CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
EUROPE
SEA
17 Mar 09. DCNS and CPI, a world leader in telemetry antenna systems, have been selected by the French defence procurement agency (DGA) for a seven-year contract worth €12 million to replace and support 19 telemetry antennas at seven DGA sites, including the CELM missile range in southwest France, the CEV flight test centre and aboard the Monge* missile tracking ship.
AIR
18 Mar 09. On a visit to Washington, Defence Secretary John Hutton has today announced the decision to purchase three Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) test aircraft – the UK’s next generation of supersonic stealth fast jets.
This deal marks a significant milestone in the UK’s commitment to the Joint Strike Fighter project. Acquisition of JSF will provide the UK with an unrivalled “fifth-generation” tactical air system, designed with stealth characteristics and advanced sensors, and will afford the UK a ‘step change’ in capability. UK military personnel will work alongside their US counterparts in an initial operational test and evaluation programme for the aircraft.
TECHNOLOGY
17 Mar 09. Terma has selected Wind River VxWorks as the foundation for its Advanced Threat Display (ATD). The ATD will deliver threat information to pilots using VxWorks, a mission-critical, real-time operating system (RTOS) that provides Terma with a proven path to RTCA DO-178B / EUROCAE ED-12B software safety certification. By standardizing on the Wind River Workbench tool suite for VxWorks, Terma is also able to increase product development efficiency and enable the use of open architecture and a broad tool-partner ecosystem across a wide number of device software development projects. The ATD is a family of self-protection, situational-awareness displays for fast jets, helicopters and transport aircraft. The ATD is a 3ATI dedicated self-protection display providing a real-time correlated threat environment picture to the pilot. Control functions on the front bezel of the ATD and self-protection sub-systems integrated into a single display save real estate in the cockpit and provide a capable, intuitive user interface to the pilot. The product family currently exists in two configurations; a 4×3″ bezel for general applications and a 6×3″ bezel especially developed for the F-16. The ATD will use VxWorks mission-critical RTOS running on a variety of embedded processors. Terma is also able to offer a Quick Reaction Program, an ATD upgrade program that can be implemented on a wide variety of aircraft in as few as three months.
USA
LAND
11 Mar 09. Force Dynamics, LLC, a joint venture between Force Protection, Inc. and General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, today announced that it was awarded a contract for two Cheetah light weight, high mobility Production Representative Vehicles (PRVs) as part of the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) program. The value of the award is $1m.
17 Mar 09. L-3 Communications has been selected as one of multiple awardees for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Omnibus Contract (STOC II). The STOC II program is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) vehicle with a contract ceiling of $17.5 billion and a total potential ordering period of 10 years. L-3’s MPRI unit will oversee an L-3 team which includes its Link Simulation and Training, Global Solutions and Engineering Services, Enterprise IT Solutions, C2S2, D.P. Associates, Coleman Aerospace and TCS units.
17 Mar 09. Northrop Grumman Corporation has received a contract to developmentally test and operationally test the U.S. Army’s Multi-Role Tactical Common Data Link (MR-TCDL). The Defense Micro-Electronics Activity awarded the 30-month, $69m contract to support the Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).
18 Mar 09. Rockwel