CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
EUROPE
LAND
19 Aug 08. ITT Corporation’s Night Vision business was awarded a $23 million contract by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Head-Mounted Night Vision Systems (HMNVS). Through the agreement, Roanoke, Va.-based ITT Night Vision will continue to equip the U.K. military with the HMNVS and provide in-support services. The HMNVS contract is ITT’s second from the U.K. MoD. ITT was awarded the initial HMNVS contract in 2002 to provide a continuous supply of HMNVS and Contractor Logistics Support (CLS). Under the initial contract, the Roanoke-based facility provided the systems and the Contractor Logistic Support. In 2005, ITT Night Vision began working closely with their sister division, U.K. Defence Ltd, to provide expedited, in-country maintenance for quicker repairs. The Roanoke-based facility will continue to provide the units, and ITT Defence, Ltd., will provide maintenance support.
SEA
14 Aug 08. Naval Gun System: Possible Replacement. BAE Systems announced (14 Aug 08) the award of an MoD continuation contract, worth £4m, to build and trial a 155mm naval gun. Replacing the RN’s existing 4.5inch (114mm) gun with a 155mm system would increase range and reduce the logistical cost by using the same gun and ammunition as the Army.
Comment: An earlier study confirmed the feasibility of fitting the gun and ammunition system from an AS90
self-propelled howitzer onto the 4.5inch Mark 8 Mod 1 mounting structure. The new system could be fitted to the Future Surface Combatant and possibly retrofitted to Type 45 destroyers and Type 23 frigates.
6inch guns left the Fleet with the decommissioning of the cruiser HMS BLAKE in 1982. (155mm = 6.102inch). (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 0832, 18 Aug 08)
18 Aug 08. Northrop Grumman Corporation has won a contract to supply high-accuracy inertial navigation systems (INS) for four new Buques de Acción Marítima (Maritime Action Ships) being built for the Spanish navy at the Navantia shipyard in Ferrol, northwest Spain. The contract, valued at more than $1.5m, was awarded by Navantia to Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit. Installation, commissioning and trials will be overseen by Aeromarine, Sperry Marine’s sales and service representative in Spain. Each of the ships will be fitted with one MK 39 Mod 3A ring laser gyro (RLG) INS and one MK 27 fiber-optic gyrocompass. The MK 39 Mod 3A will provide both high-accuracy geographic positioning information and precise attitude and heading data for the ship’s navigation and weapon systems.
AIR
21 Aug 08. Lockheed Martin has completed upgrading the signal processing and data processing capability on the first two of five AN/FPS-117 long-range, air surveillance radars for the Romanian Air Force. The work, completed at Lockheed Martin’s Radar Systems facility in Syracuse, N.Y., included upgraded platform electronics cabinets, new displays and remote maintenance centers. Formal site acceptance tests, including flight tests, were successfully completed on June 26 and July 23 in Romania. A site acceptance test for the third system is planned for later this month. Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract by the Romanian Ministry of Defense in December 2006 to significantly upgrade five AN/FPS-117s originally delivered to Romania in 1998 and 1999. The radars are used for air traffic control and strategic air surveillance. The remaining upgrades will be installed within the next six months. This action will extend the service lives of the radars for 15 to 20 years.
20 Aug 08. Part of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) C-130K Hercules fleet is set to be refurbished with a new outer wing in a deal signed recently with Canadian
aerospace company Spar. Work on the wing refurbishment has already begun at Spar’s Edmonton facility in Canada. The first aircraft contracted for by the British is scheduled to be delivered to the RAF in the third quarter of next year. (Source: Defense