award follows a similar procurement by the Missile Defense Agency earlier in the year in support of Ballistic Missile Defense System initiatives. As part of this latest award, Raytheon Solipsys is also providing run-time licensing of its Tactical Display Framework visualization product at no cost across all DoD and Missile Defense Agency programs.

03 Oct 07. Savi Technology received purchase orders totalling more than $3m from partner Comtech Mobile Datacom Corporation (a subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. ((NASDAQ: CMTL)), for more than 6,000 Savi active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader modules. This order, announced here today at the EPC Connections Conference, marks the sale of the 10,000th Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) reader module to Comtech since 2005. Comtech embeds Savi OEM active RFID reader modules into Comtech’s satellite-based Movement Tracking System (MTS) kit atop the roof of the driver’s cab, providing customers with two-way communications to automatically locate, man