CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF
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17 Jun 09. The French Ministry of Defence appointed the DIRISI (Joint Directorate for Defence Infrastructure Networks and Information Systems) late in April to notify the whole ASTEL-S market to Astrium services. This 4-year contract is meant to supply French forces worldwide with tailor-made civilian (Ku, Ka, C) and military (UHF, X) satellite communications complementary to Syracuse. All demands will be processed by a single interlocutor, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This market follows the first ASTEL-S market notified in May, 2005 by the Ministry of Defence. According to the DIRISI’s appraisal, the Ministry of Defence’s requirements could amount to 100MHz in space capacity. This new ASTEL-S market includes the furniture of space capacities in UHF and Ka bands as well as supplementary teleport services worldwide and the possibility to redirect data streams towards metropolitan MoD sites. The civil space capacity services ASTEL-S will allow the networking of French Navy ships (fitted with C and Ku band antennae), Air Force users (SIDM UAVs, namely), Army units fitted with triband land stations, and MoD teleports – France Sud, Houilles, Six-Fours, la Réunion, etc. – or directly MoD metropolitan sites via complementary services.
17 Jun 09. ITT Corporation’s Communications Systems business announced its ITT Defence Limited business unit has received a $16m contract from General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited for additional VHF “manpack” radios and ancillaries. This latest order for radios and ancillaries is in addition to the 35,000 units already supplied General Dynamics UK, the prime contractor and systems integrator, as part of the United Kingdom’s BOWMAN tactical communications program.
18 Jun 09. Paradigm Secure Communications, a subsidiary of Astrium Services, has entered a service agreement with the Ministry of Defence, on behalf of the Cabinet Office. Paradigm will supply Cabinet Office crisis management facilities and key crisis management centres across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with a High Integrity Telecommunications System (HITS). The service has been developed to support Responders in fulfilling their obligations within the Civil Contingencies Act and significantly increases the Government’s preparedness to support regional / local government in the event of short/no notice disruptions to the national telecommunications infrastructure. The service capitalises on the successful Skynet 5 satellite communications PFI programme and marks the start of a new phase for Paradigm under which it is able to offer enhanced services to civil government departments and agencies. The HITS service comprises a satellite communications overlay, complemented by terrestrial links, and will provide a resilient communications capability that is not reliant on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). To supplement flexibility the service includes a number of satellite communications terminals. The terminals are distributed across the country enabling them to be dispatched anywhere at very short notice by land or air. The use of open standards allows interconnection of the HITS with other current and future UK Government IT systems.
18 Jun 09. Specialist defence and security IT manufacturer, Secure
Systems & Technologies (SST) reports a series of major contract wins for its TEMPEST IT hardware products and Military Rugged solutions. The Council of Europe has awarded SST an initial two-year contract, worth over €2 million, to supply fully rugged TEMPEST laptops, together with a renewable four-year maintenance and support contract. Reflecting its capabilities for Military Rugged EMC product specialisation, SST has also extended its involvement with the WATCHKEEPER Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programme, with a new contract to supply rugged network devices suitable for installation in an off-road vehicle.
10 Jun 09. VestGuard UK Ltd based at Co