CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
EUROPE
LAND
26 Nov 07. EADS Snags Swiss High-Tech Infantry Contract. EADS Defense and Security on Nov. 26 signed a contract with Switzerand’s Armasuisse procurement office to develop prototype high-tech infantry gear for the Swiss army, with an option for full-scale production worth over €120m ($178m). Under the Swiss deal, EADS Defense and Security, through its operational unit EADS Defense Communications, will be prime contractor, EADS said in a statement. Safran Group’s Sagem Défense Securité division will act as the main subcontractor. The two companies teamed to make the offer to the Swiss authorities. The integrated infantry system offers survivability, mobility, fire power and communications. The equipment is part of the Swiss infantry modernization program named IMESS (Integriertes Modulares Einsatzsystem Schweizer Soldat). (Source: Defense News)
27 Nov 07. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG (KMW) has been commissioned by the German Ministry of Defence to supply ten brand new FENNEK reconnaissance vehicles to the Joint Fire Support Teams (JFST) of the Armed Forces, resulting in a €31.3m deal for KMW.
27 Nov 07. KMW has received a contract to deliver four highly protected DINGO 2 patrol verhicles to the Czech Republic. Next to Belgium, Germany and Austria, Czechia is now the fourth user nation that protects its soldiers with the DINGO 2. The contract also contains deliveries for training services and special tools.
SEA
23 Nov 07. EADS Defence & Security (DS) will equip German naval vessels with identification systems, which will help to avoid confrontations with unknown aircraft. The so-called IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) systems work on the basis of state-of-the-art digital and encryption technology in line with the latest Mode S identification process, which is intended to prevent critical situations through fast recognition of aircraft, as was the case with the UNIFIL mission off the Lebanon’s coast.
27 Nov 07. MARIN, the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands has ordered WFS’s S5510-2 Underwater Broadband Data Link to support trials at its world class facilities at Wageningen in the Netherlands. The Data Link is a two way system with one end mounted within the vehicle under test and the other end on a moving overhead gantry which tracks the vehicle above the surface. Test data will be downloaded from the test vehicle, crossing the water/air boundary, in real time as it travels along the basin.
AIR
28 Nov 07. Alenia Aeronautica has signed a new four-year contract worth €48,5 millions for upgrading 15 Panavia Tornado multi-role aircraft, currently in service with Italian Air Force. The delivery of the first modified aircraft is planned by the end of 2009, with the completion of the whole order by the end of 2011. The retrofit works, to be implemented at Alenia Aeronautica’s facilities in Turin-Caselle, envisage operational capabilities improvement and avionics updating based on the standard basic Full MLU Mid Life Upgrading configuration, which introduces, among other things, a new NVIS (Night Vision Imaging System) and new cockpit displays, for both pilot and the weapon systems operator, able to improve at best the flight parameters presentation, thus reducing the crew’s work load.
26 Nov 07. Boeing has selected Rockwell Collins to upgrade three AH-Mk1 Apache Field Deployable Simulators and one AH-Mk1 Apache Full Mission Simulator for the Aviation Training International Limited (ATIL) AH-Mk1 Apache training system in the United Kingdom. The visual systems upgrade will include four Rockwell Collins EPXTM-5000 image generators, eight 9-channel large field of view display systems and enhancements of the existing training databases.
26 Nov 07. Galileo Avionica, a Finmeccanica Company, has selected Rockwell Collins to provide its EPX™-5000 image generator and Environment Creation Tool (ECT) database to upgrade the Italian Air Force’s Tornado simulators.